”Timeless designs you can use year-round”—Meet the designers of Pentik, a Finnish ceramics and interior design pioneer
The designs of Pentik represent a lush and bountiful style that combines expansively painted floral and animal motifs with timeless, simple patterns. Everything is unified by the gentle touch of the human hand.
Pentik’s showroom boasts displays of colorful tablecloths, blankets, and stacks of patterned cushion covers. The designs showcase a side-by-side array of colorful botanical and animal themes, as well as almost geometrically simple lines and color fields.
“We design many of our patterns for specific seasons and events, such as spring celebrations and Christmas. We also always have timeless designs you can use year-round,” says designer Minna Niskakangas.
Pentik’s textile patterns are primarily designed by the two in-house designers, Minna Niskakangas and Lasse Kovanen. Freelance designers provide additional flare to Pentik’s collections.
Pentik: design from the north since 1971
Pentik started in 1971 as Anu Pentik’s hobby of ceramics and leatherworking.
Pentik’s own ceramics factory was established in Posio, Southern Lapland, Finland, in 1974. Two ceramists, Risto Paatero and Peter Winquist, were hired to design a collection and launch the factory’s production.
The company’s first shop opened its doors in Helsinki in 1976. Today, there are over 30 Pentik stores in Finland.
In the 1980s, Pentik also produced leather apparel and furniture. The production stopped during the recession of the 1990s.
Pentik’s factory is the northernmost ceramics factory in the world and currently the only one in Finland producing dishes meant for everyday use.
Painterly touch
The designer duo has had a long career in the company. Lasse Kovanen, who studied industrial design, joined the design team about twenty years ago, and Minna Niskakangas, who studied industrial and interior design, has 17 years of experience.
“We’ve been very comfortable here. It feels like we’re constantly learning and moving forward,” Minna says.
The duo design collections together, bouncing ideas back and forth and helping each other move an idea along when needed. They make up to twenty new patterns a year while also updating the color schemes of older designs.
Minna, you two have shared a studio for 17 years already. Could you tell us what your partner is like as a designer?
“Lasse is very innovative, impulsive, and quick. When he gets an idea, he puts it into action right away, and he has an incredible number of ideas. His style is rich, and his approach to design leans toward the arts,” Minna describes.
“Minna, too, is quick to change direction but works step by step, and her designs always have a timeless feel. She often thinks about patterns from the perspective of interior design,” Lasse says about his partner.
In your opinion, what is the distinctive feature of Pentik’s patterns that sets them apart from others?
“We always start our design process by using traditional fine art techniques. That way, the touch of the human hand can be seen in the final patterns,” says Lasse.
Lasse and Minna create patterns using such techniques as watercolor and ink painting, drawing, and printmaking. For next year’s collection, they learned a new painting technique called tempera.
“We always strive to try something new to keep our work fresh,” Minna explains. Pentik uses both roller printing and digital printing for manufacturing textiles, and the latter precisely capture details like gentle brushstrokes and watercolor color transitions.
Inspiration from northern nature
Pentik’s textiles feature many nature-inspired themes, like various flowers and leaves—some of them reduced to mere lines.
“We’re known as a sort of a flower shop,” Lasse jokes.
In addition to botanical motifs, animals from the Arctic also make appearances in the textiles—after all, the company’s roots and much of its production are in Southern Lapland.
How long do you two typically spend refining a pattern idea?
“There isn’t really a one-size-fits-all formula for designing. Sometimes we can make a pattern instantly, and other times we have to work on a theme for a long time. We also spend time modifying, scaling, and coloring the initial idea on the computer,” Minna explains.
“At the quickest, I’ve designed a pattern with just a few brushstrokes. I created the ‘Minttu’ (“Mint”) pattern after visiting the Orangerie Museum in Paris, and once I returned to Helsinki, I wanted to quickly convey the ideas I’d gotten from Matisse’s paintings,” Lasse says.
“I painted a couple of brushstrokes on paper in just a few seconds. For others, that sketch of a sketch looked like a proper pattern draft. It’s the fastest pattern I’ve ever designed.”
Touch of unpredictability
‘Kaarna’ is Saara Obele’s first pattern to be included in a Pentik collection. She came up with the idea while taking part in Aalto University’s Patternlab study module, where design students create print patterns and collaborate with textile manufacturers. It’s no surprise that it was ‘Kaarna’ that was chosen for Pentik’s collection—it is characterized by its handmade nature. The theme itself is also inspired by nature.
“Earlier that day, I had painted the pines I could see from my studio window. Right at the end of the day, I swept ink across a large sheet of paper with the edge of a piece of cardboard. It made dynamic strokes that looked like bark. I love this kind of hands-on process because there’s always a bit of unpredictability in it,” Saara says.
In addition to nature themes, Saara considers herself a fan of nostalgia. She finds inspiration for her pattern designs in items and patterns from past decades, especially the 1950s and 1970s.
This article was previously published in the Beloved Patterns magazine (1/2024).
