Kaj Gabriel Franck (9 November 1911

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecessor ...

– 26 September 1989

Santorini Santorini ( el, Σαντορίνη, ), officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα ) and classical Greek Thera (English pronunciation ), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

) was one of the leading figures of

Finnish design Scandinavian design is a design movement characterized by simplicity, minimalism and functionality that emerged in the early 20th century, and subsequently flourished in the 1950s throughout the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, ...

and an influential figure in

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

and

applied arts The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Univers ...

between 1940 and 1980. Franck's parents were Kurt Franck and Genéviève "Vevi" Ahrenberg. He was a

Swedish-speaking Finn The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names; fi, suomenruotsalainen) can be used as an attribute., group=Note—see below; sv, finlandssvenskar; fi, suomenruotsalaiset) is a linguistic minority in Finl ...

, and he was of

German descent , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

through his father. Franck was artistic director of the

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

ceramics company (now part of

Iittala Iittala, founded as a glassworks in 1881, is a Finnish design brand specialising in design objects, tableware and cookware. Iittala's official i-logo was designed by Timo Sarpaneva in 1956. Iittala has strong design roots in glasswares and art gl ...

Group) and artistic director and teacher at the College of Applied Arts – the predecessor of the

University of Art and Design Helsinki A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

(now

Aalto University Aalto University ( fi, Aalto-yliopisto; sv, Aalto-universitetet) is a public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the He ...

) – since 1945, but created designs for other companies as well. He was awarded the

Prince Eugen Medal The Prince Eugen Medal ( sv, Prins Eugen-medaljen) is a medal conferred by the King of Sweden for "outstanding artistic achievement". The medal was established in 1945 by the then King of Sweden, Gustaf V, in connection with the eightieth birthd ...

in 1964. The Design Forum Finland awards the yearly Kaj Franck Design Prize to a designer or team of designers working in the spirit of the late Kaj Franck. Recipients of the prize include

Oiva Toikka Oiva Kalervo Toikka (29 May 1931 – 22 April 2019) was a Finnish glass designer, best known for his designs for Iittala. Biography Oiva Toikka was born in Viipurin maalaiskunta, the rural municipality surrounding then-Finnish Vyborg, now part ...

(1992),

Yrjö Kukkapuro Yrjö Kukkapuro (born 6 April 1933) is a Finland, Finnish interior architect and furniture designer. Education and academic career Kukkapuro studied design at the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki in the late 1950s, qualifying as an interi ...

(1995),

Heikki Orvola Heikki Orvola (born November 29, 1943 in Helsinki) is a Finnish designer and planner. He started his career as a designer in the 1960s. In 1968, he started to work at the Nuutajärvi glassworks. In 1972, he designed the ''Aurora'' set of glasses fo ...

(1998),

Eero Aarnio Eero Aarnio (born 21 July 1932) is a Finnish interior designer, noted for his innovative furniture designs in the 1960s, such as his plastic and fibreglass chairs. He was born in Helsinki. Aarnio studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts in ...

(2008), Simo Heikkilä (2011) and

Harri Koskinen Harri Koskinen is a Finnish designer, born 1970 in Karstula, Finland. He has studied at the Institute of Art and Design in Helsinki. Career Koskinen is probably best known for his Block Lamp, a lightbulb held inside two shaped pieces of clear gl ...

(2014). The

Mint of Finland The Mint of Finland ( fi, Suomen Rahapaja, sv, Myntverket i Finland) is the national mint of Finland. It was established by Alexander II of Russia in 1860 as the markka became the official currency of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The mint was first ...

released a collector coin with the theme “Kaj Franck and Industrial Art” in January 2011. The coin commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of his birth. He is buried in the

Hietaniemi Cemetery The Hietaniemi cemetery ( fi, Hietaniemen hautausmaa, sv, Sandudds begravningsplats) is located mainly in the Lapinlahti quarter and partly in the Etu-Töölö district of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is the location for Finnish state ...

in Helsinki.

References

External links

Glass items designed by Kaj Franck
1911 births 1989 deaths Finnish designers Finnish interior designers Artists from Vyborg Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal Burials at Hietaniemi Cemetery Finnish people of German descent Swedish-speaking Finns Academic staff of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture {{designer-stub Compasso d'Oro Award recipients