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In the 1990s and early 2000s, around the globe, millions of people bought their first mobile phone. These devices weren’t smart. We couldn’t take photos, share content or instantly answer any question. But for the first time, everyday people could chat on the go, send a text and play Snake. The impact on the way we lived would be transformative. 

Aalto University in Finland, birthplace of Nokia Mobile Phones, today launches the Nokia Design Archive, offering unique insight into the inner workings of a technology company that changed how we connect with the world. At a pivotal point in our relationship with technology, the archive provides a unique opportunity for understanding how we got where we are, and how we should move forward, says lead researcher Professor Anna Valtonen.

‘Every large global company is trying to understand what drives people, how we see the world around us — but you don’t want to let anyone else in on this thinking. It’s so important, but it just doesn’t leak,” says Valtonen. “The archive is one of the first opportunities we have to see the work that every organisation does behind-the-scenes.’

Now freely accessible from aalto.fi/nokia-design-archive the Archive’s digital portal holds a wealth of sketches, photographs, presentations, interviews and more, spanning the ‘golden era’ of a company that once laid claim to almost half the global market share in smartphones. Visualisations and expert analysis guide visitors through over 700 curated entries spanning from the mid-90s to 2017 — with an uncurated repository containing some 20,000 items and 959GB of born-digital files — the content licensed from Microsoft Mobile for research and education purposes when Nokia’s handset operations were put to rest and the brand relaunched under a different parent company.

Valtonen was herself involved in archiving design processes at the company over 20 years ago, working in design in what was then a burgeoning new tech company. Original presentations, sketches and renderings, including her own, now comprise some of the fascinating entries that can be explored by the public.

‘What we had at the time were phones with black and white screens that could take calls and send a text message. At the time, we were asking: Could the mobile phone be something more? What are our wildest dreams for what a phone could do?’ she remembers. From inbuilt cameras, to primitive QR codes, location sharing and video calls, much of what designers dreamed up, and concretely opened up for discussion, has become a reality — for better or worse.

The Aalto University researchers behind the project include designers, design historians, and organisation and management scholars, each bringing their own expert lens to the archive and its contents. 

‘When we started the project, the focus was on objects. As we began going through the material, we soon realised that it was about people,’ says design historian Kaisu Savola.  

There is a special value in exploring such a huge qualitative data set, really lifting the lid on the ideas and the processes from a human and not just a technological angle, adds Professor Guy Julier, whose research focuses on the global societal impact of design.

‘The archive, and the research going on around its contents, challenges the idea that technologies and their formulations are hidden away in black boxes, only accessible to experts or the powerful. At the moment, there is not enough creative exploration around our options — like they were doing at Nokia — or discussion that really considers people’s different needs and concerns, not just the interests of global corporations or governments,’ he says. 

As debate on the impacts of social media as well as developments in artificial intelligence take centre stage, Julier hopes that the project will inject some much needed imagination into global discussions. “The archive reminds us that technologies don’t magically come into being, but are explored, envisioned, prototyped and tested not just by designers, but as part of an enormous professional operation,’ he says.

Current work on the Nokia Design Archive is just the tip of the iceberg, with researchers hoping to both develop and add to its contents over time. For Valtonen, its launch couldn’t come at a more critical time. 

‘In the early ages of Nokia, there was a genuine wish to understand people, how they live, what makes them tick,” she says. “Now we’re at a similar point of societal transformation with AI. Nobody has concretised what it is yet, but we need to get people thinking about what could be.’ 

‘The Archive reveals how designers made visions concrete so that they could be properly explored long before they became reality,” says Valtonen. “It reminds us that we do have agency and we can shape our world — by revealing the work of many people who did just that.’

The Nokia Design Archive’s digital portal is freely accessible to all, for research and education purposes beginning 15 January 2025. The Archive has been made possible by donations from Microsoft Mobile Oy and designers and by funding from The Research Council of Finland and the Kaute Foundation.