Helsinki Named 2012 World Design Capital

Here are the very few things I know about Finland: it's cold and covered in forests, people are pale and highly educated, and they have an array of deeply frightening death metal bands. Now you can add World Design Capital to that list, because Helsinki, Finland's capital, has just been awarded the 2012 title by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.

Helsinki, proclaimed the world's most livable city by Monocle, won due to its ability to use the country's creative and artistic industries to promote economic growth, as opposed to other country's attempts at killing them off to try and save costs. Combining beautiful landscape with efficient infrastructure and socially conscious urban planning, design has been an integral part of life in Helsinki for years and manifests itself in furniture, jewelry, interior design and architecture.

Festivities will last for a year and include more than 300 events and programs in and around Helsinki, officially beginning on New Year's Eve with a celebration in Helsinki's Senate Square. The activities will include not only designers and creative leaders but the entire Finnish community, and will also feature traveling exhibits in St Petersburg, Taipei, London, Berlin and Tokyo.

In a highly sensible and Scandinavian way, Helsinki has vowed that the year won't be a fireworks display of events and shows, but a deeper attempt to explore sustainable design from a broad perspective and how design can be made better, easier, more functional and accessible to everybody. If there was ever a time to take a trip to Helsinki, looks like next year might be it.

[Via Cool Hunting]