In 1997, Nokia designed a phone for children shaped like Winnie the Pooh. About 12 years later, the company dreamed of a phone that could stretch across your wrist and even change its appearance. These ideas never made it to the public, but now they're available for you to view at the Nokia Design Archive.
Launched today, Nokia Design Archive Developed by Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. The online portal contains about 700 exhibits. However, the entire scope of the archive amounts to 20,000 artifacts, so what is currently available on the website “is just the tip of the iceberg”, says Anna Valtonen, principal researcher at the Nokia Design Archive. know. Valtonen previously spent 12 years at Nokia, including serving as head of design research and foresight.
Most of the exhibits date from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, when electronics became more compact and the Internet made mobile computing possible. The new era of interpersonal communication ushered in a decade of wild experimentation at Nokia, where designers were encouraged to consider how this new technology could fit into people's lives. depending on their age group, interests and culture. “If you were a teenager on the East Coast of America, what would you want? Or if you are an old lady in India, what is important to you?” Valtonen said.
The archive contextualizes crowd favorites like “bricks,” or Neo’s “banana phone.” as seen in Matrixor even Nokia 5110Where is the game? Snake first appeared. It also has fascinating concepts that have fallen into oblivion or remained unknown until now.
Here are some highlights from the collection.