Sanna Annukka
83 // Sanna Annukka was born in Brighton, UK, but moved back and forth between the UK and Finland during her childhood. Sanna is now based in Brighton, where she studied Illustration at the University of Brighton. Her Finnish culture and childhood experiences travelling around Lapland are a constant inspiration. Her time spent in this wild part of the world has given her work a magical quality. Sanna is one of the designers on Marimekko’s roster, and has designed for Apple (iTunes), Selfridges, Marks & Spencer, British Vogue and many others. One day she would love to design something sculptural – a permanent landmark or show piece within a building – and she is very interested in exploring and working with new materials, such as brass, wood and ceramic. Going forward, Sanna has developed a range of fabrics under her own Sanna Annukka brand, and she has plans to expand into more products.
Design Heroes: Rut Bryk, Tove Jansson, Stig Lindberg
Juhannuslintu
Many of Sanna’s screenprints depict her favourite things, and birds are a much-loved subject. She has also started playing around with abstract pattern designs that have evolved from her experience as a textile designer for Marimekko.
Toteemi
A totemic composition of abstract shapes. Sanna designs all of her illustrations on the computer (using Adobe Illustrator) but still enjoys the organic journey of the screenprinting process, which allows for happy mistakes, colour developments, ad hoc details, etc.
Lintuja
Sanna is a printmaker at heart, and for this series she hand-screenprinted the designs herself, describing it as a very therapeutic process. This clever composition uses a ‘stack’ device to allow space for three birds.
Papatti
All of Sanna’s designs featured here are personal works and are available as screenprints from her online shop. With this print, Sanna wanted to celebrate her love of pattern, creating an abstract composition that is a pure expression of colour and form. Papatti is Finnish for ‘firecraker’.