Kaj Franck

On November 9, 1911, Kaj Franck was born in the Finnish city of Vyborg . That he would later become a designer is perhaps not very surprising, as he was the grandson of designer Johan Jacob Ahrenberg. Ahrenberg was a well-known architect and writer who created the first designs for products of the Arabia porcelain factory. So designing was in the family! Like his grandfather, Franck also began working in the service of the Arabia porcelain factory. For Arabia among other things, he designed the world-famous Kilta Tableware .

In addition to his work at the Arabia porcelain factory, Franck also became artistic director at the glass factory Iittala Nuutajärvi. Meanwhile Iittala grown into a world-renowned company in part because of Franck. Due to the influence he had within the design world, more and more designs from the 1960s onwards were made with simple and clean forms. Since then, this has been seen as typical characteristics of Finnish design. Well-known collections designed by Kaj Franck are: Iittala Teema, Iittala Kartio.