For PatternLab 26, seven multidisciplinary designers from Aalto ARTS Master’s Programmes came together to share ideas, perspectives and creativity. Under the supervision of Prof. Maarit Salolainen, guidance from Maija Fagerlund and assistance from Jere Vilo and Riikka Laaksoharju, designers gained insightful industry experience and our clients from S Group were delighted with the results.
Shan Shan Lim is a multidisciplinary artist and designer working across various mediums including textiles, mixed-media and photography.
She graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA in Textile Design, specialising in weave and print. In 2017, she founded her eponymous studio, creating textile and surface designs within fashion and interior for a variety of international clients.
Helmi is a textile and print designer creating distinctive patterns, textiles, and surfaces across a range of applications. In her work, she combines high-quality design, storytelling, and artistic expression.
She designs textiles and surfaces for a variety of uses, drawing inspiration from a diverse range of sources. Helmi always starts by hand-drawing, but likes to refine the details of her work using CAD.
Din is a graphic and textile designer working closely with tangible materials. With a Major in Visual Communication Design and a Minor in Textiles – Material and Structure, her practice bridges graphic visual language with tactile exploration.
She explores the value of physical experiences, focusing on how materiality creates connections between people, objects, and spaces. Din transforms her observations through vibrant forms, bold colours, and structural material experimentation. Her work reflects a deep appreciation for storytelling where the interplay of textures, structures, and visuals becomes a meaningful medium to communicate emotions, memories, and narratives.
Anna is a visual communication designer who loves playing with colors and shapes and telling stories with them. Powered by caffeine and all the whimsical things.
Luisa is a visual artist and designer. Her practice moves between printmaking, public art and mural painting.
Her work is inspired by everyday life, our relationship with the city, and its abstract shapes and languages. 2023, she co-founded the collective TIEV. She also works under the name Lumi.
The first client briefing was held in early Spring of 2026 and soon after, bespoke designs were created and colour charts were carefully curated to meet the client’s expectations. By June, PatternLab 26 officially concluded! We now look forward to the launch of selected patterns in Prisma over the upcoming seasons. Stay tuned!
NEW PATTERNS FROM PATTERNLAB 26 WILL BE LAUNCHED FROM 2027.
All the design work is now done, and the patterns have been handed over to the S-Group for further production. Both the customer and the designers were delighted with the project outcome. New patterns will be announced starting from autumn 2025. The designers can now go on a well-deserved summer holiday, and the PatternLab flag is passed on to next year’s team.
PatternLab 25 team from top left: Taina Meriläinen, Riikka Laaksoharju, Viktorija Semjonova, Olli Autio, Claire Pixie Aunison, Johanna Hehemann & Marina Piva.
PATTERNLAB 25: PATTERN MAKING PROCESS
PatternLab 25 has kicked off with moodboard sessions, color palette decisions and creative sketching workshops. We went on field trips for inspiration and community building. Here are some behind the scenes images of the labor that went into making this year’s repeat patterns for our client S-Group. We are looking forward to seeing them in store …
PATTERNLAB 24: ANOTHER YEAR – ANOTHER TEAM EFFORT
INTERVIEW WITH PATTERNLAB 24 DESIGNERS
Puutarha, 2024, Mira Isomäki
“It was the best team I´ve ever been part of!”
– Erika Onishi
PatternLab 24 patterns are gradually becoming available at Prisma. It has been a year since the designers finished their three-month period of hard work and handed over their patterns to S Group. The process was again both laborious and highly inspiring. Three members of the design team were asked to think back and share their thoughts about working in a team and with a client. This is what they had to say.
“Joining PatternLab had been my dream since before my studies at Aalto, so I was truly excited to be part of the team…It was the best team I’ve ever been part of!”
Erika Onishi @erikaonishi_works
“All team members had different tasks and strengths. Working as a group, collaborating was an essential part of the whole process. I am very thankful for having had such a great team where everyone supported each other.”
Ella Fabritius @ella_fabritius
“One of the best aspects of this process was working with our team. In a supportive and warm atmosphere, it is easy to create!”
Mira Isomäki @mirajuliana
PatternLab is known to be a quite fast-paced process. Our designers had the same experience, but they also felt that they had learned a lot.
“The schedule was very tight. I had to do the tasks more efficiently and focus on what was most essential.”
Ella Fabritius
“…The time we had for the initial ideation was especially tight, so I spent every day sketching ideas based on the client’s design brief and developing them into patterns. Creating so many patterns in such a short time was intense, but it became a valuable experience for me as a designer.”
Erika Onishi
“I gained practical experience in presenting ideas professionally, designing to meet clients’ needs, and balancing artistic expression with commercial outcomes.”
Mira Isomäki
“…I was truly happy to see my own pattern designs become real products, sold at Prisma and becoming part of someone’s everyday life. This experience has been an important step in developing my career as a surface pattern designer.”
Erika Onishi
In PatternLab everyone gets to design a lot of patterns for different uses. Here are some words about the designers’ favorite patterns.
“I enjoyed the process of creating the “Caterpillar”. I used paper cutouts to create the shapes of apples and caterpillars, trying to keep the lines soft, warm, and playful rather than perfectly straight. I hope the babies who wear this pattern will enjoy the colorful and expressive little caterpillars.”
Erika Onishi
“Mustikka” is a pattern I really enjoyed drawing. I drew it by hand with a marker on some paper. It was nice to draw as it was an all-over pattern with small details. I like the flow of it.”
Ella Fabritius
“My favorite pattern is ”Kaisla” for its minimalist and timeless design. The pattern was first developed by drawing by hand and then continuing digitally, which enables a combination of an organic and a sleek look.”
Mira Isomäki
A DREAM COME TRUE
Ella Fabritiuksen, 25, unelma toteutuu ensi keväänä, kun hänen piirtämänsä kuosit pääsevät Prisman valikoimiin
– Yhteishyvä 2024
Lue Ella Fabritiuksen PatternLab Yhteishyvä haastattelu täältä
Prisma’s clothing and home products now feature patterns designed in Aalto University’s PatternLab course. The collaboration strengthens Finnish design in the patterns of Prisma’s own brand products and enables students to gain close experience in building a commercial range.
PatternLab 22 consists of a multidisciplinary group with 10 talented designers. Together they create a brilliant compilation of young talent and creativity. They are 10 Master of Arts students at Aalto University of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki, Finland. The project was supervised and curated by Prof. Maarit Salolainen.
Ione Rawlins
Master’s Programme in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design
Ione is interested in eclectic surface design. Her design process relies heavily on referencing the past. She is inspired by ornamental and classical aesthetics from antiquity up to the 20th century. Ione especially enjoys painting her designs, and wishes she did it more.
In her free time Ione appreciates cooking and eating, taking silly photos and making playlists.
Sanna has always loved drawing and painting by hand which has lately translated into her pattern design process. Sanna likes using figurative elements to create detailed surfaces but enjoys crafting flowing textural abstractions as well. She enjoys using different mediums and exploring their characteristics like the boldness of ink and the softness of charcoal.
Sanna finds inspiration in the small joys and surprising quirks of everyday life. When she wants to reboot her brain during or in between design processes, she goes hiking, takes a dip in the sea or wanders to the nearest second hand shop.
Edith Kankkunen
Master’s Programme in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design
Edith loves playing with abstract shapes, refined details and muted tones. She enjoys creating pattern motifs with ink and acrylic paints, but appreciates more traditional and unconventional mediums as well. Digital painting is another medium she has recently discovered. Edith is currently challenging herself to create more figurative and ornamental designs, as those aren’t her usual style.
Edith is inspired by all kinds of flowers, plants and landscapes, as well as everyday situations and objects. She loves discovering new things from ordinary life, like a detailed ornament in a familiar building next door. In her free time, she enjoys taking long walks outdoors, knitting and nurturing her plants. Edith’s latest addition to her free time activities is keeping her puppy away from trouble.
Sabina is a versatile designer with a love for compelling surface patterns. She enjoys working on organic, sketch-like, graphic and textural designs, each with a distinct mood. To her, the cohesiveness of a collection is just as significant as each individual design. She believes bold surface patterns can emerge from even the most humble of creative processes.
As a creative Sabina has a conceptual approach, seeking inspiration from intriguing narratives, natural rhythms and abstraction. She designs in an intuitive way, comfortably switching between analogue and digital ways of working. She doesn’t shy away from colour or trying new techniques, and her process is honest and craft-based at heart. The countryside is where her imagination runs free.
Anna is an aspiring textile and fashion designer based in Helsinki, Finland. As a print and surface designer her strengths lie especially with traditional hand-made repeats and digital painting. She has a versatile style and finds it easy to adapt her designs to meet different briefs and needs of the customers.
Her favourite part of the print design process is to idealise and design the concept and manage the collections. She gathers her inspiration from all around her, and the design process for her is something intuitive and personal. Anna finds herself collaborative, open-minded and ambitious. She is in her element when working in an open, creative and versatile atmosphere.
Tuulikki enjoys working on detailed, painterly and textured surface patterns that have a carefully considered rhythm. She loves art supply stores and can often be found incorporating traditional mediums into her work, such as watercolors. In addition, yarns and weaving looms are also tools she uses for structural textile designs.
She gathers inspiration from nature, real and imaginary places and everyday life. Tuulikki admires surfaces that are full of detail to discover. She enjoys working with color and creates different color combinations for different moods and environments. When not at work, you might find Tuikku enjoying nature or brunching with friends.
Aida is interested in abstract and detailed designs. When creating patterns she enjoys playing with layers and colors, and her focus is often on the rhythm and flow of a pattern. Currently, her favorite mediums are ink and her Wacom tablet. She has an extensive understanding of techniques and tends to choose her mediums according to the theme of the project.
Aida is inspired by trends, tales, art, culture and current events. She remains fascinated by her surroundings and in her free time she likes to stay active and enjoys learning new things.
Praejeen Kunawong
Master’s Programme in Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design
Praejeen hails from Bangkok, a bustling and crowded city. That’s why when she moved to Finland, she found the value in balancing the calm of nature with dynamic urban living, something inherent to Finnish culture. This also influences her creative approach to pattern design. Since she was familiar with working primarily digitally, she has now begun to explore more mixed media techniques, such hand painting combined with digital tools.
Praejeen is typically fascinated by intuitively capturing the aesthetics of everyday life and the combination of sophisticated colors. She is also intrigued by eclectic atmospheres and juxtapositions. In her spare time she illustrates narratives, often with figures of women. Some of them are represented in her woven textiles.
Aino loves making her designs first by hand before editing them digitally. She enjoys twisting mundane things into something quirky and strange – creating an illustrative fantasy from ordinary life. Aino started out in art and design with collage, a technique she was happy to use whilst designing patterns.
When Aino is not busy with her design work, she loves to take street dance classes, even though her knees and ankles disagree with the hobby. Singing karaoke is the ideal way for Aino to have fun at a party, but her number one pastime is cuddling with dogs.
Saara likes to explore and experiment when it comes to pattern design: be it large scale, small scale, abstract or figurative it’s fun to have some variation! Saara loves playing with colors and enjoys discovering new, surprising color combinations.
Saara likes working with ink and watercolors, but often chooses to work with an iPad Pro alongside more traditional mediums. She also works as an illustrator and she likes illustrative patterns that tell a story. She designs for both adults and children.
Saara has two kids and a dog. She enjoys yoga, aerial circus acrobatics and swimming in the winter.
