A NEW VISION
OF FINNISH DESIGN
The brand, aiming decisively at the international market, introduces new ways of thinking to Finnish design. Yoldia Scandinavia combines nature, mythology and design innovatively. Eternal materials are transformed through a new design language in a touching way. The company launches a new home decoration and tableware collection that combines handicrafts with industrial production.
The deeply touching products that appeal directly to emotions are created in the Vanaja Valley, next to Aulanko in Hattula. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, designer and interior designer Jesse Kakkola has created a product collection inspired by Finland’s nature, mythology and history, aimed at international markets. The name Yoldia refers to the Ice Age Yoldia Sea, the present-day Baltic Sea. The prototype workshop in Kakkola, Hattula, and the whole environment in which the concept was born, is bordered by large boulders. The Ice Age shoreline is still visible all around.
The launch of the product collection, intended for the beginning of the year, was postponed due to the COVID-19 situation. Still, product development took a huge step forward when the company received from Business Finland the development support it had applied for. Now, more than six months after the intended launch, an entire Finnish lifestyle collection has been completed.
The materials used in the collection include steel, ash, soapstone, spectrolite and glass. Tableware of soapstone excavated from pure Finnish soil, serving plates made of steel that reflect nature’s own design language, and glass bowls, create a completely new mood for table setting and dining. Next winter, the steel product range will expand around the theme of fire. There are plans in place for the collection to expand to both jewellery and textiles next year. Also, a special atmosphere is created around the sauna, so important for Finns.
The concept is a powerful combination of rugged nature shaped by the Ice Age, deep spirituality and design. There are incredible timings associated with the times the concept’s innovations were born. For example, the Yoldia Cross, named the Yin & Yang of the North, was created at the time of the spring equinox, exactly when night and day were equally long. In Baltic Finnish mythology, male gods created the world at the time of the spring equinox, made cultural objects such as iron, and the magical Sampo artefact of Kalevala, and travel to the afterlife. We often get the comment that this is like a continuation of the legends of Finland’s national epic Kalevala.
Kakkola aimed to create a sculptural collection of utility objects that touches with its beauty, materials, and new kind of functionality. However, the ultimate goal of the products and the philosophy of the whole concept is to create a deep sense of community that originates from far away in the past and the primordial force.
All production takes place in Finland and largely using Finnish materials. The company manufactures steel products and employs many small handicraft businesses.
Deliveries will begin to the domestic market first, but the definite plan is to expand to exports very soon. The concept’s small-scale pilot at the Habitare Fair in 2019 proved that there is an intense interest in the products, for example, in Japan. In the same context, there was interest in the Vanaja Valley, and Aulanko in particular, in terms of tourism connected to the story of the concept. Hopefully, the concept we have built will open up new tourism in the region in the coming years.
www.yoldiascandinavia.com
shop.yoldiascandinavia.com
For more information, please contact:
Jesse Kakkola
jesse.kakkola@koti-in.fi
+358 400 841690
