Iittala

"For Iittala, design has and always will be an essential competitive factor.

That is why it was quite natural for us to participate in the World Design Capital project. The starting point of the World Design Capital year – improving people's everyday life through design – fits us extremely well: Iittala has already introduced joy, beauty, and functionality into everyday life for 130 years. And in the future we plan to delight people with an ever more diverse product range.

Design is part of our product development process, which is the very core of our operations. As we develop new products, we continuously collaborate with designers and artists. However, if it weren’t for our skilled in-house craftspeople and diverse other professionals – colour chemists, glazing experts and many others – the designers’ visions would never be realized. Design understood in the widest sense of the term is an area for us where we need particularly high levels of cooperation between professionals of various fields. The power of this cooperation was emphasized by Kaj Franck, whose centennial we’re celebrating this year and whose progressive views lay the foundation of Iittala’s design philosophy of today.

“Franck’s thoughts also form the basis of our view in Iittala that design has never been only about beautiful objects, but our final objective has been to improve people’s everyday lives: to bring functionality and joy to their lives – as well as beauty. Therefore we are hoping that the World Design Capital project will increase people’s awareness of the positive effect of sustainable, good design on our living environment and everyday lives. We wish to cooperate with the WDC project and other players in creating models for the meaning of good everyday lives for us in the future. We believe that Finnish design has a lot to give to this discussion, and we hope that the WDC Helsinki 2012 year will open whole new growth opportunities for design.”

– Päivi Paltola-Pekkola, Marketing Director, Fiskars Home