Finnish Design Blog

Rising designer Anu Penttinen is making her first appearance in the U.S. this weekend. Penttinen will be visiting The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, as a guest of honor to celebrate this year’s Bird Lovers’ Weekend event. This will be the fifth consecutive year that The Museum of Glass and Iittala team up for a weekend dedicated to glass bird lovers. (View the complete schedule of activities for Bird Lovers’ Weekend.)

Penttinen will be at the museum October 3-5, 2008, from 10am-5pm. She will highlight the weekend by designing an exclusive glass bird. Her latest collection of playful cartoon-looking glass birds, Birds by Penttinen Collection from Iittala have gained a lot of positive buzz for their fun and unique design.

This weekend is loaded with fun activities so this is definitely an event any glass bird enthusiast should attend!

For you Marimekko fans out there, Alwaysmod recently posted several new computer desktop Marimekko wallpapers available to download featuring a number of fun and classic Marimekko designs and patterns. Finnishgifts carries a huge selection of Marimekko products for your home, so be sure to check out what we have to offer!

Iittala has always been focused on simplicity and functionality and iittala’s Teema dinnerware collection definitely fits the mold. Teema is one of the most popular place setting collections provided by iittala. Its popularity is probably due to its versatile. It can be simply combined with other collections like Origo and Arabia Arctica tableware to create a very elegant and contemporary place setting. Below are some photos of possible combinations as well as some other suggested Teema & Origo combinations on finnishgifts.com.

Teema is a notable classic having been around since the 1950s. It was originally designed by Kaj Franck for iittala in 1952. Since its conception, Teema has grown to include a variety of colors and shapes. Add some personality to your dinnerware by making Teema a part of it today!

The Pritzker Architecture Prize is touted as the Nobel Prize for architecture. It is awarded annually to the most outstanding architect in the world. This year the award was given to Finnish architect, Rainer Mahlamäki, for his design of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. You can view an animated video of the building at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews’ website. Mahlamäki was rewarded for the unique design of the entrance in the form of a curvilinear wall that was inspired by the biblical scene of the parting of the Red Sea. For more information about the award and museum, please read the full article at the Poland.pl website.

Marketing research company, Taloustutkimus, in cooperation with marketing publication, Markkinointi & Mainonta, recently completed a study to find out which brands are most respected by Finns. The study surveyed how over 1,100 Finnish and international brands are perceived by Finnish consumers. Fiskars took the top spot as its subsidiary home goods brands, Iittala, Arabia and Hackman also placed second, fourth and fifth respectively.

The Fiskars Corporation acquired the Iittala Group last year and is now home to all of Finland’s most respected design names: Fiskars, Iittala, Arabia, and Hackman. The results of the latest brand study confirm that Finnish consumers are paying increasing attention to things such as good form, function, and design in products for the home.

You can read the full press release here.

Dress up your autumn wardrobe with new stylish Marimekko bags from its fall collection. Standard are the bold colors and fun designs that will coordinate with whatever you choose to wear. Pictured above are a few of the bags from the new line: Raakel tote bag, Ria tote bag, Viola handbag, Vissy handbag and the Rosie handbag.

An exhibition of Finnish-American architect David Salmela’s hand-made models and large-scale photographs of his finished buildings is currently showing at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center (New York Mills, MN) through October 25, 2008.

David Salmela is a creative self-trained architect practicing in Duluth, Minnesota. Since 1985, Salmela’s projects have won 14 Minnesota AIA Honor Awards and 16 national level awards including a National AIA Honor Award for Architecture. In 2005 the University of Minnesota Press published a monograph of the work of this Finnish-American Architect titled Salmela, Architect.

To learn more information about the exhibition or David Salmela, please check out the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center website.

A special exhibit featuring Oiva Toikka’s latest works (glass blown pieces and original illustrations from his book of poetry) is currently on display at Galerie Forsblom in Helsinki, Finland. You can read the very entertaining press release from iittala and check out the Galerie Forsblom website to view some pictures of the exhibit. If you’re thinking about stopping by Galerie Forsblom, you better hurry as the Toikka exhibit humbly titled, “…and so on”, runs through Sunday (September 21, 2008). Learn to appreciate Toikka’s talent even more by owning your own iittala Toikka glass bird today.

The iittala Taika collection takes a step in a different direction in regards to what we’re used of seeing from iittala, but that isn’t necessarily not a bad thing. Taika’s shapes and curves are just as simple and smooth as the iittala Aika collection. Taika uses bold colors and images of mythical creatures and lavish floral patterns to create a very artistic dinnerware collection. Taika is perfect for mixing with many of iittala’s other collections as an accent or can create an entire place setting. Take a closer look at the iittala Taika dinnerware collection.

Finns, the next time you run out buy wine to fill up your stunning iittala Tapio, Stella or Essence wine glasses, you may notice a big change at the Alko shop down the road…

Background: For over 75 years, Alko Inc. has been an entirely State-owned company that basically monopolizes the alcohol market in Finland. Alko controls the retail and distribution of alcoholic beverages containing over 4.7% of alcohol by volume. It operates around 350 stores throughout the country. The primary reason for sole sales rights in Finland are based on reasons related to social and health politics.

Present: Alko’s added focus on service has challenged branding designers to develop a concept that would better serve all the customer groups while departing from the traditional way Alko used to look and operate. The resulting design breaks the conventional style of wine shops that use dark wood and traditional display cases. The new store uses light Douglas fir on all the furniture surfaces, on suspended ceilings and on the floors. Inspiration came from the works of famous designers and architects such as Aalto, Wirkkala and Tapiovaara.

The newly designed flagship store is located next to the Parliament building and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. To read the full article and see more pictures, click here.