Iittala Graphics is a collection of unique visual expressions from various designers. The series empowers each designer’s creative freedom on a mug as an essential object that is an important part of our daily life. The diversity of the visual expressions provides an exciting variation that allows you to make a personal choice for daily moments, either shared or alone.
“My work is simplified black ink or line drawing and/or colourful collage shapes,” says Linda Linko. “My style is a little bit rough as I make everything by hand.”
Artist Linda Linko, who lives and works in Helsinki, is known for the hands-on, thoughtful approach to her work. Behind this approach is Linda's love for experimental collage, mixed media and hand-painted typography, making her work passing for fine art over design.
A new pattern, Speckle, was introduced to the Iittala Graphics collection in 2019. Linda Linko drew inspiration for the new Iittala Graphics mug from a place in the middle of the forest where she spends a lot of time. In there Linda has a garden and she describes how each year nature tries to take it over and, despite having been tamed with stone steps, the wilderness still pushes through. The Speckle pattern has a mystical blue background colour with organic, bright-coloured shapes – perhaps a nocturnal garden or a field of flowers.
"The patterns reflect the longevity of Nordic design, where simple needs meet the delicate, the sophisticated and the bold; solid and industrial quality with the strong presence of handcraft."
Minimalistic portrait artist and designer Magnus Voll Mathiassen (better known as MVM) champions the simplistic.
Nothing beats to get to know a client over many ears by doing projects based on building trust in each other, says Norwegian designer and illustrator Magnus Voll Mathiassen. Magnus’ portfolio is predominantly portrait based, working with block colours to highlight facial shadows and characteristics. He also experiments with mixed media, handmade and digital collage, always sticking firmly to finding grace in stripping subjects back to their bare minimum.
"I wanted my drawing to spark a sense of wonder, so I created a surrealistic, floating composition of sea plants. An oneiric still life drawing, which is simultaneously richly colourful yet delicate."
Master of the fine-liner Ugo Gattoni works as an ambitious artist, art director and illustrator for high-end clients from his home in Paris.
Ugo Gattoni is a Parisian born and bred artist and art director, whose surreal and exquisitely detailed portraits, depictions of cityscapes, and strange, otherworldly objects and artefacts are renowned worldwide for their unparalleled level of skill. Working predominantly with graphite or ink, Ugo’s work is a monochromatic whirlwind of minute details, dreamlike characters and typography.
"For my designs I explored the concept of distortion. I wanted to create a different point of view on things. I think the Nordic living and design has always done this."
Bags of joy from Merijn Hos, the Utrecht-based illustrator who can liven up the dullest of briefs. Merijn Hos is a visual artist living and working in Utrecht.
Although he creates joyful, bonkers illustrative work for unlikely clients such as Bose, Red Bull, Google, The Guardian and Keds among others, Merijn is also renowned for his beautiful wooden sculptures sold as pieces of art to his ever-growing fanbase. His curious, optimistic characters and passion for mixed-media are testament to Merijn’s ability to make every brief as important as the last, and treat every commission with the same respect and attention as his personal work.
"The shapes in nature are not always natural since they are transformed by our touch and our daily lives. We bend and shift them to create a new world around us that we can live harmoniously in."
Christopher DeLorenzo’s work is informed by literature and writing; something very much evident in the way each of his simple monochrome drawings manages to convey a rich narrative in black, white and charm.
Boston-based Christopher DeLorenzo’s character-driven work is based on his philosophy that everything can be a portal into something. Equally informed by his love for film and passion for literature, he crafts illustrations that bridge ideas through the foundations of shapes. A master at paring down forms to find their most iconic qualities, the artist work navigates skilfully between illustration, type and design. He loves finding the poetry in simple solutions and his deceptively straightforward, monochromatic drawings are loaded with playful metaphors.
