Vuokko Nurmesniemi

Vuokko Hillevi Lilian Eskolin-Nurmesniemi (born 12 February 1930 in Helsinki) is a Finnish textile designer. She is best known for her work as one of the two leading designers of the Marimekko company. Her signature striped Jokapoika shirt helped to make the company's name.

Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi joined the Finnish company Marimekko in 1953. She designed patterns for many of their printed fabrics in the 1950s; together with Maija Isola, she was responsible for most of Marimekko's patterns. Nurmesniemi's signature product was a simply striped red and white shirt named Jokapoika, in 1956; she went on to create a large number of striking designs.

Nurmesniemi left Marimekko in 1960 and founded her own company, Vuokko Oy, in 1964. This company closed its doors in 1988. In 1990 Nurmesniemi founded a second company, Vuokko Nurmesniemi Oy.

She received the Lunning Prize for design in 1964, the Prince Eugen Medal in 1986 and the Kaj Franck Design Prize in 1997.

She was married to designer Antti Nurmesniemi until his death in 2003.

A selection of her designs are in the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In the summer of 2009, the Röhsska museum in Gothenburg, Sweden, held an exhibition of her designs.

Ted Hesselbaum of the Swedish Röhsska Museum wrote of Vuokko's Retrospective in 2009:

Vuokko Nurmesniemi's collections for fashion and interior design have a strong graphic and colourful design. Their style and expression is clearly from the same era as Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Roy Lichtenstein.

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