From Rei Kawakubo to Supreme: Tracing Artek’s History of Collaborations

This year, beloved Finnish brand Artek celebrates its 90th anniversary. A lot has changed since its inception, which began back in 1935 when four young “idealists” Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen, and Nils-Gustav Hahl got together with a common goal – “to sell furniture and to promote a modern culture of living by exhibitions and other educational means.”

It’s true that these days, their furniture is more often found in loft apartments rather than educational settings, but the very fact that Artek continues to sell the exact designs it began with all those decades ago is a testament to the founders’ ability to cater to modern needs.

A key tactic the brand employed in rooting itself in the present moment has been through external collaboration.

By working with the likes of Comme des Garçons and Supreme, Artek has been able to continually reinterpret its iconic furniture – most often the Stool 60 – and in doing so, has opened up their products to new audiences.

In celebration of 90 years of collaboration, we sat down with the brand’s managing director Marianne Goebl, who took us on a journey down memory lane of Artek’s most iconic collaborations.

Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons
Polka Dot, 2013

Rei Kawakubo has been integrating Artek into Comme des Garçons’ and Dover Street Market’s activities for nearly two decades, with joint projects spanning exhibitions, leather goods, a co-created perfume, and various furniture interventions.

For the 80th anniversary of Stool 60 in 2013, Artek presented Rei Kawakubo’s special edition featuring Comme des Garçons’ signature polka dot pattern. The cheerful black-and-white version of Stool 60 was originally designed in 2011 for the Two Towers pocket @ Artek Store concept, co-created by Artek and Comme des Garçons.

Nao Tamura
Untitled, 2013

Also in celebration of the Stool 60’s 80th anniversary, Japanese designer Nao Tamura applied a cross section of an 80-year-old tree onto the seat.

Tamura aimed for the stool to “evoke the bounty of nature as seen by the passage of 80 years of time”. A tree’s rings, which demonstrate its yearly trials and tribulations, offer a humbling viewpoint of nature’s love of life, and this celebration was created by layering this complex and organic graphic of life onto Alvar Aalto Stool’s beautiful geometric shape.

Mike Meiré
Untitled, 2013

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Stool 60 in 2013, Mike Meiré customised a series of stools with a palette of colours traditionally used by Aalto.

Based on the notion of the stool being in permanent movement, Meiré decided to create disorder by painting each of the three legs of the stool in a different color, which offered new perspectives of the stool every time it moved. For a first presentation, Meiré hand-painted different colors with varying glossiness to each side of the legs. For the commercialised, yet limited edition, each leg was eventually assigned one solid colour.

Moomin
Untitled, 2013

The first collaboration between Artek and Moomin in 2013 involved applying masterfully drawn Moomin characters from Tove Jansson’s output in the 1950s as a decorative layer on laminate. Laminate is the most durable surface offered on Aalto furniture and is particularly popular on children’s furniture. The collection comprised a large selection of drawings and various Aalto furniture models, including Stool 60, the four-legged Stool E60, Chair 66, round Table 90B, and the children’s furniture Stool NE60 and Chair N65. Jansson’s artful line work and the endearing Moomin characters beautifully complemented the clear lines of Aalto’s furniture.

Supreme
Untitled, 2017

Artek’s collaboration with Supreme was partly inspired by learning about the connection between Alvar Aalto’s kidney-shaped pool at Villa Mairea and the origins of skateboarding.

Aalto’s straightforward construction methods and innovative wood-bending techniques naturally align with the core values of the skateboard and streetwear communities: authenticity, craftsmanship, and a rebellious spirit.

Jo Nagasaka
ColoRing, 2019

This project came about as a way to commemorate 100 years of diplomatic relations between Finland and Japan, and for Goebl, architect Jo Nagasaka was an obvious choice.

Using Artek classics, Nagasaka applied vibrant color combinations using age-old Japanese techniques named Udukuri and Tsugaru-nuri.

“The results are surprising color combinations and irregular patterns that evoke topographical maps,” adds Goebl. “With the wooden structure remaining partly visible, natural beauty is retained while creating intriguing juxtapositions.”

Buaisou Aizome
2019

Another collaboration celebrating Finnish-Japanese relations was with a collective dedicated to reviving the area’s art of indigo production.

“As an experiment, they dyed one of our stool legs, and the deep, velvety result was so stunning we couldn’t resist,” Goebl added.

As part of the collaboration, 100 stools were hand-dyed with indigo and finished with a protective lacquer. In addition, 10 stools were left without lacquer, allowing the indigo to naturally fade over time – “a poetic reflection on the passage of time and use,” says Goebl.

Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Kiss), 2019

The collaboration with Barbara Kruger was the first of the Artists Editions series developed with the roster of artists at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA).

Kruger, who held her first institutional solo show at the ICA in 1983, is known for her bold, collage-based work that combines black-and-white imagery with provocative text. She brought this to the stool, which was finished in Kruger’s signature black, white, and red color scheme and hand-numbered with her stamp of authenticity.

“At first glance, Kruger’s Stool 60 Untitled (Kiss) appears to deliver a sweet and simple message, but if you sit on it, you’ll complete the sentence,” Goebl added.

Heath Ceramics
Nesting Stools, 2021

The collaboration between Heath Ceramics and Artek began nearly a decade ago. Despite working with distincly different materials – wood and clay – they have been exploring how the two can intersect and take inspiration from one another.

When conversations began, an idea emerged to transform three stools into a nesting set. “When in use, the trio creates a landscape of varying heights, functioning as both seating and side tables,” Gobel added. “When stacked, all legs touch the floor, and the top stool remains stable and fully functional.”

The blue gradient color scheme was inspired by a glaze used by Heath Ceramics at the time.

Fischli Weiss
21 Questions, 2021

For the second Artists’ Edition with the ICA, Artek approached Peter Fischli of the Swiss artist duo Fischli Weiss. “Fischli had previously received a Barbara Kruger Stool (the first Artists’ Edition) as a gift,” Goebl says. “Although not particularly interested in owning a design icon, he acknowledged the stool’s practicality, mounting it and pulling a t-shirt over it so the disguised object could still serve as a seat, table, and display.”

When invited to intervene on the stool himself, Fischli suggested to riff on Kruger’s signature red for the legs, combining it with a plain white seat top, over which a black t-shirt, turned inside out, would be pulled. The resulting “21 Questions” editions paired the stool with a bespoke t-shirt that featured 21 selected excerpts from the Fischli/Weiss artwork Questions.

Wood Wood
Untitled, 2022

The artistic director for Wood Wood, a long-time fan and collector of Stool 60, had experimented with several linseed oil-based stains on untreated stools in his garden. “He wanted to add a dimension of colour to the iconic Stool 60 without compromising the wood’s beautiful natural grain,” Goebl added.

Artek eventually settled on three vivid hues—bothnia blue, factory yellow, and powder pink—which were translated into water-based stains at their factory. The stools were presented on the occasion of Wood Wood’s 20th Anniversary.

Tsuyoshi Tane Stool 60
Sleeping Beauty, 2023

In 2023, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the iconic Stool 60, Artek worked alongside Japanese architect Tsuyoshi Tane to create a stool that explored the properties of birch, resulting in a piece that explored the aging process of wood.

“His experiments led him to quite literally bury the raw components of the stool in soil,” Goebl said. “Tane buried raw birch components of the Stool in different soils collected from sites across Japan to explore their effect on the untreated wood.”

“Calcium-rich soil turned the birch a soft yellow; volcanic soil resulted in rich black tones; while aluminum-laden soil produced pale, almost white hues.”

Formafantasma
Forest Collection, 2024

Artek’s ongoing collaboration with research-based design studio Formafantasma was all about driving systemic change within the company’s supply chain.

“Formafantasma’s research into the Finnish forest sensitized us to the impact of industrialization and climate change on the decades-old birch trees traditionally used in Aalto’s furniture,” Goebl said.

“The Forest Collection introduces a wider wood selection called “wild birch” that embraces natural variations—knots, insect trails, and colour shifts—as marks of authenticity rather than imperfections.”

A particularly gratifying moment occurred at Artek’s factory in Southern Finland, when the production team shared their genuine enthusiasm with Formafantasma for the new approach – one that enables them to make fuller use of each tree in the creation of Artek’s long-lasting products.

Paul Smith
2024, 2025

Many associate Artek products with natural birch or classic black and white finishes, but color has been an integral part of Artek’s design language from the very beginning. “Who better to work with than Sir Paul Smith to reimagine a color palette for Artek classics?,” Goebl said.

Rather than using his own original pallette, Smith opted for subtle tones inspired by the hues found in natural woods. A nod to his signature, when multiple stools are stacked, the Paul Smith stripe comes to life in a playful, unexpected way.

Moomin,
2025

They might be 10 years Artek’s junior, but the Moomins were also celebrating a special anniversary this year. Being two of Finland’s biggest cultural exports, it made perfect sense to mark both birthdays in a collaborative collection.

“We selected doodle-like line drawings and hand-written texts from Tove Jansson’s earliest notebooks and Moomin stories, which talk about adventure, friendship, and celebration,” says Goebl. These drawings were then engraved on the Stool 60 and a cabinet.

“We wondered if our respective founders, who all circulated in Helsinki’s cultural scene, knew each other,” she added. “Sure enough, we found an endearing drawing by Tove Janssons in the guestbook of Villa Mairea, the masterpiece of a villa owned by Maire Gullichsen, co-founder at Artek, and designed by the Aaltos.”

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