Windows Installations 2010

is a multiple venue exhibition across downtown Helsinki, where artists create their piece to shop windows around the theme of Storytelling. Part of the idea is also to show artists at work. This year the exhibition opened during The Night Of The Arts and gathered large and enthusiastic crowds in front of the participating shop windows. And it looked a little something like this.

(click to enlarge)

My Oh My: Riitta Ikonen: "Muurahaiskeko / Anthill"

Marimekko: KARIEL (Muriel Lässer & Karri Kuoppala): "Breaking the Pattern"

Marimekko: KARIEL (Muriel Lässer & Karri Kuoppala): "Breaking the Pattern"

Nanso: Sonja Salomäki: "Pala kalsonkia, pala mekkoa - tutkielma miehisestä kulttuurista/ A piece of long johns, a piece of a dress - a dissertation about masculine culture"

Outside Nanso

Design Forum: Jenni Rope: "Untitled"

Nounou: Sampo Karjalainen: "Yleisö / The Audience"

Villisilkki & Nappitalo: Tara Pattenden (feat. Elsa Parkkari): "Untitled"

Sushi Bar: Maija Louekari: "Syyään eka / Let's eat first"

Exhibition open till 5.9.2010

More info here.

Photographer: Aino Huovio

Sponsored by: Microsoft Windows

Freedom of Creation: The Future is Here

The process is simple. Make a 3D CAD file of your design, upload the file to a 3D printing machine, and print out your idea. Simple, yet mindblowing. Anything you can envision and be designed and created right in front of you.

The design company Freedom of Creation, founded by Janne Kyttanen, who also serves as Creative Director, believes that this technology will give us a future where people will be able to own their own 3D printer, see a product they want on the internet, and download it and print it at home. Imagine designing your dinner dishes and eating utensils and printing them for dinner. Or designing an outfit just for a special occasion and printing it out. Freedom of Creation, or FOC, uses this process to make lamps, jewellery, shoes, furniture, and so much more. Or, to be more precise, to make design models of them.

The design model is the real breakthrough. Instead of years of product development, a CAD model can be made inexpensively, with just intelligence and creativity. Production can be dropped down to hours. Anything can be scanned and printed with plastic, metal, rubber or ceramic in another location, identically or with digital editing. A foot can be scanned to make a perfect shoe for it. And models can be ordered and shipped anywhere, digitally—no expensive logistics needed. Just order the file.

Kyttanen has made the point that this technology may be the solution for waste. The company wanted a green way of making products, and this may be the greenest. Instead of producing hundreds of plastic lawn gnomes that are stored in a warehouse, transported over thousands of kilometers, and then thrown away after not being sold, if only one is needed, only one can be printed out, anywhere in the world.

This main exhibition of HDW2010 will feature prototypes and products from Freedom of Creation, reflecting its history and the incredible creativity behind the business of 3D design. FOC are famous for their geometric and organic forms, sometimes seeming to come from delicate natural processes and sometimes from pure mathematics. Tables look like lacework, and rings have spirals or small sculptures built right in. The wall sconces are fantasies of complex flowers or shelled sea creatures. See why FOC and Janne Kyttanen have been presented with numerous design awards, why their work is in the MOMA and other top design museums, and why companies like Nokia and Apple are beating down their door. See the future.

Check out the event:

www.helsinkidesignweek.com

www.freedomofcreation.com

STORYTELLING - The Theme of HDW 2010

This years HDW is built around the theme of storytelling. We want to tell the most interesting stories behind the products and processes of design.

Basic idea behind Helsinki Design Week is to get people tuned in to a mode of receiving. Gathering people together to experience and interact requires stories that seize, inspire and capture interest. Phrase “Story sells” is already a cliché, but HDW isn’t afraid to deal with the self-evident.

Every product and design has its own tale - how was it created and named, how many tears were shed over it, how did the consumers find it? We believe that through stories we’ll be able to bring design closer to the people - a story is a powerful communication tool.

The opening ceremony of HDW 2010 takes place in Seurasaari, where a new building “Kalevala Cradle” inspired by the Finnish national epic Kalevala is introduced to the public. Since Kalevala is the very foundation of Finnish storytelling, it’s an evident place to start the story-rich Design Week.

Since we didn’t want just to label our theme, we asked one of the best storytellers of our time, Kari Hotakainen, to write short stories for us. We hope that through these aphorisms people will understand the power of a story.

Kaapelitehdas - The main venue of HDW 2010

Kaapelitehdas – the Cable Factory is the main venue for the sixth Helsinki Design Week exhibition, taking place 1-4.9.2010. (1.9 Invitation only)

In 1991 the Cable Factory was fully converted into a 53,000 square meter independent cultural centre aimed at providing an area of artistic diversity with multicultural links. Currently it houses theatres, museums, galleries, art schools and a plethora of different companies. Therefore it is a perfect headquarters for this year’s HDW, which is built around the concept of STORYTELLING.

Even though the HDW is spread around the city of Helsinki, the Cable Factory can be described as the nerve centre. It hosts a wide variety of exhibitions and events that cultivate experimental and innovative designs and ways of expression, and brings people together to create and share stories.

This year’s event includes:

Self-Taught Fashion

A fashion exhibition for self-taught “Do-It-Yourself” fashion designers.The idea of this exhibition is to get a chance to see the makings and hear the stories of designers graduated from the fashion school of life.

Design Market: Saturday-Sunday 28-29.8

Storytelling as a form of commerce: old and new items all tell a story. Designers and companies gather together to offer prototypes, end-of-line items and samples. Last year’s clearance sale attracted more than 15,000 bargain-hungry visitors.

Foodjects Exhibition

The new wave of Spanish cuisine and design will set the table at the Cable Factory’s Foodjects exhibition, which will take place as part of the Helsinki Design Week. The exhibition, which has travelled around the world, aims to display both food related design as well as new textures, flavors and contrasts of aromas.

And much, much more…

Designpartners catalogue is out now!

Get to know the amazing products in display at Designpartners. Download it from here!

Spatial Design Of the HDW at Cable factory

This year the spatial design of HDW at Cable Factory is on the shoulders of two men: Teemu Järvi and Heikki Ruoho from the award winning, Helsinki-based design office Järvi & Ruoho. A company founded in 2003 has been well presented in various international publications and exhibitions. Still, Cable Factory is a big challenge for an interior designer.

PechaKuchaNight 2.9.10 seats Are sold out

Even though the seats to PechaKuchaNight have been sold out, it is still possible to get to see and hear the event. Places in the open standing area near the bar and the stage are also available with the €7.50 admission fee to the Helsinki Design Week exhibitions.

Pick up your reserved tickets from the door before 8:30 PM (€20, cash).

You Gotta See This

HDW2010 AT THE CABLE FACTORY

Although Helsinki Design Week happens all over town, the core of the activity undeniably happens at the Cable Factory. Whether you are interested in learning about the roots of European fashion and design or just hoping to shop for fashion bargains, you should make this place your home during Helsinki Design Week.

Brand new HDW-magazine is out now!

Find yours from over 200 We Are Helsinki distribution spots around town and check out the online version here!