The legendary Finnish glass design company, Iittala, was represented for the first time in Serbia at Belgrade Design Week 2011 by the Päivi Jantunen. Awarding us with a different outlook on the future by digging deep into Iittala’s history, Päivi took us on an voyage through the work of Kaj Franck, one of the fathers of modern Finnish design.
What started as a glass factory in Iittala, Finland, today celebrates generations of essential objects that are made to enrich people’s everyday lives. Iittala believes objects should be distinctive, combinable and multi-functional, with lasting design that inspires individual use and expression.
Iittala’s design values are based on the progressive philosophy of their design pioneers. The names of Alvar and Aino Aalto have been connected to Iittala since the beginning. Alvar Aalto wanted to ‘free’ glass from geometric form and create an impression of organic, living forms. Aino and Alvar Aalto believed objects should be essential, beautiful, useful and democratically available to all.
The progressive philosophy of the design heroes, Kaj Franck and Alvar Aalto, still inspires designers to keep Iittala forever relevant. Iittala doesn’t just create beautiful objects. Iittala believes in timeless design that will never be thrown away.
Päivi Jantunen (born 1947) has worked nearly four decades in the world of such Finnish brands as Iittala and Arabia, which are part of the company Fiskars Home. She has lived in the closely knit communities of Iittala, Nuutajärvi and Arabia right where the icons of design have been produced. She has worked with such great Finnish names of design as Kaj Franck, Timo Sarpaneva, Oiva Toikka and Harri Koskinen and international designers like Alfredo Häberli, Konstantin Grcic and Giorgio Vigna. Savoy vase the icon of modern design by Alvar Aalto, the architect , designed in 1936 is the most famous product of Iittala not to forget the work of Tapio Wirkkala. International communications has been the main focus of Päivi Jantunen’s career. She has worked for Huippu Design Management to promote a younger generation of Finnish designers, as well as for Kannustalo, and as a free writer. The book “Kaj & Franck. Designs and Impressions” was published in 2011 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Kaj Franck, frequently referred to as a conscience of modern design.
