Design Finland

NowHere Finland – a national exhibition is currently held in Taidehalli, Seinäjoki between 16.1. – 14.2.2010, organised by Pohjanmaan taidetoimikunta.

The exhibition’s purpose is to give designers outside of the capital area opportunities to showcase their designs and network with each other. Therefore, the co-operation partners include many provincial’s art committees, whose main responsibilities are to inform designers in their local areas of the event and to promote networking as well as to enhance public’s understanding on design.

Personally I think it is a good initiative. Indeed the design activities have been mostly intensive mainly in the Finnish capital – Helsinki area, while designers living in other parts of Finland have much less opportunities to participate into design events.

The name of exhibition is also interesting. Last year when I got to know about the exhibition, I thought it to be “NoWhere Finland”. Well, it does make some sense: a national exhibition held in a relatively small city as Seinajoki (about 50000 people), so it almost is literally ”(in the middle of) NoWhere” in Finland. Well, I know, it is not that small in Finnish standard though. Anyway, NoWhere, and NowHere, nice one!

According to the press release, there are about 400 applications from all over Finland, among which 43 works are chosen and exhibited.

Some of the exhibition works are pretty interesting. I like for example this one, a table runner made of old phone book:

“Snow” textile installation, which brings new fresh idea with old textile skills, really lovely:

“Valse Triste” – silver jewelry series, quite elegant and organic. I wasn’t able to take photos nicely through glass though:

“MÅNS – totally unfunctional adorable piece of rag”, to me those are indeed quite adorable, maybe what I like most is its name after all:

More design works from the exhibition can be found from my Flickr set – Now Here Finland, or check the slideshow below. Without a proper camera with me, I could only take some snapshots with my iPhone.

In September 2007, I was strolling down the Esplanadi street in the center of Helsinki with friends from Taipei. A city park “home” created by Fokus Fabrik design caught our eyes. Fokus Fabrik, a young Finnish design team, has decorated the stage in Esplanadi Park into their living and working room for four days and three nights. During this period of time they lived and worked there, exhibiting design fabrics and items to the passers-by.

To me this was a great way to get new inspiration from the city and environment, at the same time some freshness was brought to the city park as a nice surprise. I wish to see more of such happenings in Helsinki, not only during the summer, autumn, but also for the winter and spring…

The original article in Chinese is here

Here are my slide shows:

Check the really nice brand: Fokus Fabrik

Have you ever thought of creating clothes from interior textiles with themes echoing to your living room?

How about holding a interior design + fashion show in a “forgotten space” in the center of a city?

This was what happened during the Helsinki Design Week 2007: several young Finnish fashion designers co-operated with Ikea Finland and City of Helsinki to create an unique concept of “fashion show” at the inner yard of Helsinki city government, which was an very unique space in the very center of the city, but had been long “forgotten” by the majority of citizens.

We went there to have a look and really enjoyed it. It was exactly the unusual combination of fashion, design, and space that made the event so interesting!

Check more from my slide show:

Here is the original article in Chinese

Below: Toothbrush for little babies, starting from their first tooth, how nice!

This product is designed by Fido, a Norweigian company, produced by the well-known toothbrush manufacturer-Jordan, also from Norway.

Below: a chair that puffs!

This “Puff” chair won awards of Norwegian Design Council this year. Looks like a pear, works as chair, sounds like Mou, Puffs, and many others..

Very humorous design, isn’t it? Here is the video demonstration, enjoy!

2005 Red Dot Design Awards.

All photos are from: Fido