cultural activities
14
finnish cultural foundation
annual report 2012–2013
T
he design project for the Nation-
al Police Board aimed to develop
a patrol van better suited for on-
line work, client service and equipment
storage.
Risto Laine,
the National Police Board
“The designers travelled round with pa-
trols a dozen or so times, observing what
they did at different times in the shift. They
gave us an extremely good breakdown of
what the patrols need: how they move
about in the van and put their hand on
the things they need. This gave us an in-
sider view, which hopefully strengthened
the faith the policemen feel that the Police
Board is trying to provide themwith tools
that really work.
“By the end of the Designed Solutions
programme we had 3D designs for the van
interior. Plywood models have since been
made of these, and the prototype will be
used in various parts of Finland for the
whole of 2014. The van honed after the
feedback has come in will possibly go into
serial production in 2016.
“We became familiar with the de-
sign concepts and the stages in the pro-
ject through observing the designers at
work. The project was so successful that
it will give us the confidence to buy corre-
sponding services in the future, too – we
have in fact already used the same design
agency in choosing the colour scheme for
the new police van.”
Nikolai Ruola,
NR Design Oy
“This was a new departure for me in many
ways. Before, I’d mainly designed boats
and boat interiors, and my clients had
A functional police van
been in the private sector. Networking
with other designers was also a good new
experience. When you form your project
team to suit a specific project, the client
gets precisely the expertise they need.
“People maybe really only understand
design properly when they see how the
process works. The Police Board came to
it with a really open mind: they trusted
our know-how and gave us a sufficient-
ly free hand and the necessary support.
“When you’re designing, practicality
and feasibility are more important than
artistic vision. This project was interest-
ing and pleasantly challenging, and the
van interior was completely remodelled.
But we won’t really knowwhether the job
was successful until the patrols have had
a chance to test the prototype van in their
everyday work. Because it’s them we’re
designing for.”
