In October 1998 Proventus Design officially launched Snowcrash – a new design company that were to share the same umbrella as Artek, Kinnasand AB and Kinnasand Interieur Textil GmbH. Snowcrash was originally the name of an exhibition, initiated by the young Finnish architects and designers Teppo Asikainen, Timo Salli, Ilkka Suppanen and Ilkka Terho, during Salone del Mobile in Milan in 1997. The exhibition featured a wide range of objects from lamps and cabinets to tables and seating furniture, that boldly suggested to visitors new ways of working and socialise with each other in a soon to become all digitalised world. These light, moveable and transparent designs broke with the traditional nordic aesthetic by using unconventional high-tech materials paired with adventurous constructions, and it was described in the world media as groundbreaking.

Proventus Design acted out of the conviction that there is never a lack of creativity and ideas, but often the means to turn them into a reality to make an impact on a larger scale. And so with industrial know-how and financial resources, it provided the necessary support for their design companies to continue to innovate while simultaneously evolve on an international market. Having seen and loved the exhibition in Milan, Proventus Design approached the group of Finnish creatives with an offer to turn Snowcrash into an actual production company. After an agreement was reached an office was set up in Växjö, and manufacturing for several of the designs in the exhibition was sourced in this area to form the foundation of a collection. In February 1999 Proventus Design introduced Snowcrash as a company at the Stockholm Furniture Fair, sharing a stand with Artek and Kinnasand. Here, news such as the pendant lamp Hi-Wave (1999) by Ilkka Suppanen presented new possibilities of using polyester fabric, and the portable Firebox (1999) by Timo Salli poetically displayed how we can control the elements while it simultaneously introduced a new product category – non-existent at the time but found in most warehouses of household goods today.

Snowcrash unsentimental and optimistic view on art and technology echoed the spirit of Artek’s founders. And in 2000 Proventus Design changed its name to Art & Technology by Proventus to further put emphasis on their mission statement. It was also at the turn of the millennium that the IT-bubble, which had been growing since the introduction of Netscape on the American stock market in 1995, began to deflate. Sweden was defined as the leading example of a culture that successfully converted to a digital and wireless society. New tech-startups were driving the economy into a frenzy and Snowcrash, which by now had moved their office to Stockholm, was both mentally and geographically at the center of this rapid economic, social and cultural change.

The international reputation of Snowcrash grew and in February 2001 Snowcrash was invited by the curator Paola Antonelli to exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in the exhibition Workspheres, which discussed and presented “innovative design solutions for the workplace of the near future”. That same year, Snowcrash moved into their new office in Hammarby Sjöstad, designed by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter together with Ulrika Ljungberg at Snowcrash. This was a physical representation of Snowcrash ideas of a human centered office space, and it was preceded by thorough studies of peoples wellbeing in an office environment. In order to intuitively experience an even flow of space, there were no thresholds in doorways. A glass construction with a semi-transparent pattern on the surface created a core in the office that offered different levels of privacy, from the open communal meeting room to the sound proofed solitary booth. The reception area functioned as an exhibition space for prototypes so that employees and visitors could give feedback on progress, and the overall result received first prize for best interior/environmental design by the international Core Design Awards in 2001.

Snowcrash also shared a showroom with Artek and Kinnasand on Skeppsbron in Stockholm and there were many positive interactions between the subsidiaries. Some designs such as the chair Kromoson (1998) by Jan Tromp initially meant for Artek, entered the Snowcrash collection and one of Snowcrash big sellers, the acoustic panel Swell (1999) by Teppo Asikainen, was originally designed for the interior of Pravda, the adjoining restaurant to the Artek showroom on Esplanaden in Helsinki. The American textile artist Sheila Hicks who in the 1990s had been appointed chairman of the board at Kinnasand, became an advisor to Snowcrash and the Swedish architect Ulrika Mårtensson who had been developing sound absorbing textiles at Kinnasand, finalised her research at Snowcrash. Several other engagements within Proventus also nurtured Snowcrash. The Israeli designer Arik Levy, who had been creating scenography for the Batsheva Dance Company, joined Snowcrash to develop concepts and furniture. And technicians from the Jewish Theatre in Stockholm advised on projects such as Cloud (2002) designed by the Swedish designer Monica Förster – an inflatable mobile meeting room which later was listed by Time Magazine as one of the best new inventions in 2004.

With time Snowcrash vital and necessary experiments in design had taken the company in an exciting but unknown direction. This affected the possibilities to establish a working infrastructure for production and logistics. And despite the immense recognition Snowcrash received, it could not be matched by sustainable sales. However, like so many of the pioneering companies that entered the IT era, even though Snowcrash failed to find its modell in the “the new economy”, it succeeded in realising ideas that were ahead of its time. Like the pendant lamp Globlow LED (2000) by Vesa Hinkola, Markus Nevalainen, Rane Vaskivuori, which not only championed the use of LEDs but also the possibility to control objects with your phone. In 2003 the operations in Snowcrash had to be concluded, the rights to the designs went back to the designers and some products continued a life with other producers. In 2021, Nationalmuseum, Sweden’s museum of art and design, produced a comprehensive exhibition about the story of Snowcrash, featuring a large portion of the visionary collection that was made during the years 1997-2003.