Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as "branches of the tree whose trunk is architecture." Aalto's early career ran in parallel with the rapid economic growth and industrialization of Finland during the first half of the 20th century. Many of his clients were industrialists, among them the Ahlström-Gullichsen family, who became his patrons. The span of his career, from the 1920s to the 1970s, is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Nordic Classicism of the early work, to a rational International Style Modernism during the 1930s to a more organic modernist style from the 1940s onwards.
Yrjö Kalervo Sotamaa is a Finnish designer and design strategist. Sotamaa is Professor Emeritus of Design Innovation in the Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture and President Emeritus of the University of Art and Design Helsinki (TAIK). He served as the president of TAIK from 1986 until 2008. He earned his MA in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design from TAIK, where he studied with Kaj Franck and Antti Nurmesniemi.
Artek is a Finnish furniture company. It was founded in December 1935 by architect Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino Aalto, visual arts promoter Maire Gullichsen and art historian Nils-Gustav Hahl. The founders chose a non-Finnish name: the neologism Artek was meant to manifest the desire to combine art and technology. This echoed a main idea of the International Style movement, especially the Bauhaus, to emphasize the technical expertise in production and quality of materials, instead of historical-based, eclectic or frivolous ornamentation.
Juhani Uolevi Pallasmaa is a Finnish architect and former professor of architecture and dean at the Helsinki University of Technology. Among the many academic and civic positions he has held are those of Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture 1978–1983, and head of the Institute of Industrial Arts, Helsinki. He established his own architect's office – Arkkitehtitoimisto Juhani Pallasmaa KY – in 1983 in Helsinki. From 2001 to 2003, he was Raymond E. Maritz Visiting Professor of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, and in 2013 he received an honorary doctorate from that university. In 2010–2011, Pallasmaa served as Plym Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and in 2012-2013 he was scholar in residence at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin. Pallasmaa has also lectured widely in Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia.
Vuokko Hillevi Lilian Eskolin-Nurmesniemi is a Finnish textile designer. She is best known for her work as one of the two leading designers of the Marimekko company. Her signature striped Jokapoika shirt helped to make the company's name.
Aarno Emil Ruusuvuori was a Finnish architect, professor and director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture. He studied at the Helsinki University of Technology, completing his studies in 1951.
Scandinavian design is a design movement characterized by simplicity, minimalism and functionality that emerged in the early 20th century, and subsequently flourished in the 1950s throughout the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland.
Finn Juhl was a Danish architect, interior and industrial designer, most known for his furniture design. He was one of the leading figures in the creation of Danish design in the 1940s and he was the designer who introduced Danish modern to America.
Timo Saarnio is a Finnish interior architect and furniture designer.
Jukka Setala is a Finnish designer. He completed his study as an interior architect at the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1996. He designed a notable lamp but he is best known for his "Fatboy" beanbag chairs.
Erik Stefan Lindfors, known as Stefan Lindfors is a Finnish industrial designer, interior designer, film-maker and sculptor. He attended high school at the Åbo Cathedral School in Turku in 1982, and then went on to study design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki, completing his studies in 1988.
Olavi Tapio Hänninen was a Finnish designer and interior architect.
Erkki Ruuhinen is a Finnish graphic designer specializing in business emblems, logos and design management. He is also known for his film posters and his calligraphic and typographic work.
Carin Lisa Johansson-Pape née Johansson was a Finnish designer, best known for her work in lighting. She was the most significant Finnish lighting designer in the second half of the 1900s. Her priorities were first about the functions then the design.
Simo Heikkilä is a Finnish designer and interior architect. He is known as a designer, teacher and collaborator with a concern for dying craft skills. Heikkilä established his own studio in 1971. He began his career designing shops and exhibitions for Marimekko and then moved into designing furniture. Heikkilä has acted as the Director of Aalto University's Wood Studio and is an honorary fellow of Aalto University.
Yrjö Kukkapuro is a Finnish interior architect and furniture designer.
Rupert Williamson has been a Designer and creator of one-off furniture for over 40 years with work in many museums and public collections, together with his work written about and illustrated in many books and articles.In 1999 he received a PhD for his thesis “New Forms of Imagery in Furniture". The Reflections of a Designer working in the Craft Revival of the 1970s and beyond” together with a major collection of his designs.
Michele de Lucchi is an Italian architect and designer.
Väino Tamm was an Estonian interior designer, vice associate professor in ERKI in from 1959 and interior design department manager in 1968–1986, from 1970 he was the associate professor of the interior design department in ERKI. He was one of the firsts to pave the way to the interior design department as we know it today. Väino Tamm changed the spatial design profession into a subject that deals with problems involving interior design and instead of decorating the space on the contrary dealing with arranging it. Also dealing with an overall effect and the room's whole impact on a person.
