Kaj Franck

Kaj Franck (1911-1989) was born in Vyborg, Finland. People call him the conscience of Finnish design and he was one if the first designer at Iittala.

At first sight, Kaj Franck’s idea that a pretty object should be indispensable, functional, warrantable and faultless seems to be a cold, rational kind of description. But it was exactly this motto that Franck’s mind and his hands when creating objects that lacked each superfluous decoration; objects that are nowadays representative for Scandinavian design aesthetics.

When designing, he avoids everything that is superfluous, so that only the indispensable remained. This sounds easy, but if it really was that simple, the world wouldn’t be full of objects that failed.

Kaj Franck has received many Finnish and international awards and prizes, and his works are being exhibited in design museums all over the world.

Two of his most famous creations are the Teema set and the glass collection Kartio.