Laura Isoniemi, Textile Artist of the Year 2023, Designed the Lapinvuokko Pattern for Pentik
The Lapinvuokko textile product series, part of Pentik's autumn 2024 collection, is the creation of designer Laura Isoniemi. Isoniemi created the Lapinvuokko pattern for Pentik during the darkness of mid-winter. Her mind took her back to summer days in the yard of her family's old log house. She remembered the small, tenacious Arctic starflowers blooming along the house wall, which she drew to bring joy and hope amidst the polar night.
"In my own values, as a designer, it is important for me to bring joy through design and to be a part of people's everyday lives and good moments through the textiles I design; such as at a summer cottage, with family gathering for morning coffee around a table covered with printed fabric. My own pattern is a part of joyful togetherness and also creates an important moment," Laura Isoniemi says.
"My style is minimalistic and playful, even naive. I have worked in surface design for a long time, and patterns are clear to me; I work straightforwardly and with all my heart, whether it's lines, flowers, or abstract shapes, eternal subjects. My mind and hands work together like a printer. It produces what is ordered, and then the best and most authentic versions are filtered. Surface design is actually an endless game where by making changes to rhythm and colors, everything transforms into something else. One can also think of it as a play where patterns have different roles and different colors then create the atmosphere; dark, cheerful, or serene."
The jacquard-woven cushion covers in the Lapinvuokko collection are produced in collaboration with the Finnish weaving mill Annala. Annala is the only company in Finland that manufactures upholstery fabrics. Annala's weaving mill is located in Lapua, South Ostrobothnia, by the Lankilankoski rapids. Their operations support the self-sufficiency of responsible domestic production and the preservation of weaving and craft traditions in Finland.
Laura Isoniemi
- In 2023, Isoniemi was selected as the Textile Artist of the Year by Texo ry.
- Master of Arts, art educator and IDBMPro
- Her teaching career has mainly been at Aalto University's School of Arts, Architecture and Design. Her professional expertise crystallizes in experimental surface design, ideation methods, and teaching creativity in design thinking. Her special area is multidisciplinary international design and art education.
- Guest lecturer and trainer in, among others, Iceland, China, Africa, France and Saudi Arabia.
- Worked as a freelancer alongside her teaching work, and among other things, designed church textile ensembles and jewelry for four churches, as well as done interior design and art curation for public spaces.
- In 2019, Aalto ARTS Books published Isoniemi's textbook Kuviollinen mieli - Pintasuunnittelun luovia menetelmiä (Patterned Mind - Creative Methods in Surface Design), which has also been translated into English. The book compiles Isoniemi's pedagogical footprint and methods for a wide audience.
- The initiator, producer, and one of the curators of the Echoes – 100 Years of Finnish Design and Architecture exhibition, which toured five European countries in 2017.
- Active in professional organizations both in Finland and abroad.
- Participated in group exhibitions in Finland and abroad.
