Today I wanted to introduce you the work of the amazing Scandinavian designer Maria Dahlgren! I first came across Maria’s work during a trip to IKEA when I picked up one of their KORT Art packs featuring 5 small prints of her work. I loved the playful colors, patterns and typography. I looooove the way Maria approaches type, playing with positive/negative space and color to create her the city prints, for which she is known. Now that I’ve been to several of these cities (Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm) it’s fun to recognize some of the landmarks she depicts in her work.
The career of Swedish Designer, Maria Holmer Dahlgren, began at the internationally-renowned Swedish stationary company, Ordning & Reda. Maria co-founded Ordning & Reda and designed for them for 18 years. Other achievements include being commissioned to design the interior graphics for Stockholm’s stylish boutique hotel “Rival,” owned by ABBA’s Benny Andersson.
Maria now has her own thriving design company, Metagram. She designs a variety of contemporary trays and other pieces aimed at the high-end tourist market, and currently sells them in places such as Stockholm’s “Moderna Museet” gallery.
Of her work, Maria says…
“…There’s beautiful art all around us, if we just open our eyes to it.”
IKEA Kort – pictured above. At $5 this is a STEAL for her work
Stockholm Tea Towel
Helsinki Tray (above).
Trays are HUGE in Scandinavian interior design stores, not sure why they’re so popular, but every print comes on a tray … and they’re expensive too. Most are made from Scandinavian birch trees which are everywhere in Sweden and have the most beautiful white and black bark.
Breakfast Tray
From Futura Trays – love this series!
Stockholm Tray
Happy Thoughts Tray
Tate Tray designed exclusively for the Tate Modern. See the entire collection here.
TuttiFrutti Tray – one of my favorites!
Look at this alphabet!
Helsinki Capital Cities Print -went to a bunch of these places while in Finland – you can see the birch tree bark where is says Design Museo – makes a great pattern right.
Hope you enjoyed the work of Maria Dahlgen as much as I do!
dcwdesign // blog 