Tiina Hakala was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1983 during a cold winter night. Exactly one year after this she learnt to walk and exactly four year from this she made her first piece of furniture, a pink sofa for her Barbie dolls with the help from her mother. Since then making became very important to her, objects made more sense than other things in life.

As a designer Tiina is interested how people use objects, how for some people a chair might work as a bookstand or how a bed might be used for storing clothes. Tiina believes that these habits and the way we ‘misuse’ objects (unintentional design) make things around us more personal and has been a base for many of her projects. Tiina explores and makes sense of the physical world surrounding us through designed items, simply what makes home a home or an office an office. One of her key factors in designing are the facts that make personal spaces individual.

Tiina graduated from University College for the Creative Arts with BA (Hons) degree in furniture and product design, 2008. She lives and works in London and sometimes dreams about moving back to Helsinki.

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Thanks for Johnny kangasniemi And Iiro muttilainen for photographs.