Glass Cartio Vase by Kaj Franck for Littala

Designer Kaj Franck was born in 1911 in Vyborg, Finland. Often referred to as “the conscience of Finnish design” due his commitment to accessible and democratic design, Franck is considered to be one of Finland's most important designers, and is best remembered for his contribution to table and glassware.

Franck graduated with a degree in industrial design at the Central School of Industrial Design in Helsinki in 1932. From 1933, he held many different jobs—a catalogue illustrator for Riihimäki glassworks, an interior designer, decorator for Te-Ma Oy, and textile designer for the United Wool Factory—until he was inducted into the Finnish armed forces in 1939.

Franck’s career is characterized by his simultaneous work produced by two prominent Finnish ceramics and glassware companies: Iittala and Arabia (which both later became part of the Finnish Fiskars Group). Around 1946, Franck began working for Arabia as a product designer. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration with the ceramics company, staying on until 1976 as Director of Design for Arabia’s glassware subsidiary, Nuutajärvi Notsjo.

In 1952, Franck designed the iconic utilitarian Kilta series, which was released by Arabia a year later. Kilta is Franck’s most well-known collection (that, unlike traditional tableware sets, could be individually selected) and became the most successful stoneware product at Arabia, producing twenty-five million pieces in the first twenty years. The series translates simple geometrical shapes—the circle, square, and cone—into necessary and functional objects, designed for everyday use. In the late 1970s or early 1980s Franck returned to Arabia to redesign the Kilta collection, renaming it Teema. It comprises nineteen pieces and is still in production by Iittala.

In 1946, Franck designed tableware for the Finnish Family Welfare Association. His career at Iittala began a year later when he won a competition to design a glassware collection (he shared the prize with the designer Tapio Wirkkala). Simple forms (as seen in Kilta / Teema) and strong colors are representative of Franck’s style, evident in the cone-shaped Kartio glasses for Iittala (designed in 1958, originally produced by Nuutajärvi Notsjo).

A signature half moon-shaped bowl by Franck for Finel Arabia was adapted to form a pendant lamp by Danish lighting brand Fog & Morup in the 1960s.

In his late career, Franck was a professor at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. He was the recipient of many Finnish and international awards and prizes, he was the winner of three awards from Milan’s Triennale between 1951 and 1957, as well as the Lunning Prize in 1955. He was also the recipient of the Prince Eugen Medal in 1964. Notably, Franck was one of the first advocators of recycling. The Design Forum Finland created the Kaj Franck Design Prize in the his honor, awarded yearly to a designer or team of designers working in the spirit of the designer. Today, the award is Finland's most prestigious design award.

Franck passed away in 1989.

*Images courtesy of Iittala

Historic Finnish glassworks company Iittala was founded by Swedish glassblower Petrus Magnus Abrahamsson in 1881 in a village of the same name. The company changed hands several times and struggled to survive through the turn of the 20th century and beyond. It wasn’t until the 1930s, after Iittala merged with the Karhula glass company, that Iittala began to build its international reputation for beautiful yet functionalist art glass.

In 1932, Finnish designer Göran Hongell joined Iittala. In the years leading up to World War II, Hongell brought in talented outside designers and glassblowers, initiated design competitions, modernized the facilities and collections, and, in 1937, separated Iittala from Karhula. Hereafter, Karhula took over automated glass production, and Iittala oncentrated only on fine, artisanal production.

Esteemed Finnish designers Alvar and Aino Aalto were among the first collaborators to create iconic glass designs for Iittala. Aino developed her utilitarian pressed glass Bölgeblick series—now called Aalto Glasses—in 1932, and Alvar created his undulating Savoy Vase, inspired by the lakes of Finland, in 1936.

In 1946, Iittala organized a competition calling for “contemporary” art glass designs, and Finnish design masters Tapio Wirkkala and Kaj Franck jointly won. They both, in time, contributed significant works to Iittala’s collections, such as Wirkkala’s highly sculptural Kantarelli Vases (1946). 

In 1950, another Finnish design master joined Iittala: Timo Sarpaneva. Not only did Sarpaneva design the Iittala logo, he contributed a number of glassware and art glass designs that continue to be collected today. Standouts include his Lansetti Vases (1952), Orkidea Vases (1953), the i-Collection (1956), Triennale Glasses (1956/57), and Finlandia Vase (1964). Sarpaneva’s glass designs played a key role in popularizing Scandinavian design in the postwar era, winning the Grand Prix at both the 1954 and 1957 Triennale di Milano. In 1956, US-based shelter magazine House Beautiful judged Sarpaneva’s Orkidea Vase to be “The Most Beautiful Object of the Year.”

Through the second half of the 20^th century, Iittala continued to set high standards of quality and innovation in glass production. In 1990, the company was acquired by the Hackman Group, and international designers such as Konstantin Grcic and Marc Newson were commissioned to create new collections. Since 1996, Finnish designer Harri Koskinen has worked in-house for Iittala. In 2007, Finnish scissors brand, Friskars Corporation, bought the Iittala Group; Fiskars Group also owns Arabia, Royal Copenhagen, Rörstrand, Waterford, and Wedgwood, among others.

* Special thanks to Iittala for images.