I've followed Jonna's work for quite a while now - there's something about her exuberant use of colour and loose, over-printed splashy designs that feels so fresh against the tide of restrained Scandinavian minimalism.
Her patterns are inspired by her idyllic sounding childhood. Growing up in South West Finland, she explains:
"My main inspiration will always be my late grandmother and growing up by the sea in Finland with her. Back then summers used to be endless, the sun was always shining and running in the forest wearing no shoes and swimming with your clothes on was totally normal. She had a fantastic style of hand knitted cardigans, crazy patterned aprons and woolly socks, which I hope I have also inherited. It was these long summers that gave me my imagination and love of nature, which is where I get all the colours for my work from."
(excerpt from an interview with Patternbooth)
Now this is where I wish I lived nearer to London - next week she is running a series of screen printing workshops as part of the
Etsy Market Place at the Dock event which ties in with the London Design Festival. You can register for tickets to the workshops
here - they're free!
And on top of being a rising star, she's also dead nice and drives around in a
Marimekko-curtained VW campervan. Take a peek into her lovely life
here.
