Jyväskylä-based designer Jonas Hakaniemi believes steadfastly that by taking advantage of designers' professional skills many businesses could gain a significant amount of added value for their products and services.
"By employing design it's possible to boost a company's turnover. People often think that design is only about making a product look better. It would be good for a designer to be involved from initial planning and material choices onwards," Hakaniemi ventures. Hakaniemi, who established his own design business in Jyväskylä in the autumn of 2009, has already left his fingerprint on Finland and the world through his expertise. The Box Light lamp designed by Hakaniemi has stimulated interest at fairs in Milan and Stockholm. Sweden's Design House Stockholm will start selling the lamp in spring 2010.
In Hakaniemi's view a designer's key task is to help companies to look sufficiently far forward and uncover future trends. "Especially during an economic recession businesses should be thinking about the future. When the upswing arrives it's already far too late." One big challenge is getting small businesses in particular into contact with designers.
Where making use of designers is concerned, service design has been trumpeted as offering significant potential.
Service design means the desire to provide customers with a service experience that is in line with the enterprise's goal. The experience may be generated, for example, via the premises, objects, marketing or people. "Service design is service development using the methods of design. It is vital to understand the special characteristics of the service in a particular context - in its own branch. The idea of service design must extend from innovating and planning right through to marketing," explains Carita Harju, Development Manager at Jyväskylä Regional Development Company Jykes Ltd.
Harju points out that services and products must always be designed from the user's standpoint. Frequently these planning tools can be found in the possession of professionals specialised in service design.
"Nothing prevents a designer from considering the user even in industrial product development."
Words By Tommi Salo Photo By Janne Nousiainen