Iittala looks to nature for inspiration for its poetic tableware and has a talent for choosing brilliantly intuitive artists to do the rest by Marta Bernasconi
ost of us know Iittala’s work from Alvar Aalto’s iconic glass vase which looks like a Finnish lake in miniature but was inspired by waves in motion. That 1936 classic aside, Iittala has been developing and diversifying its table and homeware since it first opened its doors in the little Finnish village of the same name in 1881. A member of the Fiskars Group for the last decade, the company has come to epitomise a distinctively Scandinavian style inspired by the natural world. Its strongest designs and best-sellers remain its glass products. Interestingly, Aalto’s vase, which is widely acknowledged as one of the most sublime examples of organic design and is now on show at MOMA in New York, is still hand-blown
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