What`s up Anni Pitkäjärvi?
Winner of Protoshop 2014.
You participated in Habitare’s Protoshop some time ago. How are you now?
A few years ago, Hanna-Kaarina Heikkilä and I founded the Studio Finna design office, at which we now work together, providing product, furniture and spatial design for companies in and outside Finland. Last year, I also graduated from the Master’s programme in Product and Spatial Design at Aalto University.
What was the Protoshop experience like for you as a designer: what did it teach and offer you, what opportunities did it open up, and what insights did you get?
The Protoshop exhibition gave me an opportunity to experience people’s reactions to my products, which was very rewarding and inspiring. It was interesting to hear feedback from people about my products, including the wide variety of spaces and functions for which the furniture would be used. My products attracted a lot of interest from visitors, but especially from manufacturers. I got both of my products into production in record time – the Lempi shelf for Hakola and the Pinna hat shelf for the Danish company OkDesign. With both designs, I got to experience what it is like to take a product from the initial idea to production.
What are you up to at the moment?
We are currently working on projects with foreign companies, and we are preparing some of our own projects for next year. In February, a series of mirrors that we designed last spring will be unveiled at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair.
What are your dreams and aspirations as a designer?
I’m always interested in new challenges and partnerships. It would be great if, at some point, my company could achieve such an established status that even the more multidisciplinary businesses would dare to contact us, and we could build something new and interesting together. I’d be really interested in, for example, combining design expertise with new types of materials, or in designing new types of office premises for businesses. The aim is also to turn our current office of two employees into a larger company, which would enable the employment of other designers or professionals.