Vuokko Hillevi Lilian Eskolin-Nurmesniemi (born 12 February 1930 in Helsinki) is a Finnishtextile designer. She is best known for her work as one of the two leading designers of the Marimekko company. Her signature striped Jokapoika shirt helped to make the company's name.
Biography
Eskolin-Nurmesniemi studied ceramics at the Institute of Industrial Arts (in Finnish: Taideteollinen oppilaitos) in Helsinki, Finland. After graduating, she designed glassware and ceramics for Arabia and Nuutajärvi. In 1957, she received a gold medal at the Milan Triennial XI for her glassware.[1]
Eskolin-Nurmesniemi joined the Finnish company Marimekko in 1953. She designed patterns for many of their printed fabrics in the 1950s; together with Maija Isola, she was responsible for most of Marimekko's patterns.[2][3] Nurmesniemi's signature product was a simply striped red and white shirt named Jokapoika, in 1956; she went on to create a large number of striking designs.[4]
Nurmesniemi left Marimekko in 1960 due to conflicts with Marimekko founder Armi Ratia.[5] She founded her own company, Vuokko Oy, in 1964, and designed textiles as well as ready-to-wear clothing and accessories.[1] This company closed its doors in 1988. In 1990 Nurmesniemi founded a second company, Vuokko Nurmesniemi Oy.[6]
In the summer of 2009, the Röhsska museum in Gothenburg, Sweden, held an exhibition of her designs.[13]
Reception
Ted Hesselbom of the Swedish Röhsska Museum wrote of Vuokko's Retrospective in 2009:[14]
Vuokko Nurmesniemi's collections for fashion and interior design have a strong graphic and colourful design. Their style and expression is clearly from the same era as Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Roy Lichtenstein.[14]
^ abHiesinger, Kathryn B.; Marcus, George H., eds. (1983). "Biographies of Designers". Design Since 1945. Philadelphia Museum of Art. p. 229. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
^Jackson, Leslie (2003). "Textile Patterns in an International Context: Precursors, Contemporaries, and Successors". In Aav, Marianne (ed.). Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashion, Architecture. Yale University Press, for the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York, and the Design Museum, Finland. pp. 66, 82. ISBN9780300101836.