designforum.fi - Fennia Prize 2003 awards

FENNIA PRIZE 2003

The results of the Fennia Prize 2003 competition were announced on January 9, 2003. The winner and the recipients of the honorary mentions were presented to the public in the Fennia Prize 2003 exhibition, which was on show from January 10 until February 16 at Design Forum Finland, Helsinki.

WINNERS OF THE FENNIA PRIZE 2003 COMPETITION

RUKKA / L-FASHION GROUP
(Fennia Prize 2003)

Industrial design to wear

The motorcyclist is particularly exposed to the elements. Driving weather can change quickly, placing requirements on the equipment and outfit of the rider. Designer Jasmine Julin-Aro has thoroughly studied the needs of motorcyclists. The SRO motorcycle outfit is a combination of garments and details serving its user under demanding conditions. It has become an important export product for the Rukka / L-Fashion Group.

A motorcycle outfit is not a product that can be classed in any single design category. The outfit is the result of good cut, innovative combinations of materials and uncompromising design, as well as inbuilt components to enhance and improve safety. These include special safety features at the elbows and knees designed in collaboration with experts. The outfit is also a good example of employing a network of top-level suppliers and subcontractors to provide the necessary technologies. The outfit represents garment design in which appearance and style are important. It is industrial design at its best. The SRO motorcycle outfit has elastic ribstitching, waterproof zippers and a large number of design solutions for fit and comfort. The properties of the outfit can be quickly changed according to weather conditions. Also the garment structure, resistant to moisture and wind while breathing, is of importance for the comfort of the rider.

Keywords: rider ergonomics, safety, combinations of material

SRO motorcycle outfit
Rukka / L-Fashion Group Ltd
Made in: 2002
Designer team: Jasmine Julin-Aro and Rukka product-development team

BUSCOM
(Honorary mention)

A driver terminal – everywhere

Buscom makes data management systems for public transportation permitting faster fare collection and more accurate monitoring of the passenger flows. An important part of the system is the TRM200 Driver terminal designed by RPC Group Ltd in close collaboration with Buscom.

The driver terminal is a computer for fare collection whose recorded information can be used in the traffic planning. In addition to design, RPC Group Ltd was also responsible for making the necessary moulds, for all prototypes and also manufactures the plastic cases of the driver terminal. The driver terminal’s colour display and distinct keyboard are ergonomic solutions. The design of the terminal is well integrated into the dashboard of a modern bus and as a part of the user interface of the cockpit. The explicitly restrained language of form is called for, because of the TRM200 driver terminal can be in use for up to fifteen years.

It is possible to send messages from one teminal to another and they can be used, for example, to control the route and destination signs of the busses. Because of the device permits wireless data transfer, it can be updated with new functions in the future. These include, for example, control of traffic-light priority systems and bus-stop displays with driver terminal. In the future there will be increased data transfer between busses, passenger and traffic locations. Accordingly, efficiency and ease of use will increase in the public transportation environment. Good design facilitates the realization of these goals.

Keywords: public transport, user interface, efficiency

TRM200 Traffic Information Manager drive terminal
Buscom Ltd
Made in: 2000-2002
Designed by: RPC Group Ltd

EXACT TOOLS
(Honorary mention)

From insight into a product and a company

Sparks, molten metal, noxious fumes and fire hazards: everyday life at building sites where pipes and plumbing are being installed.

Exact Pipecut is based on the simple idea that piping can be sawed instead of being cut with discs. It has been a long process from the concept to the final tool. Financial support from the Foundation for Finnish Inventions made it possible to carry out product work, and to use the expertise of industrial designer Mika Priha. The result is an efficient, safe and user-friendly tool for cutting pipes.

The jury of the Fennia Design Prize had an opportunity to follow a demonstration of the tool, and they could easily observe that no smoke, dust or other hazards were caused by the cutting of a thick section of metal piping. Pipecut can be used by laymen and professionals alike.

The company has succeeded in developing a finished product for the market, in which design has been applied to include packaging and corporate identity. Pipecut is both a technological and design innovation.

Keywords: invention, safety, commodification

Exact Pipecut 220 pipe cutter
Exact Tools Ltd
Made in: 2001-2002
Designer: Mika Priha

FISKARS CONSUMER
(Honorary mention)

Ergonomic power

Founded in 1649, Fiskars represents an exceptionally long tradition in Finnish industry. In recent years Fiskars has come to be known for its many inventive solutions for gardening, which have significantly reformed the ergonomics of these tasks.

The combination of black and orange is the symbol of Fiskars’ solutions and insight. In the products, innovation is combined with carefully finished design, resulting in hand pruners, shears and other tools with excellent functional properties.

Headed by Olavi Lindén, Fiskars’ design department is in a league of its own, meeting the challenge to make better and better Fiskars products. Manufacturing considerations are also taken into account at Fiskars. The products have a limited number of parts and a developed injection-moulding technique is applied in manufacture. Materials make the products durable – and along with the mechanisms they also permit light and easy use. The Fiskars brand is a promise of true added value: a good tool provides added joy and efficiency.

Keywords: brand recognition, ergonomics, innovation, efficiency

Garden pruners and shears
Fiskars Consumer Oy Ab
Made in: 2001-2002
Designers: Olavi Lindén and Markus Paloheimo

GENELEC
(Honorary mention)

Quality that you can hear

Genelec, a Finnish company internationally known for its top-range sound equipment for film and music studios, has expanded its range to include products for demanding consumers. The Genelec 6040A active loudspeaker was made on the designer’s terms. In creating this product Genelec has relied on the professional skills and solutions of Harri Koskinen.

Koskinen designed a sculptural monolith, in which a matte cast aluminium body contains sound reproduction technology, the necessary connections and the amplifier technology of the loudspeaker. The speaker’s own solid identity, its sculptural form, makes it compatible to different types of spaces and styles of interior decoration.

The Genelec 6040A active loudspeaker is an excellent example of fluid cooperation between the manufacturer and the designer. This collaboration has resulted in a noteworthy design product appealing above all to demanding listeners.

Keywords: audiovisuality, material technology

Genelec 6040A active loudspeaker
Genelec Oy
Made in 2001-2002
Designer: Harri Koskinen

IITTALA
(Honorary mention)

The changing of a brand – in a wine glass

Dynamic and fashionable are the words that seem to describe the new Essence collection of glassware by iittala. Designed by Alfredo Häberli, Essence expresses a new culinary culture and iittala’s internationalized brand strategy.

Essence is a new type of iittala design commission. Basing on marketing studies and iittala’s solid expertise, to objectives was set to create trendy, affordable glassware that would also meet commercial expectations on the international market. The manufacturing technique and marketing of Essence also represent new concepts at iittala. Essence is a competitively priced series of products.

This range of products is distinguished among wine glasses. The traditional round shape has been replaced by a completely new expression, a conical form that is repeated in the carafe and the stemware. iittala’s Essence collection successfully reflects the concept of a relaxed culture of dining in comfort. It also takes into account the requirements of modern kitchens. Essence has become a veritable success in a short time.

Keywords: design management, internationality

Essence glassware
iittala
Made in 2000-2002
Designer: Alfredo Häberli

MOBEL ORIGINAL DESIGN
(Honorary mention)

Timeless and light

Mobel’s restrained and timeless matter-of-fact approach in office interiors is respected by clients, because the products withstand the changing of fads and trends. Jouko Järvisalo designs distinctive, recognizable furniture that is businesslike, justifiable and carefully finished. His style has also become the manufacturer’s brand – all Mobel products express an uncluttered, discreet charm.

Järvisalo’s Siro chair does not attract attention with expressive design, but with its construction and clarity. Quality is expressed in the chair’s structures and form. The lightness and flexibility of the seat is achieved with curved plywood. The material thins towards the edges and is strongest where solidity is needed for attaching the base and for the rigidity of the seat.

The join of the metal parts with the wooden seat involves precise, careful work. In the chair, this detail serves as a sculptural eye-catcher, while also being a solution for joining the chairs in rows and for stacking them with ease. Employing carefully considered design, these products are crystallizations of artefactual architecture.

Keyword: material combinations, timelessness, modernism

The Siro chair
Mobel Original Design
Made in: 2001
Designer: Jouko Järvisalo

NOKIA
(Honorary mention)

Left and Right

Jean-Marc Hering has designed the Nokia Wireless Headset HDW-2 which works with Bluetooth technology and complements the functions of the mobile phone. The mobile phone can be placed in the pocket, while its interface is in the product that is placed in the ear. Calls can be accepted by pressing the switch in the Wireless Headset or managing calls from the phone keypad. The product is physically small and it represents the latest technology. A combination like this poses a high standard of expectations for design.

The Nokia Wireless Headset HDW-2 is ergonomic and easy to use even though it is a completely new type of mobile enhancement product in Nokia’s range of products. The design is called for and justifiable in all its details.

The Nokia Wireless Headset HDW-2 also looks good and is affordable. The design is restrained and the fit of this product for all ears was achieved with the flexibility of all plastic parts and the shape of the product. This small device is unnoticeable, yet nevertheless designed in sufficient size to be easy to handle. The problem of left and right-handedness was solved by making it easy to turn the attachment of the device in the opposite direction.

Keywords: left and right-handedness, communications, ergonomics.

Nokia Wireless Headset HDW-2
Nokia Plc.
Made in: 2002
Designer: Jean-Marc Hering

NOKIA
(Honorary mention)

Take it along where it happens

Once you’ve seen the Nokia 5210 mobile phone you will always recognize it. It is designed for an active lifestyle of sports, outdoor recreation and leisure. A phone to accompany what you do.

The Nokia 5210 mobile phone has a distinct visual appearance and a well-designed user interface, making it a carefully planned and finished product. Nokia’s product-design team has given this mobile phone created by Jarmo Lehtonen properties that come in handy for example when skiing, hiking, or in the office. Among other features the phone contains a calendar, a stopwatch, a thermometer, and effortless connections with wireless services.

The Nokia 5210 is an excellent combination of usability and durability. A particular achievement in product graphics is the readability and clarity of the display. The splash and dust-proof cover is an innovation that has renewed the changeability, functionality and appearance of mobile phone casings and shells.

Keywords: display graphics, product visuality, active lifestyle

The Nokia 5210 mobile phone
Nokia Plc.
Made in 2001
Designer: Jarmo Lehtonen

ORAS
(Honorary mention)

A good faucet is always noticed

Cooperation with Alessi of Italy has been a choice of design strategy for Oras that promotes and furthers the internationality of the company’s products and its own expertise in design. The high standards and quality of Oras help Alessi realize its vision of design.

The new Oras faucets are part of a total concept of bathroom design, including round washbasins and bathtubs (made by Laufen of Switzerland), and other bathroom accessories, such as hooks, shelves and soap dispensers (made by Inda of Italy). The Italian designer Stefano Giovannoni has created the faucets with their masculine language of form as well as an angular bath faucet. In the Alessi fashion, the design is marketed as a concept based on the theory of emotions of the Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari.

Emotionally appealing forms are a characteristic of the Alessi bathroom. The new series of faucets by Oras is a range of products of forceful design that arouses interest. Stefano Giovannoni’s design is a new type of addition to the range of products of this Finnish manufacturer.

Keywords: design strategy, emotionality, product range

Il Bagno Alessi by Oras
Oras Ltd
Made in: 2002
Designer team: Stefano Giovannoni and Oras Product Development

PLANMECA
(Honorary mention)

Something transparent

Health care includes to an increasing degree various machines and equipment to assist health-care personnel in their diagnoses and investigations. The data displayed by these instruments and often large pieces of equipment has an important effect on how the patient experiences and perceives investigation measures and care.

The Planmeca Promax x-ray machine has a different appearance from health-care machinery in general; for it looks both business-like and good at the same time. Design is important for the patient. A well-designed x-ray machine arouses confidence.

An empathetic language of form in a product of hospital technology is a significant achievement. Planmeca’s product-development work is made even more important by the fact that a piece of equipment that feels good is also excellent for the work of the care personnel. Usability, the reading of information from the display and contemporary technology are all integrated. Design expertise facilitates a positive description in the collaboration of the patient and the physician. In the competition that goes on in the field of hospital technology, good design is noticed and it is an aid towards success – even in business terms.

Keywords: Health care, hospital technology, reliability

The Planmeca ProMax x-ray device
Planmeca Oy
Made in: 2001
Designer team: Planmeca product-development group

PONSSE
(Honorary mention)

Mechanized forestry

Designed for thinning and final felling, the Beaver harvester is the result of extensive design and product development work. This machine has a renewed system of controls, a successful design of the cockpit interior and a combination of the construction and external appearance of the harvester.

One of the most important properties of machinery designed for heavy work is a functioning and informative cockpit. In its design work, Ponsse has focused not only on ergonomics but also on facilitating control and use. The result of this work is a system called Opticontrol providing a spacious and well-lit working environment in which the harvester is controlled with aid of ball handles. A modern information system permits the user to program and customize the operation of the controls. The operation of the machine is followed with a large display in which all the operations and information related to the work are visible in a compact format.

In the Beaver harvester design is not just added value but a necessity. The usability and reliability of the seven-metre Beaver harvester is based on the collaboration of industrial design and engineering. This machine moves and turns with ease. Its weight is divided through six wheels as evenly as possible, thus minimizing damage to the terrain. An integrated colour scheme and the design of the body provide finishing touches to the successful design.

Keywords: machinery design, cockpit design, product identity

The Beaver harvester
Ponsse Plc.
Made: 2000-2001
Design and product-development team: The Ponsse product-development group (11 persons), Teuvo Karvonen (Muototieto Oy), Pekka Rinkineva (MalliDesign Ay)

RIL'S / L-FASHION GROUP
(Honorary mention)

The idea of dressing

Ril's is a fashion brand profiled according to designer Ritva-Liisa Pohjalainen. It has seen a rapid growth of public awareness and sales. Belonging to the L-Fashion Group of Finland, this product concept has, in only a few years, succeeded in achieving wide popularity in women’s fashions, and it has become one of the most rapidly growing brands within the group.

The product design of this high-quality, rapidly renewed collection is the responsibility of a skilled team keeping abreast of the times. The fashion design of Ril’s has succeeded in focusing on a carefully selected target group. The objective is to design and realize elegance for the modern, adult woman. In this respect Ril’s has made a veritable breakthrough in both the Finnish and international context.

Success is also based on successful marketing and a recognizable retail concept. Ril’s is a closely considered and finished brand down to the clotheshangers and the presentation of products in the shops. Its core is the idea of a total clothing concept.

Keywords: fashion, brand, retail concept

Ril's designer collection
Ril's / L-Fashion Group Ltd
Made in: the collection is renewed continually
Designer: Ritva-Liisa Pohjalainen