“The essential function of our profession [design] in our society is to enhance and cultivate communications toward an easier understanding of ideas and complex problems, in the shortest possible time for higher visual and auditory retention of data.”
“For design is about the making of things: things that are memorable and have presence in the world of the mind. It makes demands upon our ability both to consolidate information as knowledge and to deploy it imaginatively to creative purpose in the pursuit of fresh information.”
“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.”
“To design is to plan and to organize, to order, to relate and to control. In short it embraces all means of opposing disorder and accident. Therefore it signifies a human need and qualifies man’s thinking and doing.”
Lokal
While not a museum or archive, a shop in the design district of Helsinki proved as important a source of information as many of the large institutions.
Lokal, a new concept by photographer Katja Hagelstam, combines art, design and coffee in a relaxed home-like environment. The themed exhibitions, which focus mainly on contemporary finnish art, design and handicraft change monthly. Carefully chosen vintage furniture, books, kitchenware - all for sale! The gallery also has a tiny coffee shop.
Katja was welcoming and supportive of our efforts, and suggested several people and places to augment our plans. A serendipitous stop to say good-bye resulted in an introduction to the Design Director for Artek, who just happened to be in the shop.
Katja wrote a great book covering interdisciplinary Finnish designers, inspired by the 2012 World Design Capitol, Helsinki. Limited copies available in English, directly from the author, most likely. But you might find a copy in a local library, if you are lucky: 20+12; Design Stories from Helsinki