Form Function Finland

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Magazines : Form Function Finland
Interview : Anne Veinola / Editor in chief

When was your magazine first published?
In 1980

Who's idea or concept was it?
I don't know actually the person but the idea was to have a magazine that would tell about Finnish visual culture - art, design and architecture - to the foreign public. There are two other magazines, Books from Finland and Finnish Music Quarterly, that cover the respective fields of Finnish cultural life. I believe all these three magazines get public money, though
I'm not quite sure (we do, from the Ministries of Education, Trade and Industry and Foreign Affairs).

Would you say that your magazine now is different from the first edition?
Well, of course the layout and the size have changed during the years... and of course each Editor-in-Chief has his or her own ideas about the things presented in the mag. But the basic concept is the same.

How would you present your magazine to our readers who don't know it?
From our webpage:
Published in English, Form Function Finland specializes in Finnish design, architecture and the visual arts. Its Finnish and world-wide readership includes the general public, design experts, professional designers and decision-makers interested in Finnish culture. Founded in 1980, Form Function Finland is read in some 70 countries around the world.

Form Function Finland is issued on a quarterly basis with specific themes related to current events and phenomena in design. We present top-level products in industrial design, as well as unique crafts pieces, classics, and new names, the people behind the design, and latest research. Our contributors are experts in the field - and expertise guarantees quality and reliability.

Do you have any competitors? if so, who are they?
No, we do not. The Finnish Architectural Review nowadays has English texts, earlier it had only supplementaries. There are some magazines in English writing about Finnish design but they mostly cover other topics, too, lifestyle and fashion, for instance.

Is your magazine distributed all over Finland?
Only at the Academic Bookstore. Subscriptions of course.

Do you know if it is available abroad?
Again, mostly by subscribing. We have several international agents sellingn subscriptions all over the world.

If our readers who live abroad would like to subscribe, how could they proceed?
See the inside cover of the magazine. It gives contact information both for the Academic Bookstore and the e-mail address of the editorial office.

How is the situation with the Finnish press (newspapers, magazines) nowadays?
Well, quite a big question! I'm afraid I don't know the situation so well that I could comment it.

Would you say that the "traditional magazines" suffer or benefit from the internet?
Again, see above. At least it is very hard to have a profitable web magazine - people prefer paying for a "paper magazine" to paying for electronic mags.

Do you have a web site?
Yes, at www.designforum.fi , just click Form Function's button. We are currently enlarging the pages but in favor of Finnish-speaking readers. We, that is the publisher, Design Forum Finland / The Finnish Society for Crafts and Design, also have a web magazine, News Forum, on our pages but it's mainly in Finnish.

What kind of information do you publish on-line?
FFF: Contents and some articles
News Forum: News, articles, columns, interviews, Future Forum (=upcoming talents) - everything about design in Finland and abroad (but only in Finnish, I'm afraid!)

Have you ever considered the possibility to propose an identical version of your magazine in an electronic format?
Yes - but would people pay for it? See above about the difficulties of web magazines.

And to conclude this interview, what are the projects for the magazine in the near future?
To enlarge the Finnish-speaking pages of the magazine.

Interview by Vincent Lefrançois - 2003