Promises, Actions, and Impact – MUOVA at the Heart of Innovation for 35 Years

In 2023, VAMK’s design unit, MUOVA Design Center, celebrated its 35th anniversary. In this celebratory year, we challenged ourselves and our partners to join a collective IMPACT change campaign focusing on future makers.

The IMPACT’23 change campaign brought young people with their needs and aspirations to the core of the innovation ecosystem and regional development. Young participants helped identify challenges crucial for regional development and attractiveness during an engaging breakfast event, the Design Buffet, on November 16th, 2023. Attractiveness is a stubborn problem with significant implications for the competitiveness of businesses and the vitality of the region.

We tackled these challenges in a Design Think Tank on November 23rd, 2023, collaborating with local businesses, public organizations, and youth. Together, we developed solutions that formed the basis for participants to make commitments to effect change and challenge stakeholders to collaborate. The day culminated at Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, where we celebrated MUOVA’s 35th anniversary. The change campaign was followed on social media beyond the turn of the year as promises turned into actions.

Impactful Event Concept

The IMPACT change campaign was a novel event concept made possible by the DesignPSS project, strategically funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture. In the project, we developed a toolkit for designing sustainable systems in collaboration with corporate partners. System design toolkit was deployed to companies through impactful collaboration and communication.

The change campaign was based on design thinking, where development begins by identifying relevant problems to solve for the target audience. Particularly stubborn problems are solved through co-development with partners. The event concept connected the goals of companies and regional organizations with the requirements of a sustainable ecosystem. The event concept will be continued annually as a means to strengthen collaboration, interaction, and design expertise in the region.

Miia Lammi
Development Manager, Design Center MUOVA, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences