“For me, form alone is never the start of the design process. More than anything, I look at the life of the object: what is it used for and how. What language does the object speak, how is it made, and how can it be made better? Form is only one part of the whole, of the object's DNA. The final product always has to be more than the sum of its parts.” Heikki Ruoho (b. 1969) is an industrial and furniture designer. He received his formal education at the Lahti Institute of Design, and at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (nowadays called: Aalto University, school of Art, Design and Architecture). Ruoho has worked as a freelance designer since 1997. In 2003, he and Teemu Järvi set up the Järvi & Ruoho design office. Alongside his design work, Ruoho lectures and teaches product and furniture design.