To mark the 100 year anniversary of diplomatic relations between Finland and Japan Artek have produced this collection where they have collaborated with leading Japanese and Finnish designers.
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Abandoning Repetition – Works by Textile and Surface Designer Reeta Ek
Reeta, who recently graduated from the Aalto University School of Arts and Design, has focused on non-repeating elements in her textile design, looking at fabric as if it was a canvas or artwork.
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Abstract Paintings and Mobiles by Junpei Ori
Alongside the use of primary colours, and a few shades in-between, Japanese artist Junpei Ori creates these still life abstract paintings that are meant to eliminate the unessential.
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Mixed Imagery from the Artek Catalogue
Today I’m going to revisit the one and only Artek, a company who we’ve talked about many times before here on the blog. Alvar Aalto is a massive inspiration and since Artek was co-founded by the man himself and three other inspired creatives, his wife Aino, Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl, it makes sense that they sell top class furniture. The reason why I came across today’s set of imagery was because I found out about a project titled …
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Ilmari Tapiovaara, His Life and Works
Today I decided to revert back to a video that I watched a few weeks ago produced by Artek which was an interesting introduction to Finnish designer Ilmari Tapiovaara. It got me thinking about his furniture and his eye for curves and fluidity, all of his pieces have a functional approach but at the same time they hold a real beauty about them. Ilmari was taught by many mid-century style masters, Alvar Aalto in particular where he work …
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Enzo Mari and his Sedia 1 Chair
I’m sure you’ve seen this imagery of Enzo Mari before and his Sedia 1 chair but I couldn’t help but pull it up on my own terms and explain a bit about why I like it. Recently I’ve dived back into my “Super Normal” book by Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa which has inspired me heavily to go routing around more. For some reason after reading an interview with Jasper I wanted to revisit Enzo’s works and see if there were …
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The Artek Open Archives
My loved ones over Christmas were kind enough to buy me several books that I’ve been yearning for over the past year, firstly ‘Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible’ which I’ve yet to dig into, and also ‘Alvar Aalto, Through the Eyes of Shigeru Ban’ which is one I’m currently reading. Even though it’s extremely long, a few paragraphs into the book and it got me thinking about his career and what influenced it, a company …
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Enzo Mari for Artek by Ville Tanttu
What a great set of videos I found featuring one of the most thoughtful and intellectually provocative Italian designers of the late 20th century, Enzo Mari. His works…
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