Finnish Design is Granted its Own Label

The ‘Design from Finland’ label was taken into use in September. It designates design, research, product development and innovations of Finnish origin. The label responds to the growing need of businesses to show off their efforts and competence in Finnish design. 

- The new label reflects a change in values and shows consumers that an increasing proportion of the value of Finnish products arises from design and product development, explains Pekka Tsupari, Managing Director of the Association for Finnish Work.

The association held a competition for the design of the label in May. The winning entry was by designer Marika Perätalo. Perätalo, who studied Packaging Design at the Institute of Design at Lahti University of Applied Sciences, based her concept on experiences gained from her own work.

- I wanted to create a user-oriented label. Because the label will mainly be printed in a very small format, it was important to simplify the message. The biggest challenge was finding a balance between being visually interesting, sufficiently neutral and timeless, Perätalo explains.

The basis for awarding the Design from Finland label is that Finnish design must have a significant impact on the market competitiveness of the product or service. Finnish design must make up as a large a proportion as possible of the total design costs of the product or service, and at least 50 per cent of the company must be under Finnish ownership. The location of the company’s headquarters and the jobs created by the design work are also taken into consideration.

The Design from Finland label will be used in their communications and marketing by members of the Association for Finnish Work to improve their sales in Finland and abroad. The right to use the label is granted upon application by the Association for Finnish Work. In addition to this label, the association monitors the use of the Key Flag mark of origin, which indicates that a product or service is produced in Finland..