That Google chose Marimekko to design their logo to celebrate the first day of Spring this year (or the first day of Autumn if that's your part of the world) is witness their iconic status designers - go to Marimekko to see the two logos. I am a fan of just about anything Scandinavian, and I've long been a Marimekko-fancier - can't ever get past their St Christopher's Place shop if I'm in London. Their colours are Crayola-fantastic and their designs touch the childlike side of us all. Of course there is nothing new under the sun and Marimekko actually began in Helsinki, Finland just over 60 years ago. Fascinatingly, the late Jacqueline Kennedy was actually a Marimekko-fancier. It seems she wore no less than eight of their dresses throughout the 1960 United States Presidential campaign. The aim of Marimekko at the outset was to recruit leading designers, and Maija Isola's iconic 1964 Unikko print is the one on the Nissan Micra and the coffee table in these pictures. I wonder if getting in touch with your childlike side is what design is really about?
1 Marimekko exhibition, Calais, France, 2007, photo by tomski 2 Nissan Micra with Marimekko flower design, photographed at the Nissan Gallery, Japan by Miki Yoshihito 3 Detail from a coffee table in a cafe, photo by Juska WendlandAll photos from Flickr under CC BY LIcense
