Who/what is Marimekko? A Finnish design company based in Helsinki - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Who/what is Marimekko?

• A Finnish design company based in Helsinki
• Textiles, furnishings, homewares – a lifestyle

approach

• Established during the golden age of post-war

modernism in 1951

• Artists and designers invited to create textile

designs – a collaborative approach

Marimekko’s mission

• Armi Ratia envisaged a bold

future for textile design

• Coincided with the liberation of

women in 60s, radical loose fitting designs

• Original mission is still relevant

– to bring joy to everyday moments

Marimekko’s first fashion show was held in restaurant Kalastajatorppa, Helsinki, Finland in May 20th, 1951. The fabrics were designed by several designers including Maija isola, Eelis Muona and Eeva-Inkeri Tilhe. Garments were designed by fashion designer Riitta Immonen, who had her own fashion salon / atelée in Helsinki. Photograph by Kolmio. Image courtesy Design Museum, Helsinki

CHARACTERISTICS OF MARIMEKKO

• Contrasts: urban and rural, restrained and bold, colourful and

black and white, traditional and modern.

• Founded in the early 1950s, the period known as the golden age
• f post-war modernism in Finland.
• (note: Golden Age of Couture – Paris and London were 1947-

1957)

• Emerging liberation of women from the traditional role of

housewives.

• The change in women’s fashions was particularly evident in

Marimekko clothes in the mid-1950s.

• Vuokko Nurmesniemi’s designs in 1950s: minimized use of

cuttings in clothes was typical of her designs, ensuring the

• riginal fabric design was as complete as possible. The clothes

represented a pure, new concept; they were free from the rules that constrained dress and dictated how women were supposed to look and what they should represent.

MARI and MEKKO

• The name of the company comes from the

woman’s name Mari (Mary) suffixed by the word ’mekko’ meaning dress.

• In 1951, when Marimekko was founded, the

ready-to-wear garment industry was still a relatively small sector in Finland, but over the following decades it grew to become an important player.

• Marimekko’s meteoric rise to the international

scene is without parallel in the history of Finnish textile design.

Liisa Suvanto

Designer

Liisa Suvanto (1910-1983) and a model wearing a dress designed by Suvanto, 1963 Photograph: Seppo Saves. Image courtesy Design Museum, Helsinki

Annika Rimala

Designer

This dress is made from the fabric Luukku (hatch), which was designed by Rimala in 1963. Rimala favoured minimal cuttings in the garments she designed, and in this instance

• nly half of the pattern has been

printed to the fabric. Annika Rimala (1936–2014, Finland). Sokkeli (plinth) 1963, printed cotton. Design Museum, cat.nr. 30869

Liisa Suvanto

Designer

Both the garment Kikapuu and this fabric pattern, Ruuturaita (square stripe) were designed by Liisa Suvanto. Liisa Suvanto (1910–1983, Finland) Kikapuu 1973 printed cotton Design Museum, cat.nr. 29238

MARIMEKKO PRODUCTS

• From the early 1960s – other products
• Textiles for interiors
• Utility items for the home
• Used the decorative motifs for which the

company had become famous on objects.

• Marimekko had grown to become a lifestyle

concept that would ultimately even include the built environment.

Holistic approach to design

Marimekko’s graphic, large scale patterns were to be used throughout interiors. Featured here are curtains from the Joonas collection, designed in 1961,in the home of designer Maija Isola. The designer herself is included in the image (reflection in mirror).

Interior of Maija Isola’s home in Helsinki. Image courtesy Design Museum, Helsinki

Utility items featuring Marimekko designs

Marimekko Design Team Rubber boots, 2005. Printed rubber. Design Museum nr S1029 Sami Ruotsalainen (born 1978 Finland). Oiva (superb) 2009, stoneware. Design Museum cat nr 1034

Reinterpreting vintage patterns

Annika Rimala (1936-2014, Finland) Suomo 1965, printed cotton, rubber. Design cat nr S1018. These tennis shoes were produced by Converse in 2011 using Anika Rimala’s pattern Suomo.

MARIMEKKO PATTERNS

• Marimekko is renowned for its designs for

printed fabrics.

• Patterns were designed by dozens of different

artists and designers.

• One of Marimekko’s best-known designers was

Maija Isola (1927 – 2001), who created almost 500 patterns for fabrics during her lifetime.

• Isola would vary pattern motifs inexhaustibly.

One collection could consist of small romantic motifs while the following one employed graphic designs of large patterns.

Maija Isola used several different techniques when she designed patterns, including painting patterns by hand, or using paper cut-outs.

Maija Isola painting a pattern in the 1960s. Image courtesy Design Museum, Helsinki

Installation view

Image: Installation view. Photograph: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography

Installation view – fabric samples

Image: Installation view. Photograph: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography

Installation view

Image: Installation view. Photograph: Imagine Pictures

FABRIC COLLECTIONS

• Some of Marimekko’s best-known print designs were

created in the 1960s, under the generic name ‘the architect collection’.

• These fabrics were marketed to architects and interior

designers, and aimed to complement the interiors of the stark, modernist buildings that were typical of the period.

• In 1969, Marimekko employed the Japanese designer

Katsuji Wakisaka, who was Isola’s equal as a tireless painter and artist. He developed a number of figurative motifs for patterns.

• Fujiwo Ishimoto, also from Japan, came to work for

Marimekko in 1974. He followed a more restrained and graphic approach in his print designs.

Fujiwo Ishimoto

Above: Installation view featuring designs by Ishimoto. Photograph: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography Right: Fujiwo Ishimoto, a Japanese textile and ceramic artist who joined Marimekko in

• 1974. Image courtesy of Design Museum, Helsinki

Katsuji Wakisaka

Above: Installation view, Bendigo Art Gallery, featuring the design Bo boo. Photograph: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography Right: Katsuji Wakisaka and sketch of the pattern Bo boo, 1975. Image courtesy Design Museum, Helsinki

Vuokko Nurmesniemi

Designer

Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi (born 1930) has had a lasting impact on Marimekko's clothing design, patterns and colours. With her clean-cut clothes, she shook up the dress codes and conventions of the 1950s, tuning into the women’s liberation movement at the time. Vuokko achieved a never-before-seen sophistication in colour combinations by

• verlapping colours during the printing
• process. This colour overlap in print

patterns has become a signature style for Marimekko.

Image: Installation view, Cheerful Coat, Bendigo Art Gallery. Photograph: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography

DESIGNERS

• The company’s history has often been based on the individual

contribution of strong women. Its founder, Armi Ratia, was a creative visionary and verbally talented trailblazer, and a rare female executive in a male-dominated corporate world.

• Vuokko Nurmesniemi, Maija Isola, Annika Rimala and Liisa Suvanto

were designers during Marimekko’s early years, and their individual contributions still have an impact on Marimekko’s products and identity even today.

• Marimekko’s team of designers, however, included and still includes
• men. In the 1970s, Pentti Rinta, Katsuji Wakisaka and Fujiwo

Ishimoto joined the company, providing their personal touch to Marimekko’s patterns and fashion designs. The mark of their hand is as recognizable as that of their predecessors

Key designers

Vuokko Nurmesniemi c1958 Image courtesy Design Museum, Helsinki Annika Rimala Image courtesy of Design Museum, Helsinki

International acclaim

• Early adoption by Design

Research in the USA

• Endorsed by Jackie Kennedy
• Marimekko’s repution grew

rapidly

• Armi Raita – the ‘village’ vision
• Australian connection, Marion

Hall Best

• Expanded to include a variety
• f accessories and homewares

Sports Illustrated magazine, December 26, 1960. The cover of the magazine featured future US president John F Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy. Jackie had become an admired role model in both the United States and Europe, and was shown wearing a pink Marimekko summer dress. Two dresses owned by Jackie are included in the exhibition. Image courtesy of Design Museum, Helsinki

DESIGN HOUSE HISTORY

• Armi Ratia, Marimekko’s founder was a central figure for

the company, which she often personified. Following her death in 1979, Marimekko was headed for a few years by Armi Ratia’s descendants Ristomatti and Anttimatti Ratia and Eriika Gummerus, who then relinquished their

• wnership of the company in 1985. The new owner was the

Amer Group, a multisector conglomerate. It failed in renewing the company and withdrew from ownership in

• 1991. Kirsti Paakkanen, the former owner and head of an

advertising agency, acquired ownership and launched a vigorous and successful program of reform.

• In recent years, Mika Ihamuotila, who became CEO of

Marimekko in 2008, has developed the company in an international direction.

REVIVAL OF VINTAGE PATTERNS

• The early 2000s marked a period when Marimekko returned to its
• roots. The printed patterns of the previous decades were re-

released and became popular. Mika Piirainen and Samu-Jussi Koski used a large number of Maija Isola’s print designs for fabrics for garments, while at the same time new designers, such as Maija Louekari, renewed Marimekko’s range of interior textiles.

• The Scandinavian countries are Marimekko’s traditional home area

and it has a time-honoured presence in the United States. In recent years, in the Pacific Rim countries, there has been growing public awareness of Marimekko.

• In 2014 Marimekko appointed Anna Teurnell as its creative director.

The legacy of Vuokko Nurmesniemi, Annika Rimala and Liisa Suvanto as designers of practical, yet original fashions has been given a contemporary interpretation.

Unikko celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2014

Image: Installation view, Bendigo Art Gallery. Photograph: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography

THE ART OF DESIGN DESIGNING A PATTERN

• The main focus for Marimekko is on the design of

printed fabrics, which serve as starting points for almost all products. How then do these prints come about, and how are they given their final form as garments or the motifs of utility objects?

• The process of designing printed fabrics has changed
• radically. In the 1990s, the designs were still drawn or

painted by hand, but now many of them are realized through computer-assisted means. In the past, the drawing of the repeat (the replicated motif) could be

• laborious. Now it can be easily copied and re-worked

via computer.

Traditional techniques

Installation view featuring the Jokeri design, hand painted by Annika Rimala, gouache on cardboard, and garments featuring variations on the pattern. Image: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography

MASTER OF STRIPES

• Vuokko Nurmesniemi, who was Marimekko’s first

permanently employed designer, created both printed fabrics and garments. From the very beginning, she followed the idea that a printed pattern must not be destroyed by cutting it into garments whose design would in turn destroy the motif.

• She preferred simple garment designs with a minimum
• f cutting, retaining the integrity of the original fabric

pattern.

• She was a master of colouration, creating dozens of

different versions of the same pattern by varying their combinations of colours.

Vuokko – key designer

Above: Piccolo, colour samples 1953, Vuokko Nurmesniemi Right: Installation view, dress and fabric by Vuokko. Image: Imagine Pictures

ISOLA’S COLLECTIONS

• Maija Isola, who designed printed patterns for interior textiles,

varied motifs in a versatile manner. The collections designed by her

• ften consisted of models in which a single theme was modified to

create a variety of patterns.

• Her Luonto (Nature) collection from 1957–1959 consisted of tens of

patterns taking their motifs from parts of plants picked directly from nature, the outlines of which were exposed directly on the

• riginal printing stencil.
• The Ornamentti (Ornament) collection, in turn, was composed of

small ornamental motifs enlarged several times to their final scale. In contrast to Ornamentti, the Joonas collection from 1961 consisted of large painted sketches made on long rolls of paper. The final designs of the Joonas collection were only a fraction of the size

• f the original sketches.

Maija Isola designs

Installation view, Bendigo Art Gallery. Image: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography

Timelessness of design

Installation view showcasing Unikko for a contemporary audience. Photograph: William Conroy, Press 1 Photography