Finnish thinking: Fhink
Visual identity design / web / print
Fhink was an exhibition showcasing student work from Lahti Institute of Design. It was exhibited at SaloneSatellite of the 2018 Salone del Mobile design fair in Milan, one of the most important marketing events in our schools history. The exhibition was also displayed at Habitare in Helsinki the same year.
During this project I learned a lot about working with print, and how rewarding it can be. All in all I am very satisfied with the blue visuals, and the exhibition got very good feedback from the visitors.
Going to Milan to showcase the skills of Finnish students, we wanted to channel the spirit of Finnish design and Nordic nature. The inspiration to the mushroom shape was drawn from Tapio Wirkkala’s work.
Wirkkala was the exhibition architect for the Milan Triennial in 1951 and 1954, and his Chantarelle vase won the main prize there in 1951, so it felt appropriate to pay tribute to the legendary designer’s work in our exhibitions’ visual identity as well. The golden ratio and its manifestation in nature and the forest was a focus point I wanted to mirror somehow, however the final mushroom shape came to by accident while doodling.
I was excited to see a colour as bright as possible to harmonize with the light, wooden designs on display while also creating a high contrast between the web-coloresque color, and the beautiful unpainted wood. Blue felt most obvious as our Finnish identity was at the centre of the whole concept.
I created a mobile responsive website with HTML and CSS that is like a digital version of the zine. Photos have a blue overlay until you hover over them and they display the colour photo. Hovering over the photo of the designer displays a call to action to contact them.
The foldable zine doubling as a poster was handed out to visitors to provide information about the designs and for them to keep as a souvenir. (I lucked out with the amount of designers here, 15 just happened to fit perfectly on the zine pages…)
