The first day I walked through the hallways of Bocconi University, I noticed it right away. You can see it from the faces of people, by listening to them, from the way they dress up, from their shoes. It is even more obvious, I had thought before. And I love it. It is something what so strongly distinguishes people in Italy from those in Finland. What am I talking about? It is the above all sense of beauty. It is something so stereotypical italian. It is something that defines the meaning of existence for them: the most important thing is la bella figura: it means how things look like, not how they really are.
The reason I brought this up is that I wanted to link my previous and still coming posts together. I want to define them some common features and what would be a better way than to mirror the finnish design to the italian one. These two perceptions of design and beauty are stereotypically very contrary.
At first, when you look at a chair designed by a finnish designer and then a chair made by italian designer, the difference is significant. You can see right away which one is designed to be comfortable and which one is supposed to look marvellous and something that is luxorious.
The reason I brought this up is that I wanted to link my previous and still coming posts together. I want to define them some common features and what would be a better way than to mirror the finnish design to the italian one. These two perceptions of design and beauty are stereotypically very contrary.
At first, when you look at a chair designed by a finnish designer and then a chair made by italian designer, the difference is significant. You can see right away which one is designed to be comfortable and which one is supposed to look marvellous and something that is luxorious.
First, here is a SWING-armchair designed ny HT-collection, which is a finnish furniture company. You can clearly see that this chair is meant to be comfortable and also the design is very simple. The chair is calling you to sit on it.
On the contrary, here is TERMINAL-chair/daybed designed by B&B Italy. This piece of furniture is clearly something that catches the attention. Since it is made of hard materials, it is not meant to be that comfortable. Also, the design is not symmetric nor simple. Quite a difference compared to the SWING-armchair. So traditionally finnish design is something that is comfortable and beautiful in a simple way. Finnish people furnish their houses to be places where you feel cosy and where you can relax. Also the colours are usually harmonic and not very bright. It is just that way the finns have always done it.
You can see the difference also on the streets. People dress up in a pretty neutral way. One of the most visible ways of seeking the comfortableness is the shoes. When on the streets of Milan, you can see high heels in feet of every second woman, in Finland the amount could be one of five or even smaller. In Italy, it is normal that women wear heels and as they have always been doing it, it is not even a guestion of suffering for beauty any more. In Finland many women think that they don't want to wear high heels because they are not comfortable and because it is not an every day thing. The heels are digged from the closet, when it is the time to celebrate.
In my next post, I will continue the discussion of comfortableness and extend it to the easy-to-use. I will introduce you the most famous finnish company, Nokia, and its strenghts - why it is so succesfull.
You can see the difference also on the streets. People dress up in a pretty neutral way. One of the most visible ways of seeking the comfortableness is the shoes. When on the streets of Milan, you can see high heels in feet of every second woman, in Finland the amount could be one of five or even smaller. In Italy, it is normal that women wear heels and as they have always been doing it, it is not even a guestion of suffering for beauty any more. In Finland many women think that they don't want to wear high heels because they are not comfortable and because it is not an every day thing. The heels are digged from the closet, when it is the time to celebrate.
In my next post, I will continue the discussion of comfortableness and extend it to the easy-to-use. I will introduce you the most famous finnish company, Nokia, and its strenghts - why it is so succesfull.
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