Good News from Thu, 05 January, 2012:

Design can change the world

timo junttila, world design capital helsinki 2012 The World Design Capital Year will be visible in everyday life and on the street scape providing sights and experiences for everyone.
— Design has an impact everywhere in our everyday lives, whether it is in the practicality of the home, the fluidity in public transportation or in the efficiency of health care. All of this is also a part of our Design Capital of the Year programme, explains Director Pekka Timonen.

According to him, the year as Design Capital of the World has both economic and social significance.

— We want Finland to serve as an example of broad-based design utilization. As an exporting country we need particular competiveness and our welfare services require lots of new solutions.

The function of design is to make the world a better place.

— Design is about good solutions in the physical environment, in services and in systems.  Responsibility in design is also important.  We don’t need more stuff, just better solutions.  Good design can, for example, encourage us to select products and services that are better from an environmental point of view.

Openly and actively

The goals of the Helsinki Design Capital of the Year are openness, innovation, usability, continuity, sustainable development and co-operation.  The programme has been brought together almost entirely through a process of open application.  The breadth and the quantity of applications was a pleasant surprise.

— A large number of different actors are responsible for the implementation of the programme, from individual citizens to towns and from companies to state bodies.  The programme comprises some 300 ventures, half of which are development or trial projects and the other half are various different events.  The possibilities of design are presented and examined on an unprecedented scale, explains Timonen.

The breadth of the programme and its visibility on the city scape is hoped to touch everyone.  Indeed, Timonen believes that many ordinary citizens will come into contact with new design through the year simply by using everyday services.

— I hope people will take part in the various activities, that they will be open to the multi-faceted world of design and that they will make use of the new opportunities to participate.  Having the population engage more actively with their own city would be a fantastic outcome for the year.

The design-driven city

There was no shortage of activity, enthusiasm and participation when the Design Capital of the Year event was opened with such panache as the New Year began at Helsinki’s Senate Square.  The organization behind the design year are expecting dialogue about and interest in design to increase through the year both in Finland and abroad.

— It’s great to be part of starting up a permanent change towards a better city, Timonen emphasizes.

— A design-driven city is a fun city, a city that works.  And the Design Capital of the Year venture is an important step on that road.

The Design year looks beyond this year and into the future, as what is really important is not what happens in the autumn  of 2012, but rather what will happen in the spring of 2021.

— I hope then that we will understand then better than we do at present what can be achieved through design and that we are able, every member of society, to make better use of design.  We want to bring joy and to serve as a guiding star for using design.

www.wdchelsinki2012.fi


Five tips for the future

1. Design Capital of the Year weekend 3.-5.2.2012
The designers’ doors are open on the first weekend of February with an invitation to everyone to see their work.  Over the course of the weekend design can be accessed in many different ways from the workplace to school and from clubs to job sites. www.wdchelsinki2012.fi

2. Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture throughout the year
It’s well worth visiting both the outside and the contents of the Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture throughout 2012. The programme for both museums in its entirety is related to the Design Capital programme.  The event venues will be complemented in May by a Design Capital pavilion that will open on an empty plot between the two museums. www.mfa.fi, www.designmuseum.fi

3. Design Capital of the Year Pavilion
The central meeting place of the Design Capital of the Year, the wooden pavilion designed by students at the Aalto University, will be located on a plot between the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum.  A varied programme will be arranged between 12.5 – 16.9. The museums’ activities will also extend outside to the yard and to the street.

4. Everyday discoveries – the mini world fair
The mini world fair will bring the most up-to-date design phenomena to Helsinki.  Around 20 of the country’s leading design organizations will present new design concepts for everyday life through play, recollections and stories. 
Everyday Discoveries – International Design House exhibition is a WDC Signature Event 6.–16.9.

5. Font walk
Mash up letters on the font walk!  A tour (25.4 – 31.12) helps perceive different and possibly unnoticed public spaces where different fonts are present.  To help is a map available from April 2012 at the Napa Gallery, designed by Helsinki graphic designer/illustrator Camilla Pentti. napagalleria.wordpress.com/

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