Next week on the 21st all eyes will turn on Helsinki and Aalto University as the leader in colour and material design and innovation! Designing Soul brings world-class colour and material designers and artists from multitude of businesses and fields to Helsinki.

Speakers from Nike, Patagonia, Microsoft and more will share their expertise in creating soul for physical and digital products and environments through colour and material design.

Designing Soul Event showcases recent colour and material design explorations and masterpieces by Aalto’s Design students and celebrates the new focus in Colours and Materials at the Department of Design in Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design and Architecture. In the next academic year of 2015/16 four CMD related courses will be offered and most of them available across the School of Arts, Design and Architecture as well as for the students from Aalto’s business, marketing, engineering and science schools.The Designing Soul will be a yearly conference with it’s first edition now in May of 2015. It functions as a platform for sharing the newest research and innovation in colour and material design, a training platform for existing companies and students and produce positive spillovers on the community and build strong relationships across industries worldwide.

Colour and Material Design mastery is one of 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 colour and materials build strong emotional connections between products, environments, brands and people.

‘A company can no longer differentiate or succeed in the marketplace by simply fulfilling a need and offering functionality, or competing with price and convenience. When consumers decide on a purchase, they judge the authenticity – the soul – of the product and the company as much – in not more than – price, quality, functionality and availability.’ Jaana Beidler, Colour and Material professor at the school of design.

Colour and Material Design excellence will be increasingly sought after skill and sensitivity across all industries and disciplines. The emerging colour and material technologies will fire the imaginations of designers, encourage them to look beyond existing boundaries, anticipate future needs and desires, take bold, informed risks, explore and offer creative perspectives into our future and what it means to be human.

Quote from press release.