Matti Pikkujämsä Finnish Illustrator of children’s books and items for the home.

Matti Pikkujämsäti was born in 1976 Oulu, Finland, he graduated from high school in 1995 , after which he began to study graphic design in Art and Design and has been working since 1999. To date Matti has illustrated more than 10 children’s books, working with authors like Jukka Itkonen on children’s books of poetry and Anna -Mari Kaskinen’s with children’s stories. Here’s a selection of their covers.

I’m loving his funky animals in this ‘Krokotilli Hikoaa’ book, they look quite 1950’s.

More of an icy wintery selection here, to match the weather at the moment lol. Brrr…..

Warmer tones and this moody diary-writing teenager listening to her Abba Album, made me smile, as did the short-sighted bespectacled donkey in the woods.

There is a sense of comfort and joy in his work.

I like the ethics of Scandinavian company Kauniste, who commissions work from Matti. It was created by uniting the talents of young Scandinavian graphic designers and craftsmen, with an aim to combine the best of both worlds, fresh design and traditional screen printing skills. They work to create items that can be used and cherished in the daily life for decades to come.

Using water based, solvent free inks, they are careful not to waste water in production and print on linen mix fabric as the linen makes the fabric durable, it absorbs moisture well and dries fast. Linen leaves practically no surplus waste in production, and it’s qualities only improve with time. Here’s a few of Matti’s designs.

His artwork adorns aprons, cushions and crockery and this year, he also worked with Marimekko to create some new fashion fabrics

What a great style,  Matti paints with a brush, and creates sympathetic human and animal figures that are often playful in mood and humour.  His pictures are easily recognisable with bold sense of style and colour. Of course, it almost goes without saying, that I love the touch of retro in his illustrations too.

And for everyone in the Manchester area of the UK the weekend after this one, a small reminder that I’ll be taking part in the Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.  I’ll be joining 50 of the best local designers and craftspeople, in all manner of disciplines and you can see a line up here.

A great opportunity to grab something different for Christmas presents or a self treat too : ) Looking forward to seeing you there, do drop by and say hello. For details of how to get there, follow the link above.