Ruth Kupiainen

Started from a traditional product design and passion for product inventions and material experimentations – found myself in services – paused at social design and enjoying it – looking forward to exploring speculative design and alternative future narratives.

As a designer, I am inspired by mundane everyday moments. By suggesting different ways in performing them, I aim to alter people’s behaviours and habits. Observing how these interventions may impact on the wider societal issues, my projects tend to celebrate the little big things.

The visual ethnographic research and user engagement are in the centre of my projects and design process. This curios and emphatic approach in design thinking helps me hear people’s stories, through the jungle of any design challenge, and tell them in a meaningful way.

My Self-Initiated project looks at how to tackle food waste issue by increasing people’s appreciation for food and creating a base for positive food experiences. The user research led me to reverse engineer to find the roots of our neglecting attitudes towards the food. I understood that the focus group should be children. By creating a rich taste library culture and evolving children’s taste intelligence from a young age, the appreciation will become an integral part of their food culture.

The ‘Future Experiences’ project observes the Sustainable Development from the environmental point of view and is a story about storytelling. It celebrates and is inspired by how stories are told and offers a way to create situations where these stories can be shared. In 2030, people displaced from rural and city areas by extreme nature circumstances are moving to the ‘Sustainable Belt’ – a new in-between living area. Regardless the different backgrounds, new inhabitants are encouraged to nurture and share the life skills of the past to shape their new future story.