The Asko magazine 1955-1964

I’m always on the lookout for old design magazines and catalogues as they always tidbits and valuable information about items that might not yet be identified or even known.

Many years ago I started looking for a thin magazine issued four times per year between 1955 and 1964 by the company Asko Tehtaat Oy, which I’ve previously written about. The magazine was kind of a promotional-informational hybrid, which served as inspiration in the midst of Finland’s prospering urbanization as people decorated their homes.

The managing director of Asko, Aukusti Asko-Avonius (1887-1965), writes in the first issue:

There is never too much written about the home. Not even though all womens’ magazines would be filled about articles about the home. We so easily become blind to our homes, to its spirit and to its interior decorations. Our lives go from one day to the next, we have chairs and tables and we function as well as we always have. We grow rigid, and all the while the world progresses and evolves around us. 

As this country’s largest furniture manufacturer we have decided to start this publication to serve as a inspiration for everyone who share an interest in the development of their homes, not forgetting those who do not have the space or the means at their disposal. 

Of course the intention was to sell more furniture, and specifically ones made by Asko, but it is still an fascinating piece of history, and it is to my knowledge the only publication of its kind to have been made in Finland. Why it was closed down in 1964, just on the brink of the company’s international breakthrough is anyone’s guess. You can read the first number from 1955 below and find more of them on Issuu.

http://issuu.com/mrdesigncatalogues/docs/asko_lehti_1-1955?e=7731341/35300201