Once upon a time a Finnish politician wittily described his own state as a country between east and west, but oriented towards the north. This kind of position, together with the separateness that is the consequence of the linguistic peculiarities, has had an essential effect on all segments of life in the Finnish north, as well as on the phenomenon known under the name of Finnish design. Over time it has become a trademark for a superlative combination of simplicity and functionality with high quality material, as well as shapes that develop out of a very particular kind of closeness with nature that, by a miracle, no kind of technological development has managed to spoil.