Lunning Prize winner Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi was born in 1930 in Finland and is recognised as a pioneering modernist of 20th Century Scandinavian design. While she trained as a ceramicist, she is most recognised for clothing and textile designs at Printex and Marimekko where she worked as head designer in 1953. Her patterns utilised geometric patterns and bold stripes that launched Marimekko’s first shirt and dress collection. Hand printed fabric was incredibly new at the time and the manufacturing and printing processes her designs utilised for Marimekko were revolutionary. In 1960 she ended her partnership with Marimekko to launch her own clothing label Vuokko Oy, which is still around today.
