NAPA: Illustrations, Books, Comics, Shop, Art and Shoes

NAPA is a big cluster of things under the same little name. NAPA the illustration agency helps clients and illustrators meet and shake hands. NAPA the storefront is an art and illustration bookstore slash gallery. NAPA the publisher is the producer of many art & illustration books.

NAPA people are all busy bees. NAPA the illustration agency is run by savvy Marjo Granlund. And Jenni Rope, one of the illustrators represented by NAPA, is also the NAPA shop’s director-artist-sweetheart. The day I met Jenni, she was zipping about the gallery, installing photographs for an art opening and release party for a retrospective issue of the Scandinavian graffiti fan mag GASMASK, while trying her best to be hospitable to the nosy foreigner (me) in the corner.

You can meet Marjo and Jenni in person at NAPA’s storefront in Helsinki’s self-proclaimed “Design District” and say hei. Just beware: If you stop by during non-gallery hours, they might let you in to look around, but there is no time to chat. They will be hard at work in the back room. So browse the artfully-spaced shelves of their publications, scattered amongst other art books and trinkets they love. For some reason they wouldn’t charge me for any of the books I picked out. I hope those eight Euros weren’t lost in translation.

NAPA Gallery & Shop
www.napagalleria.com
Eerikinkatu 18
Helsinki, Finland

Open
Thusday—Friday 12 – 6PM
Saturday—Sunday 12 – 4PM

NAPA Illustrations
www.napaillustrations.com
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Visit NAPA’s multifaceted website (www.napabooks.com) to meet some of their super-talented illustrators, artists and friends.

Designers, Producers, Sellers and Shopkeepers

So I was cruising the internet one day, looking for Finnish-Kalevalatarot cards, when I stumbled onto the website of Company, a Finnishdesign team. The cutest darn website too! (www.com–pa–ny.com) I spent hours looking through all the little winking folders, discovering all the top secrets Aamu Song and Johan Olin had hidden for me to find. These two whimsical but super pragmatic characters have managed to design and produce the some of the most clever, not to mention desirable products I have ever seen.

So desirable, in fact, that I went to Helsinki and hunted them down in their studio, where they work alongside some of the sweetest young designers, photographers, producers, publishers, and architects in Anteeksi, Helsinki. (Anteeksi is Finnish for “Thank You.”) I cornered Johan and Aamu in their section of the Anteeksi loft office, and made them sell me some products from their Secrets of Finland line right there on the spot. Aamu is a firecracker, Johan a quieter Finnish-type, but they are both just way too modest about their practice. They rock. And I still think there is more “Art” to their “Design” than they will ever admit.

Here is a little chat I had with Johan of Company via e-mail:

Rachael Marszewski: You have two product lines so far: Top Secrets of Finland and Made in Korea. Both lines were designed and manufactured within the country they were named for. Are there any other countries where you would like to design and manufacture products?

Johan Olin: Yes, many. Next month we will go and try to start a “Made in Vietnam” project in Ho Chi Min City . . . “Made in the US” would be fun too, someday.

RM: Many of your products are inspired by Finnish or Korean culture and use manufacturers that specialize in local or traditional materials. For example, Tanssitossut (Dance Shoes) are made in the style of traditional Finnish felt shoes, and the felt is manufactured by the Lahtinen Felt Factory. Lahtinen is the last remaining factory to produce this purely Finnish material. Could you tell us a little about what inspires you to chose local or traditional means of manufacturing your new products?

JO: For us it is important to know where and who makes the product. Local manufacturing enables us to meet the makers and make a product that feels like them.

RM: Over the last two years, Company has opened temporary Secret Shops in Oslo, Berlin, and Milan. Now you are moving into your first permanent shop, located in a little kiosk in the heart of Helsinki. Will it still be a Secret Shop in such a busy location?

JO: The name Top Secrets of Finland came from the fact that it is not commonly known here that there are still such manufacturers left. I hope the Secret Shop becomes a big secret.

RM: Your website says, you work as designers, producers, sellers and shopkeepers. You have been traveling around a lot this last year too! How do you manage to do all this stuff?

JO: We are now opening a permanent shop, and hope the need for traveling gets less (no more touring Secret Shop).

RM: Do you have any words of wisdom (or old Finnish-Korean proverbs) for the aspiring designers, producers, sellers, and shopkeepers of the world?

JO: Eteenpäin – sano mummo lumessa – “Forward,” said Grandma, standing in deep snow.

Interested in seeing more of Company’s products or prototypes? Visit their website, and buy a copy of Company / Cookbook.

A Selective Directory of Art Spaces, Places, Artists and Designers in Helsinki [PDF]

by Rachael Marszewski