“Everyone remembers the first Nokia,” says Mark Mason, who joined the telecoms design team in its 1990s heyday. “When you say the name, it brings back a memory.”
This is not as hyperbolic as it sounds – in 1998, the Finnish consumer electronics company was the bestselling phone brand in the world, with 40% of the world market and 70% of the UK market.
Nokia’s cultural impact will first be properly recognized in January when the company’s record will be available. Aalto University of Finland has acquired the archive and will make it available through a curated portal online as well as set up a display on its campus in Espoo.
While Nokia’s impact on Finland is unquestionable – Research by the Finnish Economic Institute (Etla) reports that it has contributed a quarter of Finland’s economic growth between 1998 and 2007 – the international value of pop culture brands cannot be denied.
“Nokia was one of the first phone companies to really emphasize design and differentiation, with everything from very affordable phones to cutting-edge handsets,” says Jonathan Bell, tech editor. Wallpaper* magazine “In the world before Apple, Google and even Samsung, they stood above all other players.”
Nokia Factory Launch Ringtone – The 1902 Gran Waltz by Francisco Tárrega – was so ubiquitous in the 1990s and 2000s the birds taught her to sing. In 2009, it was reported that the song was heard an estimated 1.8bn times a day around the world – the equivalent of 20,000 times a second.
The Nokia 8110 chocolate – more commonly known as the Banana – had a starring role in the 1999 film Matrix. The brand quickly became imbued with a wealth of culture.
Style journalist Murray Healy worked on The Face magazine in the 90s by Nokia’s first writer and now editorial director at the format of the title Perfect. “In the late 90s, when these dull, heavy, expensive and expensive mini-monoliths became associated with yuppies, cheap, curvy, happy-go-lucky machines that turned out to be a bit of a toy,” he says. “The pocket is very large, the fight lasts forever and seems indestructible.”
Healy says the Nokia 3210 – released in 1999 – was key in helping usher in the culture of complete customization, with its colorful convertible case. “You can even get your favorite band’s name printed on it.”
Nokia was also the first mobile phone manufacturer to support SMS texting, and they are perfectly designed for smartphone keyboards.
“All of these factors gave it an immediate appeal for the youth market, who were already accustomed to the prohibitive costs of getting around cell phones via texting,” says Healy.
Mason, who has worked at Nokia for 20 years and is now a policy expert for the UK’s design The council, he says, was a fantastic time for creativity. “We created a design language early on that put people at the center. Our mantra was ‘human technology’ and Nokia’s slogan was ‘connecting people.’
The Aalto University archive includes commercial images, sketches, trade fairs and presentations providing a new insight into what were once the world’s most innovative companies.
Anna Valtonen is the lead researcher in the Nokia design archive and a former designer at the company. The most expensive artifact in his records are the audio tapes of the designers describing what they worked on. “In combination with the visual material, it creates a more human story. It not only gives color to documents, but what designers are trying to achieve.”
Nokia’s operating profit was $4bn by 1999, but the ride was a long one.
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Ben Wood, chief analyst and marketing officer of CCS Insights, says: “It’s a sad story of a once great company that not only defined but dominated the industry for over a decade, only to fade into oblivion faster than anyone could have imagined.”
Nokia’s decline is down to a combination of factors. Complacency played a big role – the company failed to accept new approaches, especially the competitive threat posed by more powerful touchscreens such as the iPhone.
From 2007 onwards, Nokia’s market value declined by about 90% and was bought by Microsoft in 2013.
Nokia’s design portfolio is a window to a time when personal devices and technology were seen as purely positive additions to family life and well-being. But its clunky, chunky phones are now finding a new audience among young people whose parents have outgrown the brand and now want to give their children less access to social media.
Nokia smartphones have been in production since 2016, made by Human Mobile Devices – HMD – an independent Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, largely staffed by former Nokia employees.
Valtonen said the work in the archive gives him more than a sense of nostalgia. “It made me feel more pregnant – and against the future – than anything else. So many changes in technology are happening at such a fast pace that it’s important to stop and see all the work that goes on behind the scenes. I hope the material inspires people and pushes them to see the possibility of innovation.
Mason’s hope is more nostalgic. “I can’t rave enough about my Nokia time. It was like a family and we created design icons. I hope people dig out the old chocolate in the drawer – they probably still work. Cut me down and I’ll bleed pure Nokia blue blood.”