Unikko Fabric

Maija Isola, who regarded herself as an artist rather than a designer, began designing furnishing fabrics for Printex in 1949. She created over 530 designs for Marimekko, mainly from her own studio—where she made paintings that were then translated into screen prints. Unikko is one of Marimekko's best-loved prints.

At Marimekko's printing factory, artists and technicians operate two printing machines: a rotary printing machine and a flatbed printing machine. "Unikko" was printed on the flatbed, which enables large-scale and technically more demanding patterns to repeat.

When printing with flatbed technique the color is printed through a thin screen cloth stretched to a metallic frame. All frames used in printing are made by hand at the facility.

To ensure that all colors work well together and to review the design, all patterns are printed with a sample printing machine before starting the actual production. After printing, the fabric is dried, and the colors are stabilized by steaming. Then, the fabric is washed, dried, and finished.