HORS D'OEUVRE SET 2/1367

SAARA HOPEA｜サーラ・ホペア｜1925–1984｜FINLAND

Saara Hopea majored in interior design at the Central School of Applied Arts in Helsinki. After graduating, she began her career as a furniture designer, and later worked as a draftsperson under Paavo Tynell at Taito Oy.

In 1951, at the invitation of Kaj Franck, she remained affiliated with Taito Oy while working as a freelance interior designer, handling the furniture and spatial design for the Wärtsilä (parent company of Arabia and Nuutajärvi) gallery/showroom. Her excellent work was highly regarded, and she joined Nuutajärvi as a designer in 1952.

Together with Kaj Franck, she shared the common ideal of designing necessities for post-war life and created numerous products and art pieces. Her activities were diverse, including packaging, logos, exhibition spaces, and the design of enamel products at Arabia.

Although she left Nuutajärvi in 1959 to take over the family business, her achievements as a glass designer are highly regarded despite her short seven-year tenure.

From 1959, she worked on jewelry design at her family's goldsmith workshop, Ossian Hopea, and after her marriage in 1960, she moved to New York with her husband and also worked on enamel design. Later, from 1963, she lived in Nepal and India, designing textiles and other items. She returned to Finland in 1967 and continued jewelry design at the same workshop until 1982.

She was an excellent designer who displayed outstanding talent in various fields.

She was awarded silver medals at the Milan Triennale in 1954 and 1957.

KAJ FRANCK｜カイ・フランク｜1911–1989｜FINLAND

Kaj Franck studied seven different courses, including furniture design, at the Helsinki National University of Art (now Aalto University). After graduating, he worked as an interior designer, focusing primarily on furniture design. In 1939, he traveled to Sweden and Denmark on a scholarship. Furthermore, in 1953, he toured Germany, Italy, France, and the UK, expanding his perspective on form through research in various locations.

After returning from his studies in the Nordic countries, he successively unveiled designs in a wide range of fields, including glass, lighting fixtures, and textiles. In 1945, he was appointed chief designer at Arabia, and from 1950, he served as art director until 1973. He also left many works at Iittala (1946–1950) and Nuutajärvi (1950–1976), which was a group company of Arabia.

With a creed of "design for the masses" and "designer's responsibility," his designs, hailed as "the conscience of Finland," are characterized by their simple forms that prioritize functionality. His approach, which eschewed ornamentation and expressed itself solely through color, led to the creation of many long-selling products.

His representative works, the KILTA (now TEEMA) series and the Tumbler 5027 (now KARTIO) series, are still in production today. Meanwhile, he also created many artistic unique glass pieces using a craft-based approach.

He received numerous awards, including the Lunning Prize (1955), the Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale (1957), and the Compasso d'Oro (1957).