The Finnish designer Vesa Honkonen was the first speaker on stage at this weeks FutureDesignDays Light Now event in Stockholm. And he immediately set the level of the conference. With an inspirational speech he caught the crowd’s full attention. Honkonen told us he is learning new things every day, and that light design is very much like making good music.

Just like the silence between two sounds makes the music really dynamic, the darkness between two lights makes the design more energetic. He also talked about how he gets the inspiration from almost anything. By letting his friend do a crazy dance in the snow he got the inspiration to the design of a square in a Chinese town. William Shakespeare’s story about Romeo and Juliet was a source of inspiration for Vesa when he re-designed the city centre of Raisio, Finland. A yellow blanket from Ikea gave him the idea of a golden plaza in Östersund. Even his dreams and fantasies play an important role in his design work. And of course the music. Sounds and music are always important in Vesa’s work. And once again he returned to the fact that it is what happens in between that really matters. That’s what makes the sounds or lightings to get their true recognition.