scandinavian morning in athens

8/4/2019 Scandinavian Morning in Athens

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Scandinavian Morning in Athens

The Flower Pot lamp, designed by Verner Panton in 1969, is the lamp of itsera and a good example of Scandinavian design.

In the era of the 60s, the flower power generation took over declaring love,peace and harmony for everyone; students revolted in France and Italy,

and man was sent to the Moon. The design forthat era was bright, colorful and extremelyplayful – exactly what Verner Panton knewbest. He designed his lamp with thehappenings of the era in mind – therefore thename, The Flower Pot lamp.

At the same time as being the voice of thehippie era, the design of The Flower Pot lamp issimple and minimalistic like Scandinaviandesign is thought to be. The lamp consists of two semi-circular, different sized spheres facingeach other, and a simple stand for the table

lamp models. The colors of the lamp are all bright but only one color isused throughout the whole lamp; this simple design and style makes thelamp an imposing design piece. That was probably also in Verner Panton’smind when he designed this lamp: for him, the color was even more

important than form as he believed that colors aroused feelings.

When offered to the market, The Flower Potlamp became incredibly popular. Thependants hung in restaurants and exhibitions,and soon in everybody’s homes as well. Whenmany of them with different colors wereplaced near each other, an almostpsychedelic atmosphere was created.

Related to the Panton’s design it is often said,that Verner Panton successfully interpreted thetimes of the hippie movement and Moonlanding. One good example can be seen inStanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey,where one of the Verner Panton’s chairs is featured. And when thisinterpretation is added to the fact that Panton’s design is trulyScandinavian, one may understand that Panton was able to create

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undeniably unique pieces of design. Someone has said that “an objectcannot become a design icon until it has stood the test of time and appearsquite naturally in different settings, giving it a symbolic aura of its own.”We agree that The Flower Pot is just that.

Not all Scandinavian design reflects the Scandinavian nature or climate,

but it can still be genuinely Scandinavian. One good example of this is theKaj Franck’s “Morning in Athens” sculpture designed for Iittala.

For this sculpture, the designer is told to havebeen inspired by the beauty of Greece.“Morning in Athens” is made of five transparent,hand-blown glass orbs attached together by apendant. There are three differentcombinations, varying the size of the orbs andtheir positioning in the pendant. When the

pendants move, the orbs make a sound thatreminds one of the church bells in Athens on aclear Sunday morning.

Although the inspiration comes from Greece,the style and disposition follows theScandinavian tradition. The sculpture is a

minimalistic design produced with mass-production methods and thereforeavailable for all. It was originally manufactured at the Nuutajärvi factoryfrom 1954 to 1975, and reproduced for two years during 1992-1994 (nb:

The Nuutajärvi factory is the oldest glass factory in Finland, and is well-known for its hand-blown glass). While celebrating Kaj Frank’s 100th

birthday anniversary, Iittala brought “Morning in Athens” back toproduction again.

The length of the one pendant is 63centimeters, so there are manyvariations of its use. It can be hungnext to a window, when the beauty of the hand-blown glass comes out with

light reflecting from the orbs; it can beuse as singular design object or withmany of the pendants together, as ascreen or divider between spaces. Thechurch bell noise comes out only whentwo or more pendants are hanging next toeach other, so one should consider owning more than one of them!


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Tasaraita, which is Finnish for equal stripes, is a Finnish design icon. Thesimplest pattern – two different colors of stripes is repeated – was designedby Annika Rimala in 1968 for Marimekko. Tasaraita is probably the mostpopular, well-known and widely used design pattern in Finland.

Today, Tasaraita can be seen in coffee cups as well. Tasaraita coffee cups

are designed by Sami Ruotsalainen based on the original print of AnnikaRimala. The cups come in two different shapes: one does not have a handlewith a volume of 2 deciliters, and the other bigger one has a handle and avolume of 2,5 deciliters. The former comes in colors of white and red, orwhite and yellow, and the bigger one with stripes of white and red, or whiteand black.

The look of the Tasaraita cup is traditional, yet modern. The shape of thecup is from Marimekko’s Oiva cups, which are also designed by SamiRuotsalainen. The look of the cup is direct, but some extra softness is

provided by rounded edges and ends. Generally the smaller, handle-lesscup looks more rounded or “soft” than its bigger brother.

If one puts these cups on the table in Finland, everyone knows thereference and the talk will turn to nostalgic memories related to the

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Tasaraita pattern. However, Tasaraita cups do not need to have this historyto survive, as they look good without the reference points as well. The cupscan be easily combined with any white tableware, specially with theMarimekko’s Oiva series, where the form is the same.

It has always been the idea of Marimekko to create something new and

give an opportunity to young talented designers. This time they have takensomething from their tradition and still have been able to create a new,fresh way to look at everyday objects.The first time I saw Vattenblänkfabric from Marimekko, I could not believe it was really part of theMarimekko’s collection. On a white background there are shapes of lightblue, pink, green and indigo mixed around and on top of each other. Itdidn’t look at all like the stylish Marimekko patterns I was aware of. Andthat was the reason I wanted to know more about the fabric.

Vattenblänk is Swedish, meaning the shimmering of water. That has beenthe designer Astrid Sylwan’s inspiration when creating the pattern. Itillustrates the movement of the water, but includes a powerful element andedgy shadows that is also present in the water movements.

The designer is the Belgian born Astrid Sylwan, who currently lives inSweden. She is a visual artist, whose work is characterized by strong colors

and a clear post-painting. Vattenblänk is actually a really typical piece of work from her – all her work produces the similar kind of patterns andreflections. In her interview by Marimekko she tells that she gets inspiredby immense art experiences, but tries to find the inspiration for her worksfrom within herself – and relaxes by doing garden work.

But how on Earth did Astrid Sylwan end up collaborating with Marimekko? Itwas Marimekko’s artistic director, Minna Kemell-Kutvonen, who saw her





work in a Swedish interior design magazine and contacted the artist. AstridSylwan was interested straight away: in her interview with Marimekko shetells how she lived her childhood surrounded by Marimekko as her motherdecorated her room with Marimekko fabrics (namely the Unikko design byMaija Isola).

It was actually challenging to create the shapes and the forms of Vattenbänk. Later the artist has said that putting nine different colors inindustrially printed fabric was not an easy task, but in the end she wassatisfied.

And now comes the punch line: Astrid Sylwan has said that her Marimekko

design is similar to her paintings. Their design is balancing next tobreakdown. Her artwork – and this is what she says – are pretty, but theydo not try to please or charm. After reading this I respect her as an artist,making a bold movement into industrial design. But still, I do not like thefabric.

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scandinavian morning in athens

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