Years 2015– - Design Forum Finland

Strategy changes 2015–

The early years of the Society 1875–1900
Exhibition activities begin 1932–1939
The birth of Finnish Design 1951–1959
Design takes a stand 1963–1975
Finland Designs and Design Forum is established 1979–1993
Classics and new trends 1993–2000
The turn of the millennium 2001–2006
Internationalisation initiatives 2007–2010
Years of major projects 2010–2015
Strategy changes 2015–

2015

The transformation of Design Forum Finland that had begun in 2014 continued in 2015.

The core idea of the new strategy was to shift from the traditional, general promotion of design to supporting the international competitiveness and export potential of Finnish companies. In practice, this meant that the exhibition activities ended and the focus shifted towards organising events serving the needs of businesses, such as Design Forum Talk and Design Forum Date seminars, various training sessions, business consultations and webinars. Also organising design competitions and awards was discontinued, waiting for new ideas.

Photo: Design Forum Talk May 2018 Kellohalli, photo Kalle Kataila

2016–2023

Since 2016, one of the central themes of the activities has been promoting circular design.

In connection with this, Design Forum Finland has participated in several domestic and national collaborative projects promoting sustainable and circular design. One of the largest was the two-part EcoDesign Circle project, carried out between 2016 and 2021 by the Baltic Sea countries. Its total budget was 2.7 million euros, and it received some of its funding from the European Union’s Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme. The main partner was the German Environment Agency, Umweltbundesamt (UBA).

Another important circular design project was the Circular Design – A Path Towards Circular Economy training programme for fifty Finnish companies, commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment in 2023.