London-based design studio Studiomama merges the design sensibilities of Jack Mama and Nina Tolstrup. The pair produce designs that are well considered, playful and honest. Among their most popular projects is the Offcuts series, an informal collection of animal-shaped figurines they create from scraps of wood in their workshop. Continuing their passion for playful objects is the Norppa Seal for Vaarnii, a joyful rocking toy with a compelling sculptural quality. Interview by Rosa Bertoli. 

Vaarnii teamed up with Tableau for Copenhagen's 3 Days of Design 2023, June 7.–9.

Photographer Jussi Puikkonen’s images of Finnish landscapes, Brutalist architecture and whimsical everydayism led to the commission to chronicle Vaarnii. Since then, Puikkonen’s idiosyncratic imagery has become a key tool in the expression of the individualism and originality of the Vaarnii character. Here, Puikkonen explains how he captures the brutal and the sophisticated in Vaarnii’s imagery.

One prolific mid-century designer laboured over lights made from pine veneer. Now Vaarnii have re-engineered a number of iconic pendants by Hans-Agne Jakobsson and relaunched them for a new generation.

Designer Fredrik Paulsen has a long-standing love of pine. What began as a relationship of convenience, when Paulsen turned to accessible materials as a young designer, has developed into a deep-held appreciation. Today Paulsen’s much-coveted psychedelic pine furniture and structures are defining works in a genre of design that promotes unpretentious materials. Paulsen is also a compulsive producer of chairs, making him a natural choice to design Vaarnii’s 001 Dining Chair.

Carefully crafting wooden objects by hand is a much-loved pursuit of Danish designer Henrik Tjaerby, yet the economy and efficiency of industrial design is his passion too. Tjaerby brings these two alternate methods of making together in furniture designs he describes as the product of a ‘50/50’ approach; craft and engineering combined. What better match, then, for Vaarnii where craft skills regular run alongside hi-tech processes in their pursuit of a modern vernacular. Tjaerby’s first design for Vaarnii is Osa, a series of outdoor furniture that perfectly demonstrates these shared values.

Much of Finland is covered in forest, where there isn’t water you can pretty much guarantee that there are trees. It is an iconic, extreme, landscape with a measurable resonance: The existence of the forests has shaped our economy, our lifestyle, our culture.