Finland Times

 

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Speakers at a seminar on design business, held as part of the Arctic Design Week in the Art Museum Korundi Hall in Rovaniemi on Thursday, put out a call for visionary and innovative solutions as business is the crucial part of design and the Arctic design business was aiming for a new height in excellence.

 

The producer of the Arctic Design Week, Julius Oförsagd, gave the opening speech at the program and renowned design specialist and Chief Executive officer of Jack Rouse Associates (JRA) Keith James from the United States read out the keynote paper, where he talked about the challengers of extreme design concepts and how to consider various factors in designing services.

 

Keith said that the extreme conditions are something which calls for more of thinking about to design than the actual designing. He said talked about the main aspect or challenge of extreme designing is safety.

 

He said that it is like mother in a family always trying to do the best for the children so that they can have the best of life, which is safe. Keith also said that the cultural difference is another factor to consider in designing extreme conditions. 

 

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Lappset along with Themed Entertainment Association organised the main seminar in the Korundi Hall as part of the week that began in Rovaniemi on February 22 focused on the theme of ‘Design business in the Arctic.’

 

Johan Granholm from Lappset Creative, a concern of the Lappset Group, said that facilities such as the activity park for children had been designed keeping in mind that children wold get into the play but would not get hurt.

 

Stephen Richards from Paragon Creative, UK talked about their experience of designing in the extreme hot weather condition in Kazakhstan.

 

Jens Thomas Ivarsson and Arne Bergh from Sweden Jukkasjärvi Ice Hotel gave an inspirational presentation of design in the nature. Nick Farmer of Farmer Attraction Development Ltd from the United Kingdom talked about designing from the exterior point of view. The last presentation was on digital design aspects by Matt Barton of 7th Sense (UK) and a case study of Hello Future from Sweden.

 

Arctic design stories that Flatlight creative produced were shown during the break. The Rovaniemi-based design and product development company Treeform Oy and its creative entrepreneurs Jan Leutola and Maxim Narbrough received this year’s Arctic Design Enterprise of the Year award. The award ceremony was held in the Arctic Snow Hotel in Sinettä on Thursday night.

 

Different local creative business houses presented their services and products in Korundi during the seminar. Sami Halonen, the chief executive officer of Höyry, said that the digital services for design firms and businesses was very much necessary and responses from businesses about their innovative services were encouraging. 

 

The Arctic Design Week had a packed schedule of workshops, discussions, exhibitions, fashion shows, mini trade fairs spaced out throughout the week in Arktikum of Arctic Cente, Science centre Pilke, University of Lapland, Korundi and other venues.

 

The main organisers of the week were the Rovaniemi Development Authority and the City of Rovaniemi.