An increasing number of Finnish companies are paying attention to the design of their products. Successful design is of importance for health-care equipment and even public transport. Design is an essential part of a corporate image and a competitive trump card on a market that demands individuality. The comprehensive and long-term exploitation of design in the development process of a product has proved to be a major success factor.

The importance of design in Finland is being brought systematically to the fore through parties operating in the public eye. A national programme has been drawn up in Finland for supporting and developing design. It is hoped that an increasing number of Finnish companies will adopt design as part of their corporate strategy. The aim is to create a dynamic design system in Finland and make industrial design a significant competitive trump card on international markets. The problem with Finnish design products has been that the rest of the world has not always been able to associate them with Finland. Now top-quality design products are marketed abroad expressly as the result of Finnish know-how.

Design - a decisive factor

The significance of design has increased, because in making a choice from well-matched products the decision is made increasingly on the basis of images. Differentiation is difficult without a distinctive design, and in the final resort the decision can be made spontaneously thanks just to the design.

Well-known Finnish design products include mobile phones, ships, public transport and health-care equipment. Everyday consumer products that have won numerous prizes and are highly
appreciated are produced by companies such as Iittala, Arabia and Hackman. Fiskars' scissors with the plastic, orange handles are the best-known and most copied throughout the world. An increasing amount of trust is being put in the power of design for everyday products. Both Oras's water taps and Uponor's plastic pipes are the results of careful design work.

The use of domestic wood has also increased markedly in Finland. Durable, surface-finished, solid-wood furniture is an example of wood design. In 2000 the Sibelius Hall, a splendid concert hall made entirely of wood, was completed at Lahti, the biggest public wooden building in Finland for one hundred years.

Design increases competitiveness

Machines and equipment have accounted for a growing proportion of industrially designed products in recent years. Metso utilizes design in its paper machines as one important function that supports technological leadership and improves cost effectiveness. In addition, industrial design promotes ways of thinking and values that can be used to reshape existing practices and infiltrate into working methods changes other than those relating solely to design. Through the design process a company can also achieve cost savings. Successful design can reduce the material used in a product or the number of components, and shorten the throughput time of a production process.

Nokia, the star company of industrial design, has created its brand and success thanks to a great extent to its systematic and polished design. The top-grade technology in Nokia's mobile phones and the design come face to face with each other. Nokia considers the most important objectives for design to be comfort, a well-balanced unit and user-friendliness. Even if the shape changes, it is important that the products can still be recognized immediately as members of the same product family.

>> Creadesign shapes the customer's success (6.11.2002)

State-of-the-art technology and the polished design come face to face with each other in Nokia's mobile phones.