Morning
Anna Valtonen: Welcome
Anne Stenros: Sensorial City
Karen Reuther: Deliver & Delight
Olli Ikkala: Biomimetics: Material Scientists Learn from Nature
Lunch
Anna Valtonen: Welcome
Anne Stenros: Sensorial City
Karen Reuther: Deliver & Delight
Olli Ikkala: Biomimetics: Material Scientists Learn from Nature
Lunch
Anna van der Lei Interviewing Bart Hess
Debera Johnson: Collaboration Is The New Competition
Kirsi Niinimäki: Trash to Cash
Coffee
Karen Hofmann: Beyond the Surface: The Impact of Color, Materials and Trends Exploration Laboratory at ArtCenter
Lenneke Langenhuijsen: Living Interior
Jaana Beidler: Closing
Olli IkkalaAcademy professor
Aalto University Department of Applied Physics
Prof. Olli Ikkala holds an Academy Professorship of Academy of Finland at the Department of Applied Physics of Aalto University (formerly Helsinki University of Technology) in Espoo near Helsinki. His research interest is to develop functional materials based on hierarchical self-assemblies and starting materials originating from nature. Originally educated in physics, he was affiliated 10 years in chemical industry mostly related to development of polymer blends and electrically conducting polymers. 1994 he returned in academia and established the Molecular Materials Laboratory at Helsinki University of Technology. The laboratory is multidisciplinary, combining physics, chemistry, and materials science. Professor Olli Ikkala has more than 200 articles, several articles in Science and Nature family, as well as ca. 20 patents, and has been cited over 12,000 times. He is a recipient of Advanced Grant of ERC and heads the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Engineering of Biosynthetic Hybrid Materials Research of Academy of Finland, and is elected in Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and Technology Academy Finland. He works in several advisory duties and has collaborated over the years with polymer, paint, and forest product industry.
Karen Korellis ReutherVP Creative
VF Corp, Dover, NH, USA
Karen recently joined the VF Corporation as Vice President Creative. She leads the functions of Design, Brand & Consumer Strategy and Research & Insights at the Global Innovation Centers in Alameda, CA and Dover, NH. She is the design champion for VF’s Global Design Community of over 30 lifestyle brands, including Vans, Timberland, The North Face, Nautica, Lee, Wrangler, Kipling, Napapiri, JanSport, Lucy and Reef.
Karen grew up outside of Chicago, in Hammond, Indiana, receiving her degree in Industrial Design from Purdue University. Her design career started in the high tech industry where she holds multiple design patents. Her experience includes, 12 years at NIKE, owning a design consultancy in Munich, Germany and at ZIBA, a world-class design and innovation firm where she was director of consumer insights and trends. As Global Creative Director at NIKE, she led teams that developed major product, merchandising and brand strategies solidifying NIKE at the top of its industry. Karen led the creative vision and implementation of design strategies from product creation to merchandising across NIKE footwear, apparel and equipment including, an industry-leading organization that leveraged the power of trend, color and materials.
She currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Berklee College of Music’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship. She has a Masters in Business Management from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a requested public speaker on topics that range from mentorship, entrepreneurship, design and color, she delivered a TED talk at TEDxBerkleeValencia 2015 titled “Leaving Your Dream”.
Karen lives in Boston with her husband Dieter, is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, a lover of Motown music, a proud Greek-American, enjoys travel and all things design.
Karen HofmannChair of Product Design
Director of the Color, Materials and Trends Exploration Laboratory (CMTEL)
Art Center College of Design
As Chair of Product Design and Director of the Color, Materials and Trends Exploration Laboratory (CMTEL) at Art Center College of Design, Karen is instrumental in introducing new design research processes, curriculum and vision-casting projects with numerous sponsors including Nokia, Microsoft, HTC,
Nike, Samsung and Nestle. She created the strategy for CMTEL and continues to develop unique educational programs around material exploration and trend monitoring as well as launching the new “Wearables + Soft Goods” concentration in the product design program. Karen developed and launched the innovative project model DesignStorms® (3-day creative immersions with Art Center faculty and students) to partners such as Adidas, Volkswagen, Motorola, Disney and Eastman Innovation Lab exploring future market opportunities and emerging technologies.
Karen co-leads the innovative study abroad program with INSEAD International Business School and a co-creator of Art Center’s executive education programming focusing on design-driven workshops and creative leadership seminars. With degrees in psychology and product design, Karen’s expertise is in design research, strategy and insights. She spent several years at Johnson Controls Automotive Systems Group in Advanced Design and Research and for the last decade has been teaching and consulting.
Bart HessMaterial Mutator
Bart Hess explores several fields combining material studies, animation and photography in a surrealist manner. With his fascination for the human body and the manipulation of it, Hess pushes the boundaries of the textile design profession: his designs transcend the craft, as Hess chooses to extend them via other media, such as film, photography and animation. His futuristic fabrics and textures blur the boundary between textile and skin, human and new species.
Anne StenrosCDO
City of Helsinki
Anne Stenros graduated as Master of Architecture and she has the doctorate in technology. She has acted as a Managing Director of Design Forum Finland and the Executive Director of Hong Kong Design Centre. During the past ten years 2010-15, she was the Design Director at KONE Corporation, a world leading elevator and escalator company. In 2016 she held a professorship at the Aalto University School of Business as a director of the IDBM International Design Business Management Master program. Since September 2016 she has been appointed as the chief design officer CDO of the city of Helsinki. She has also been appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (FRSA, London).
Kirsi NiinimäkiAssociate Professor in Fashion Research / D.A.
Aalto University
School of Art Design and Architecture
Kirsi Niinimäki is Associate Professor in Fashion research in Aalto University. She runs the research group Fashion/Textile Futures. The group approaches research in the field of fashion, clothing and textiles in multi-faceted ways. A strong research focus is on sustainable fashion and textiles, but group members’ research activities also encompass material-based research, aesthetics and creativity studies, practice-based research, and strategic fashion and textile design. The group is involved in several significant research projects, which integrate closed loop and circular economy approaches in fashion and textile systems.
Professor Niinimäki’s own research aims towards a new, holistic understanding in the field of sustainable fashion and textiles and therefore she investigates the connection between design, manufacturing systems, business models and consumption habits. She has a wide publication list in top level scientific journals and conferences and she has been a visiting researcher e.g. in Delft Technical University Netherlands, Eindhoven Technical University Netherlands, Oklahoma State University USA and in EWHA University, South-Korea.
Trish Hayes-DanitzSr. Developer, Materials
VF Global Innovation Center, Alameda, CA, USA
Trish Hayes-Danitz BS, Textile Engineering, MS, Materials Engineering, works make connections between design and science. She has designed textile products in a wide variety of markets—activewear, infantwear, draperies, upholstery, and recently e-textiles. Working from a good vocabulary in the aesthetic properties of materials, she is interested in characterizing the materials from the perspective of a materials scientist to understand and expand the possibilities.
Debera JohnsonExecutive Director
Pratt Institute | Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator
Debera Johnson is the executive director of the Center for Sustainable Design Studies (CSDS) at Pratt Institute in NYC and has has been integrating sustainability into academics, research and practice for over 15 years. Debera started her educational career as Chair of the Industrial Design program at Pratt from 1997-2005 and founded the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation in 2002. In 2008 she stepped into the role of Academic Director of Sustainability and was the Principal Investigator for a $500K “Living Labs” federal FIPSE higher education award to support the integration of sustainable best practices into curriculum development and campus projects. During this time she founded PALS a collaboration between 35 art and design universities focused on sharing academic progress in teaching sustainability.
In October of 2013 Debera received funding of $2.2 million to develop a new Pratt initiative, the Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator. The BF+DA is hub for ethical design, research and entrepreneurship that mentors emerging design-based ventures into viable triple bottom line businesses. It houses an advanced technology apparel production lab that is open to the public and the BF+DA Research Fellow program supports research and development focused on the intersection of sustainability, technology, entrepreneurship and production in the apparel industry.
Lenneke LangenhuijsenBuro Belen, Materializers, (NL)
PHILOSOPHY
BELéN designs from material. By broadening and expanding the material qualities of spaces, objects and products, BELéN creates tangible design for the future. Central to their approach are the intuitive, emotional and physical aspects of design, resulting in products and
visions that show unexpected applications of material and colours, as well as revaluations of conventional techniques. BELéN works on material and colour concepts in the field of product design, interior design and exhibition design.
They have been commissioned by Georg Jensen, Villa Noailles Hyères, Textiellab Tilburg, amongst others. Their work has been exhibited at Textile Museum Tilburg, Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, Palazzo Clerici Milano.
WHO
BELéN is established by Brecht Duijf and Lenneke Langenhuijsen, who met each other at the Design Academy Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
After graduating cum laude at the Design Academy Eindhoven, Brecht started to work as part-time designer for Forbo Flooring. After a few
years of free-lance designer she established her garment label 18-11-81 (www.18-11-81.com [1]) in 2014. In 2010 she won a Calvijn Classiscs awards, in 2012 her business was funded by BKVB.
Lenneke graduated cum laude at the Design Academy Eindhoven with her project Wooden Textiles. This project is professionalized and established in 2014. Lenneke was one of the finalists in the Doen Material Prize in 2011, the Green Design Competition in 2012 and won Open Design Italia in 2013.
Together, Brecht and Lenneke received a subsidy form the DOEN Foundation for ‘creative sustainable entrepreneurs’.
Currently they are teaching at Design Academy Eindhoven and Artemis Akademie Amsterdam.
Anna van der LeiUniversity lecturer in Contemporary Design
Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture (NL / FIN)
Anna van der Lei (1984 Amsterdam), a mix of Dutch and Finnish nationality, is a lecturer in contemporary design at the Aalto University.
In 2008 she graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven, after which she worked for a major design brand in London before starting her own design practice in 2010.
As a designer Anna’s work varies from analog material studies to explorations in the technological world. Her teaching reflects the contemporary and experimental approach she has towards design.
Anna ValtonenDean of Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture (FIN)
Anna Valtonen in currently Dean of Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, as well as Vice President of Art and Creative Practices in Aalto. Her research interests are in design&society, its history and future, and on the role of designers within. Previously Valtonen has been the Rector of Umeå Institute of Design (UID), Umeå University, in Sweden. She has also worked extensively within industry, and holds many positions of trust within universities, organisations and corporations.
Jaana BeidlerAssociate Professor of Color and Material Design Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture
(FIN)
Jaana Beidler returned back to her native Finland in 2010 after twenty+ years design career in the United States where she lead color and material design teams and provided design leadership and vision at global, industry-leading brands, such as Nike Inc, Patagonia and Esprit. Upon her return to Finland Ms Beidler held the position of Head of Color and Material Design for Nokia/Microsoft Smart Devices and Gear. She joined Aalto University’s School of Art, Design and Architecture as an Associate Professor of Color and Material Design in September 2014.
“At Aalto University we have a multidisciplinary approach across design, science, engineering and business that leads to fresh ideas, unexpected applications, unique aesthetics and breakthrough innovations. Perfectly engineered and highly functional products that meet the customer expectations do not cut it any longer. The bar is set higher. To succeed in the economies of the 21st century, we need to focus on identity and emotion and create irresistible products and services that surprise, delight and exceed expectations.”
“I believe that Color and Material Design Mastery is among the most important design skills of the 21st century. It leads creative direction and business strategy, drives new forms and better functionality and impacts sustainability. The senso-aesthetic properties of color and materials build strong emotional connections between products, environments, brands and people.”