This year’s PatternLab21 is a multidisciplinary group with 11 talented designers. Together they create a brilliant compilation of young talent and creativity. They are 11 Master of Arts students at Aalto University of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. The project is supervised and curated by Professor Maarit Salolainen, who has extensive experience in working in the international textile industry.
Meet the designers!
Anniina Korte
Anniina is a textile designer, visual artist, and salesperson at a clothing store.
She’s continuing her work with textiles during her MA studies in the Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design program at Aalto University. She also has a background in fine arts and considers drawing one of her true passions.
When she was a little kid, she found the power of drawing, and has always felt a strong connection with nature and its creatures. Those elements still inspire her, and they are always somehow present in her works. Her own personal style is currently full of dark twists with melancholy vibes. When it comes to techniques, she prefers more traditional art techniques mixed together. Different drawing tools, like color pencils and ink pens, are her favorite mediums to use.
Crows are her favorite birds, and her heart melts every time she sees them. Walks in nature, photography, and watching documentaries are her ways of keeping nature close in her daily life.
Hilda enjoys sketching by hand and seeking unusual and exciting color combinations. Her painterly patterns are usually created by painting with ink in a large scale and then working further on the computer. The coloring phase is her favorite part in the design process.
In her free time, Hilda loves to cook and have her friends over for dinner. She loves to seek inspiration for both food and design from her experiences abroad.
She is particularly interested in art direction and storytelling through textile collections, bringing fictive worlds alive with colors, textures, and moods. Nora finds her inspiration in gentle chaos, tragicomedy, springtime, sunshine, shadows, and countless other little curiosities.
In her designs, Nora likes to focus on captivating color combinations and flowing repeats. She is really happy if the story is visible through the design, but in the end, interpretation is in the eye of the beholder! In her free time, Nora likes going on walks, riding her bike, spending time with her family and friends, picking flowers, cooking, reading, and indulging in whatever life has in store that day.
Alongside his studies, he works at a Finnish textile design company and as a freelance designer. He enjoys working with different materials, especially textiles and wood.
He finds his inspiration from animals, nature, basketball, skateboarding, and friends. He likes to discover different locations, especially ones with big trees or huge rocks. Whenever he has the time, Santeri carves wooden sculptures and uses his sewing machine for making embroideries.
She enjoys working both freely through artistic expression and with stricter guidelines. She likes to work with different kinds of craft-based materials, and during her bachelor studies she gained knowledge in working not only with textiles, but also with ceramics, glass, and wood.
Minttumeri is inspired by her surroundings: the color combinations and forms of everyday life. Nature has always been a source of happiness for her, and a place where she can calm down. Living near the sea and nature her whole life has been important and inspiring for her. Whenever she wants to relax her mind and clarify her thoughts, she goes to the sea, for a walk or a run.
Mirka is a graphic designer who’s in her final year of MA studies in Aalto University’s Visual Communication Design program. She’s majoring in Visual Narrative.
Mirka likes her works to be thoughtful and often has an elaborate, personal story behind each piece. She enjoys taming disorder and creating coherent wholes. She comes from a layout background and loves designing books and magazines – but during her MA studies, she’s been focusing on getting outside of her professional comfort zone and diversifying her interests and skills. She’s been growing especially fond of vector illustration.
Mirka is inspired by bold and unexpected color combinations, white space, the summer, cuteness, sarcasm, and her friends. In her free time, she likes to watch films, eat chocolate, and socialize. She loves to make people laugh and wears her heart so far out on her sleeve that it’s practically touching the ground.
Yun-Jung is doing her MA in the Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design program at Aalto University. She majors in textiles but her background is in fashion design.
In her free time, she enjoys going to exhibitions, drawing, and just relaxing. Nature, people, and artworks have always been the inspirations behind her work.
Recently, after moving to Finland, Yun-Jung has discovered a new bond between her and her home country of Taiwan. Comparisons between the lifestyle, culture, and environment have been on her mind and are reflected in her designs.
She is especially fascinated by oddly satisfying textures, structures, and compositions – ones that might seem repulsive at first, but that have unexpected beauty in them.
Iines is currently studying in the Contemporary Design MA program at Aalto University. She works to understand different materials, such as bio-based materials, to find future options. Iines has gained knowledge in various fields of arts and design during her studies and through crafts.
Small details or phenomena, such as a crack on a wall or the shadows of leaves, can pique Iines’ interest. She gets her inspiration from nature and the world around her. This summer, when she is not teaching biomaterials, she is focused on natural dyeing with plants and flowers that she gathers.
Currently, he’s focusing on furniture and surface design. He has worked in different design fields and been part of graphic design projects as a freelance designer. During his free time, he likes to watch documentaries and read random articles.
He’s been learning to use different materials and techniques in order to improve his design skills. Through PatternLab, he dove into the world of textiles and learned how to design patterns from scratch. He observes everything around him, and his patterns are deeply inspired by Finnish nature. His favorite drawing tools are markers, but he also uses different techniques, such as watercolor, ink, block print, wood print, paper folding, and paper cutting.
When creating patterns, she seeks after novelty by turning seemingly hidden details into eye-catching visuals. For example, she can create art from the sound of snow, the concept of metamorphosis, or the movements of fish.
Fulfilling her passion for illustrative storytelling, Ulla enjoys creating imaginary worlds in her work. Her sketching table is filled with books about wildlife, biology, and Moomins, as well as recycled materials like buttons, shoelaces, fishnet, and candy papers.
Successful textile design, Ulla thinks, is not only about the looks or the sustainability, but also about the touch and functionality of the fabric.
Julia Lehto
Julia’s background is in interior architecture and she is currently studying in the Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design MA program at Aalto University.
Julia loves watercolors and especially enjoys painting freely and intuitively, creating sketchy works. Julia is a dreamer, which also shows in her patterns. Flowers, beautiful details of old houses, and walks along the seaside give Julia inspiration and energy. In the future, Julia wants to create interesting and beautiful spaces with patterns – her very own wallpaper collection would be a dream come true.
