Helsinki Design Week & Martela

The 10th of September we went on a trip to Finland's capital city Helsinki. There we visited, not only Helsinki Design Week, but also Martela's head office as well. At the Helsinki Design Week we met a former student from our school, who told us about the company he works for, Puustelli, and their new Miinus kitchen. Puustelli is known as the most popular kitchen brand in Finland, but also provides different services and fittings for other rooms. He also told us about his own experiences and gave us a small glimpse of what a designer could do for a living. It was interesting as well as inspiring and it gave us yet another example of what kind of area we could specialize in as designers.

 

At Martela's office we got a guided tour. Our lovely guide told us about her job and about Martela's history as a public space decorator. It got very interesting when she opened a designers view to the industry, as a non-designer herself. It was fascinating to hear how technology is about to swim deep into the design industry. She gave an example like how sitting is today's tobacco and how personalized furnitures could help you out. For example Martela has produced a table which has personalized settings for every worker in that office. The data is set to a computer which is connected to all parts of the office, for example the room where you have chosen to work at that day. After you log in to the system and book your work space, the table will be ready set at the right hight for your lenght. Every now and then the table comes up forcing you to stand up – because it's good for your health.

Thank you to both of our guides for the experiences!

 

The project begins!

 

Thinking in progress at Rumpan Bar, Högsåra

We are young furniture designers from Novia University of Applied Sciences. The school is located in the seashore city Turku, next to the beautiful Finnish archipelago. We are a group of eleven students, all of us designing our own pieces of furniture for the Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair in February 2015. We are excited to participate the fair!

Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair

Well, what exactly is Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair? It is said to be the most popular design fair in the Nordic countries. It usually takes place the first week of February. The fair gives young design students a chance to show their skill as well as it gives design schools an opportunity to “put themselves on the map”, so to say.

Villa Victoria, Högsåra

The first week of September started with a trip to Högsåra. Högsåra is an island in the Turku archipelago, about an hour and a half south of Turku by car. We stayed at a place called Villa Victoria, which is a lovely old house that was built in the beginning of the 20th century. During our stay we started to plan how we should get on with the Stockholm Fair-project. We made a list of different kinds of responsibilities (economy, graphic, housing etc.) and divided ourselves into different groups.

The next thing to do was to come up with a concept to the exhibition. What kind of message do we want to mediate to the crowd? Well, easier said than done; it took quite a while before we came up with an idea. But, when we actually did come up with a concept - Senses - could we finally take the next step: at first hand to put out dead lines, search for accommodation, think about the graphic part and contact the press. 

The journey starts here!