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Design meets usability
Mere technical superiority is not enough to create successful
innovations. Top-class skills in design and business are also
needed. Traditions and the ability to regenerate are needed.
Creativity and practicality are needed.
Formal competence is created by close and deep co-operation
between design, technology and marketing. In Finland design
is stressed as a creative resource of society and a developer
of the economy's competitiveness. Design is also a subject
of national pride.
Design increases competitiveness
International surveys show that there is a strong correlation
between a country's competitiveness and its investment in
design: the more competitive the country, the stronger the
design intensity.
In recent years Finland, too, has invested in improving the
competitiveness of business life by making good use of its
design skills. The aim has been to make design part of the
national innovation system and its modernization. This can
also be seen in the activities of top universities.
Companies have learnt that the skilful use of industrial
design increases competitiveness and product sales, whether
they are goods or services. Design complements a product's
technology and makes it both understood and sought-after.
Design increases the value of a product.
From the cultural to the financial pages
Finland is one of the world's leading design countries, even
though its population is only a small fraction of that of
the rest of the world. A flexible education system rears gifted
designers who learn creative, analytical and systematic teamwork.
Designers live in a world of industrial design where design
has been transferred from the cultural to the financial pages
of newspapers.
Investment in researching design is aimed at developing new
knowledge and skills that will raise the country's ability
to innovate. A new design landscape is being designed via
information - as design changes from being skills-intensive
to information-intensive.
Experiencing combined with technology
The golden era for Finnish design in the 1950s and 1960s made
a big impact on the world. The Scandinavian Design concept
that was created then and its characteristics are still very
much alive; functionality, clarity, clean lines, honesty and
minimalism.
Finnish design is simplified and based on nature, regenerative
and creative. Function is the first priority, not forgetting
emotion. At its best the products and services are easy-to-use
and they create the feeling of experiencing. Design lives
in objects, fabrics, machines and virtual characters.
Published 2006
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