Kustaa Saksi is Stockholm Furniture Fair’s Guest Creative 2025

Stockholm Furniture Fair is excited to announce Kustaa Saksi as the Guest Creative for the 2025 edition, marking the first time the fair is inviting a creative visionary to craft the fair’s artwork. Kustaa Saksi, an internationally celebrated Finnish textile artist and designer, has created the visuals for the 2025 event, drawing inspiration from the designer’s creative journey and the fair’s overarching theme, Connecting the Dots.

Stockholm Furniture Fair’s collaboration with acclaimed Finnish artist and designer Kustaa Saksi, who has created a series of images especially commissioned for the upcoming 2025 event, is part of the fair’s continued ambition to broaden its scope to new disciplines and redefine the idea of what a trade fair can be.

Kustaa Saksi has established himself as a leading figure in the intersection of art and design, earning widespread recognition for his innovative work which merges jacquard weaving techniques with materials such as wool, rubber and metal. Over the years, Saksi has collaborated with renowned Scandinavian furniture brands like Nikari and Swedese, creating a special edition fabric for Yngve Engström’s classic Lamino chair, among other projects. He has also worked with global fashion brands including Hermès, Nike, Issey Miyake, and Marimekko, and his work has been exhibited at Victoria & Albert Museum and Design Museum.

In his works for Stockholm Furniture Fair, Saksi revisits his roots as a graphic designer. The images draw inspiration from a designer’s creative journey with its many phases and sources of inspiration.

“Every designer has a shelf filled with methods and ideas, and their designs are born out of those elements. Some come from their fantasy, some are inspired by different sources, some are results of experiments. There are versions after versions. Hopefully, these images enable the viewer to explore the design process leading to the end product on a deeper level, showing a designer’s everyday work,” Saksi says.

Saksi has also strived to visualize what he perceives as the essence of Nordic design: nature. In his own work, ideas from nature always play a central part.

“For Nordic designers, nature is in the DNA. It may be a cliché, but we can’t escape it even if we wanted to. In these images, I have included repeating patterns from nature, shapes that reveal the order of nature but also refer to the repeating processes used in industrial design,” Saksi explains.

Under the theme Connecting the Dots, Stockholm Furniture Fair 2025 will explore the web of cross-cultural and multidisciplinary influences that shape contemporary design. In addition to architecture, furniture and lighting design, the fair will highlight various other creative fields, including fashion and artisan craft.

“We’re glad to welcome Kustaa Saksi as our very first Guest Creative. With his work at the intersection of art, design and fashion, he brings a perspective to the fair that aligns perfectly with the year’s theme,” says Daniel Heckscher, Director at Stockholm Furniture Fair and Stockholm Design Week.

The visuals created by Saksi will be brought to life through animation by the Motion Design Artist Jurriaan Hos, adding a dynamic layer to the fair’s artistic expression.

In parallel with the fair, Saksi will also have a major exhibition at the Vandalorum Museum in Sweden, running from November 16, 2024, to May 24, 2025.

About Stockholm Furniture Fair and Stockholm Design Week

Stockholm Furniture Fair is Scandinavia’s leading meeting place for design and architecture. The next edition will be held February 4-8, 2025, at Stockholmsmässan.

Stockholm Design Week, organized by Stockholm Furniture Fair, runs in parallel with the fair in February and engages the whole city. The upcoming design week will be held February 3-9, 2025.

Kustaa Saksi Artwork