IITTALA
Iittala is the name of a village in the south of Finland where the Swedish (yes, you read that correctly) company founder Peter Magnus Abrahamsson was born and whose name he chose to give his glass workshop in 1881. At first Iittala was all about the art of traditional glass processing, later they specialised in crystal glass. From the 1930s on Iittala started producing more simple and especially unadorned glass products. At the time when the world praised the industrial revolution the Finnish company began propagating natural, organic shapes with works by Alvar and Aino Aalto, which became world famous. With the Alvar Aalto vase from the year 1936 Iittala reinvented the Finnish glass trade and surpassed the success of traditional crystal glass with the modern designs by the Aalto family.
Iittala counts as a pioneer in Scandinavian design. The Finnish company stands for reduced shapes close to nature and bold colours. With their goal to brighten up our daily lives Iittala works with internationally renowned designers – who are mostly based in the high North – to produce high-quality everyday objects and tools for the dining table and the kitchen that are aesthetic and emotional as well as simply timeless. Next to their newer collections like the crockery sets Sarjaton and Origo or even the Tools set, Iittala has been manufacturing their great design classics like the wavy Alvar Aalto vase for over 70 years. The hand-blown vase is one of the most famous glass objects in the world and even today is a synonym for the Finnish art of producing glass objects and for the manufacturer Iittala. Other collections, like Kastehelmi, were reissued after 20 years and their renewed success once more speaks for the timeless design vocabulalry utilised by Iittala products.
Also the Taika crockery set seems typically Nordic with its décor that reminds us of the widespread Finnish woods and their mystical creatures and adorns the geometrically rather simple cups, plates, and bowls. Essentially more puristic is the Teema crockery collection, which was designed by Kaj Frank as early as 1952 and is the right choice for every occasion with its clear lines and shapes.
Today Iittala means more than just the art of Finnish glass work. Several of the living accessories made by Iittala were presented with design awards and stand in the most important design museums worldwide.