Design Focus: Josef Frank Textiles

Anyone seeking relief from winter’s chill should warm up to the exuberant textile designs of Josef Frank, the great architect, artist and designer who blithely dispels any notions of Nordic design as all geometry and restraint. Frank was Austrian by birth, but Swedish by choice, and, well, lucky Sweden, we say. Frank’s nature-inspired illustrations—leaves and lemons, birds and butterflies, most created in the 1930’s and 1940’s for the Stockholm interior design company Svenskt Tenn—are jubilant, highly saturated confections of stylized repeat patterns and complex visual narratives. Still produced by Svenskt Tenn, Josef Frank fabric motifs remain amongst the most recognizable and coveted of Scandinavian textiles, and no wonder. It’s hard to imagine a more joyful antidote to those long northern winters. 

Image credits: Svenskt Tenn; Sea of Girasoles