Marimekko

Marimekko is a Finnish textile and clothing design company renowned for its original prints and colours. The company designs and manufactures high-quality interior decoration items ranging from furnishing fabrics to tableware as well as clothing, bags and other accessories. 

When Marimekko was founded in 1951, its unparalleled printed fabrics gave it a strong and unique identity. Marimekko products are sold in approximately 40 countries. The number of Marimekko stores totaled 108 in 2012.

 I aspire to work for such a company creating a range of fabrics and patterns to be applied to a wide range of products all over the world.

One collection that I particularly like of theirs is their weather collection. It’s nice to see that the project processes of a large scale company are the same as what I go through. 

I enjoyed seeing how their ideas generated from brief to final idea.

The actual design process took several months. In her workspace, Aino-Maija made a large number of drawings and paintings, each more impressive than the last. The design team met at Marimekko at regular intervals to discuss the process. 

After various phases, much pondering and shared insights, the end result was a bold collection of fabrics, tableware, home textiles and posters inspired by weather phenomena. 

She started by putting together a collage of moods using photographs and samples of her pattern sketches. The collage became the basis for thedesign process. I love how although some of their patterns of digital, they still keep the hand drawn element to them as well.