Finnish design showcased in Japan

Finnish design has been on display at the International Ceramics Festival ’11 in Mino, Japan from 16 September to 23 October. The event lasting more than a month has honoured Finnish ceramics and showcased the work of Professor Kaj Franck, both as a designer of objects and as a thinker and teacher. 

At a seminar held as part of the festival, lectures were given on the subject of Franck by Yuzuru Koga, Editor-in-Chief of the Japanese Elle Décor magazine, and Päivi Jantunen who has written a book about Franck and has spent a long career working for Iittala, which belongs to the Fiskars Group, one of our partners.

- Kaj Franck’s connections to Japan are diverse and impressive. He has visited the country many times since the 1950s as an official representative of design, and as an ever-curious, sharp-eyed traveller. Contacts with Japanese colleagues and students are important for Franck and have been very long-lasting, says Päivi Jantunen.

Kaj Franck is an internationally-renowned Finnish designer of ceramics and glass, as well as being one of the first advocates of recycling. He has been called 'the Conscience of Finnish Design'. In his work, he eliminates everything unnecessary and surplus to requirements.

- Most impressive is that Kaj Franck made design a part of life in his early thinking – actually warnings – about consumption. “A human being is an incredible producer of waste, whether he be a saver or spender, gatherer or discarder.” (Kaj Franck 1967)*, says Jantunen.