HIRAMEKI Design x Finland collaborates with ISETAN in 2011

PUS - Pop Up Shop of HIRAMEKI & Love Chair Colliction with HIRAMEKI Design x Finland

This year HIRAMEKI Design × Finland introduces stories of Love Communication told by Finnish designers, together with ISETAN, one of the most remarkable department stores in Japan. > read more

"Finland - Brand" - Big Words?

by Project Manager Sirpa Fourastie

Finnish summer is lovely and bicycling offers great possibilities to move in Helsinki. Mika Ihamuotila, CEO, Marimekko and a member of the Country Brand Working Group, cycled to work on August Monday when we were scheduled to meet, and so did I. Even though Finns tend to avoid big words, we came up with the idea of discussing the brand "Finland". > read more

Good design and industry

by Professor, Director Kalevi Ekman

It seems that the majority of people - both the man in the street as well as product development professionals - understand and agree that "good design" is very important for items such as glassware, sports gear and consumer goods like mobile phones, cameras or household appliances. > read more

Borderlands - a discussion on experiments in working

by Anni Puolakka and Jenna Sutela / OK Do

Celebrating its first birthday this autumn, OK Do, a creative practice for thinking and doing, has lived, worked and travelled in many places and different contexts over the past year. Currently based in Helsinki and Paris the two designers and writers behind OK Do, Anni Puolakka and Jenna Sutela, took a moment to reflect on their collaboration in the borderlands of home and work, different disciplines, cultures and environments. > read more

RESPONSIBLE ARCHITECTURE

by Professor, architect Matti Rautiola

Oil-driven Nordic cities are coming face to face with a sneaking crisis. There are two evident causes; excessive use of energy and globalisation. > read more

The challenges facing design in flux

by industrial designer Hannu Kähönen

The word ”design”, in the sense it has become known in association with the success of Finnish design, has taken on a different meaning at the conceptual level and spread to a wide range of contexts related to various forms of marketing and sales promotion. At the same time, it has nearly lost its original meaning. Businesses and copywriters tend to overuse the word in the hope that the popularity of design as a concept will help sell their products and services. > read more

"A historic event in many ways"

from Stefan Wallin, Finland's Minister of Culture and Sport

"The first extensive showcase of Finnish design in Japan, Hirameki Design x Finland, is a historic event in many ways. It is no coincidence that the project is being carried out in Tokyo at this particular moment. There has been cooperation between Japanese and Finnish designers and companies for quite some time now. Through this project, the cooperation will grow into new dimensions." > read more

"A powerful feat of strength of collaboration"

from Mikko Kalhama, Design Forum Finland

"Productive collaboration! "Hirameki Design x Finland" is not only incredibly vast and multidimensional presentation of Finnish design in Japan but also a powerful feat of strength of the collaboration of Finnish and Japanese design." > read more

"Every piece of Finnish design brings us a feeling of relief"

from Kenji Ekuan, Chairman, JFDA

"The Finnish Design Exhibition this time will be on the largest scale ever in a nationwide endeavor." > read more

Press Conference

12 October 2010 Helsinki

Lehdistötiedote 12.10.2010 (in Finnish)

Design Forum Showroom press release 12.10.2010 (in English)

Hirameki Design Forum Finlandissa, lehdistötiedote 12.10.2010 (in Finnish)

BLACK IS EVERY COLOR

by Editor-in-Chief Anne Veinola

Hirameki's black spark represents the creators behind products. In addition to top design, the exhibition's curators, Harri Koskinen and Ilkka Suppanen, have also displayed Finnish designers and interesting new designer groups.

> read more

FENNIA PRIZE AT HIRAMEKI DESIGN × FINLAND

The Fennia Prize exhibition of Design Forum Finland will be presented in Tokyo at Hirameki Design × Finland during the Tokyo Design Week October 29 - November 7, 2010.

Press release

Fennia Prize 2009 catalogue

Hirameki Design × Finland

Export platform for Finnish design

(Press release 10 June, 2010)

HIRAMEKI is a moment of epiphany, spark, inspiration. In autumn 2010, Design Forum Finland will stage a design export initiative at the Tokyo Designers Week - Hirameki Design × Finland - which will present the Japanese public with a fresh and multifaceted image of Finnish design.

> read more