Exploring developments in design education and practice in Finland during the 1960s and 1970s, The Socially Responsible Designer gives a voice to a generation that embraced social, political and environmental values. In the face of a rapidly industrialising and urbanising society, designers began to pursue a multi-disciplinary and academic field to replace what they considered an old-fashioned focus on aesthetics and craft skills. They became aware of the two contradictory faces of design: one that was complicit in overproduction, overconsumption and social inequality, and the other capable of examining, addressing and solving these issues.

Shedding light on formative decades of ethical thinking, this book reveals how environmental concerns, feelings of social responsibility and politically leftist motivations were the driving force among a community of students, designers and organisations. Based on extensive and original archival research, Kaisu Savola's study provides a counterpoint to the commonly seen selection of highly aestheticized objects that have become synonymous with Finnish and Scandinavian design. Instead, she analyses a range of case studies including anonymous student work, rural craft traditions, temporary installations, seminar posters, industrial machinery, and workplace ergonomics. Savola considers the development of design culture within education, the student movement, socialist ideologies and the birth of modern design activism.

Situating these works against the backdrop of changes in post-war society and the wave of social and environmental responsibility that swept over the field internationally, The Socially Responsible Designer offers an alternative narrative of Finnish design. Savola argues that, at present time, there is an equally urgent need to see design as a profession able to reconsider and realign its goals and values.