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Kaj Franck Design Prize 2001

Industrial designer Eero Miettinen

The Kaj Franck Design Prize of 2001 was awarded to industrial designer Eero Miettinen (born 1954). Miettinen has worked as a designer for the Finnish automobile and truck industry and in companies focusing on high technology. He also has wide professional experience of the internationalization of companies and the resulting requirements placed on designers. Eero Miettinen has taught design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and the Helsinki University of Technology.

Upon graduating from the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1980, Eero Miettinen began his career at Sisu-Auto Ltd. where he designed heavy-duty vehicles, industrial tractors and trucks. As head of design at Saab-Valmet Ltd., Miettinen concentrated on automobiles. Together with his team, Miettinen was responsible for the conceptual and year-model design of convertibles, among other products. Since 1988 Miettinen has been in the service of Nokia as the head of a large team of designers. He underlines the importance of not only collegial cooperation among designers but also the collaboration of various professional groups in creating products.

Eero Miettinen has been a teacher and instructor for over 20 years at the Department of Industrial Design of the University of Art and Design Helsinki and also at the Helsinki University of Technology. The prize-winning designer says that he likes teaching, as it gives him an opportunity to approach design in a meditative and experimental manner. Dialogue with students of design and the passing on of information gained through experience to young people is important for the development of the field in general, says Miettinen.

In 1994 Eero Miettinen was given the title of Industrial Designer of the Year by TKO, the Finnish Association of Industrial Designers. Among other awards, he has received the prize of the Finnish Automobile and Traffic Journalists’ Association. Products designed by Miettinen have been on show in numerous exhibitions both in Finland and abroad.