Opinion
The third success story of Finnish design is legal
What are the success stories of Finnish design and what's the newest? Let Dot. and Dottir Attorneys CEO Antti Innanen explain.
Finnish design is known for its simplicity and stylishness. Brands and names like Artek, Iittala, Alvar Aalto and Minna Parikka have helped introduce Finnish design internationally, and it’s turned into a success story.
On top of this, Finnish companies have been able to utilise the designers’ ways of thinking. When traditional design shapes spaces and products, strategic design looks at processes and decision-making. Many Finnish service, information and strategic designers are top-notch even by international comparison – which has become the second success story in Finnish design.
Now, we’re witnessing the birth of the third success story that draws from the traditions of design as well as the values of Finnish society: legal design. It aims to bring strategic design into legal processes. Simply put, legal design means that legal services and products, such as contracts, can be clear and comprehensible. The magic happens when design thinking, legal expertise, digitalisation and new technologies hit the blender.
Finland is at the forefront of legal design with the world’s largest legal design conference, the Legal Design Summit, and an abundance of specialists and companies. How and why is that?
One of the principles of Finnish society and its stability is a reliable, open and equal legal system. Globally speaking, Finland’s special combination of design and fairness enables the country to be and become a leading design country – including in the legal sense.
Currently legal services aren’t well designed. In general, modern services are digital and user-centred – but the legal world is just text with no recent remarkable innovations. Contracts can be long and difficult to understand, and legal knowledge has been monopolised into the hands of lawyers.
The legal market is huge, and hence better design poses both financial and societal opportunities for Finnish companies internationally. Finnish design exports aren’t limited to Aalto vases and other products; we can also teach thinking based on a combination of Finnish values.
The third design success story has seen daylight.