Maija Isola, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Maija Isola

Finnish designer of printed textiles for Marimekko

Date of Birth: 15-Mar-1927

Place of Birth: Riihimäki, Tavastia Proper, Finland

Date of Death: 03-Mar-2001

Profession: painter, fashion designer, designer, textile artist, textile designer

Nationality: Finland

Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Maija Sofia Isola (15 March 1927 – 3 March 2001) was a Finnish designer of printed textiles, creating over 500 patterns including Unikko ("Poppy").
Her bold colourful designs made the home furnishings and fashion company Marimekko famous in the 1960s.
She also had a career as a visual artist. Isola exhibited across Europe including at the World Exhibition Brussels and the Milan Triennale, and in the USA.
Retrospectives of her work have been held at the Design Museum in Helsinki, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Design Museum, Copenhagen, the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, Ljubljana, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Her prints continue to sell at Marimekko. She lived and worked for most of her life in Finland, but spent some years in France, Algeria and the United States.
She was married three times.
Her daughter Kristina Isola in turn became a Marimekko designer, for a time collaborating with Maija.
Her granddaughter Emma also designs for the company.