New Marimekko spring patterns: from Keane to Kalevala

Finnish-British Sanna Annukka takes themes for patterns from Karelian folklore motifs

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By Suvi Ahola
     
      Marimekko traditionally introduces its spring collections shortly before Christmas. This year as well, the Marimekko factory building in Herttoniemi in the east of Helsinki was illuminated in dim light, with cups of mulled wine steaming.
      The magical feeling only grew stronger, as Emmi Knuutinen began to pluck a tune on her kantele.
     
Then came the main attraction of the event: 25-year-old Finnish-British designer Sanna Annukka. Her textiles with patterns derived from Finnish-Karelian themes - Taikamylly (“Magic Mill”), inspired by the Sampo story of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, her Kanteleen kutsu (“Call of the Kantele”), taking its theme from the Kalevala tale about the hero Väinämöinen playing the stringed instrument, and Ihmemaa (“Wonderland”) are Marimekko’s answer to the ubiquitous retro boom.
      “I saw Sanna’s work in Vogue magazine when negotiations were going on about my coming to Marimekko”, says CEO Mika Ihamuotila.
      “I wrote to her immediately and proposed collaboration”. Sanna answered, saying that designing for Marimekko was a dream for her!
     
No wonder, as Annukka considers herself “mostly Finnish”.
      Her British father, who worked in the field of pharmaceuticals, met a laboratory student from Kainuu while he was in Helsinki, and they got married. Sanna and her siblings grew up in England, but they spent their summers at her grandmother’s farm in Paltaniemi, sometimtes going on hiking trips in Lapland.
      When Annukka’s parents later divorced, she had planned to move permanently to Paltaniemi.
      “I went to school in Kainuu for a couple of months when I was 12, but then my mother got work at Brighton University, and we returned to England.”
      “Finnishness has nevertheless always defined my growth”, Annukka ponders.
      “My summers involved fishing and swimming and camping. The forests and lakes with their animals stayed with me, and this affects my work all the time.”
     
Annukka graduated from Brighton University as an illustrator in 2005. In the final stages of her education she specialised in silk-screen printing and went to work at a design shop in London.
      One of the customers was among the circle of friends of the British band Keane.
      “A lucky purchase led to my first commission: the illustration for the cover of Keane’s second album Under the Iron sea.”
      The album was released in 2006, and it has sold well over two million copies worldwide. The picture on the cover depicts blue waves that morph into sea horses, and clearly resemble the patterns used on Marimekko textiles.
      They, as well as the graphic art on display on Annukka’s website, appear to be more refined and sophisticated descendants of Finnish graphic design from the 1970s.
      Annukka sees Finnish designers Maija Isola, Kaj Franck, and Erik Bruun and Swedish ceramic artist Stig Lindberg as her inspirations.
     
The greatest inspiration for the new Marimekko collection is the Kalevala - a fortuitous coincidence, considering that next year will be the 160th anniversary of the publication of the epic.
      “I read the Kalevala five or six years ago in English, and I haven’t stopped since. You can open it at any page, and there is always some new interpretation that you can put on it. I love its magic, which makes everything possible, from stealing the sun and the moon, to enchanting all animals with the music of the kantele, to the magic machine, the Sampo.”
     
All kinds of things can be seen in Taikamylly, which tells of a device which churns out prosperity: ladles and forks, pearls and coins. Ihmemaa (“Wonderland”), which works as a wall hanging, goes even further.
      “I wanted to depict the whole Kalevala landscape, and I thought that I should first build it on the foundation of the snowy story of the world. However, that was too broad, so I opted for the story on the spark from Ukko, [the main god of Finnish pre-Christian mythology] which the Virgin of the Air accidentally drops into the lake, and which is swallowed by a fish. This allowed me to fit all of the elements into it: air, fire, water, and earth.”
     
Annukka is aware that her pictures make her part of an old and worthy tradition of Kalevala illustrators.
      “I know the visions of both Akseli Gallen-Kallela as well as those of the Soviet illustrator Mjud Mechev. I think that both are magnificent.”
      And naturally, her plans include her very own edition of the Kalevala.
      “In my mind there is a book full of brave, completely modernised illustrations. If cost were no issue, I would use some kind of special paper, perhaps partly covered by foil, or patterns cut into the pages.
     
Now her aim is to expand the collection into clothing, wallpaper, and other paper products. Next year there will be a new series of Kalevala-themed silkscreen work.
      “In addition, I am working on my first illustrated book. It is still top secret, but the idea is that the book should be interesting for both children and adults. My inspirations in this are Tove Jansson and the Russian story book illustrator Ivan Bilibin.”
      “If the book is a success, I could imagine continuing as an illustrator. Besides, it would be wonderful to design candy paper for Fazer!”
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 9.12.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  H&M to introduce Marimekko to masses (22.11.2007)
  Marimekko licensing its patterns to H&M (21.11.2007)

Links:
  Sanna Annukka website
  Marimekko website

SUVI AHOLA / Helsingin Sanomat
suvi.ahola@hs.fi