Falling In Love With Finnish Design

Falling In Love With Finnish Design

Finnish design isn’t just something you see — it’s something you experience. It begins the moment you step off the plane at Helsinki’s Vantaa airport, follows you everywhere and stays with you long after you’ve gone.

Written by Karen MacKenna, a Canadian photographer-writer who lost her heart to Finnish design nearly two decades ago.

My love affair began in 1995. That first time I arrived by boat, sailing through the Finnish archipelago into Helsinki Harbour. It was late June and the stalls at the Market Square were an astonishing sea of colours with mountains of strawberries, tumbling into wild blueberries that spilled into chanterelles. It was a display that was not only a celebration of food but hinted at people who saw beauty in nature’s bounty.