BIOGRAPHY
Riku Taneli Toivonen is a Helsinki-based furniture and product designer with a background in diverse forms of carpentry including theatre sets and cabinet making. In 2016 Riku completed his bachelor’s in furniture design at the Institute of Design in Lahti and his master’s in product design from the Royal College of Art London in 2019. Before his academic studies Riku finished carpentry school and became a cabinet maker.
Today Riku is self-employed in the field of furniture and interior design. Currently Riku is also teaching design and art for cabinet maker students and interior designers in vocational school Luksia.
In his work as a designer, Riku especially enjoys solving problems, whether the starting point is production related, functional, visual, or sustainable development. Riku considers the richness of the designer’s work to be the versatility of the tasks, combining research, design, ideation, visualization, product development and prototyping. In his practice Riku tries to explore and question the norms of human behavior and how we interact with objects and products in everyday life. Riku is always motivated to learn new things, challenge himself and thereby develop his skills.
In design Rikus’ goal is to meet everyday challenges with a pinch of humour, thereby making life a bit happier. Riku strives for functionality, aesthetics as well as durability and timelessness. Finnish culture as well as Riku’s background as a wood artisan can be seen in his design.