Arabia’s Peppi cups bring joy to Matti Pikkujämsä
Matti Pikkujämsä is an award-winning Finnish illustrator known for his warm and humorous children’s book illustrations.
“HAVING UNEARTHED ARABIA’S Peppi cups from my cupboards, I drink espresso from them during the week. I had bought the cups, which feature animals, here and there, and then stored them for several years. I’m fascinated by how design endures and how you can rediscover an object and derive new meaning from it at different stages of life, for example.
Gunvor Olin-Grönqvist designed the Peppi children’s tableware collection for Arabia in the 1960s. The cups are adorned with charming animal illustrations.
Atmosphere is important to me, and I choose my coffee cups carefully. The Peppi cups inspire my anarchist, childish side and liberate me from being too adult, making space for creativity. One of the cups features a small worm, which I think is an absolutely exhilarating detail.
“The Peppi cups inspire my anarchist, childish side and liberate me from being too adult, making space for creativity.”
Respect for design is the ultimate form of ecological thinking. Knowing the origin and designer of an object adds so much to a simple coffee cup, for example. We can now be ecological with high-quality, so to speak, because almost everything can be bought second-hand.
Matti Pikkujämsä drinks espresso from the Peppi cups.
The colorful Peppi collection features four different mocha cups with saucers.
I've long been an amateur collector of antiques. At one point, I even planned to have my own antique shop. Many of the things I collect are related to drawn images because, as an illustrator, I continuously surround myself with inspiration. The illustrations on Peppi cups are one of the reasons they are so important to me.”
What is Franckly?
• Franckly.com is a new online marketplace for pre-owned design
• Created and curated by Finnish Design Shop
• Buy and sell pre-owned design treasures: Franckly.com >
See also:
• Tableware designed by Gunvor Olin-Grönqvist >
• All Arabia tableware at Franckly >
Text and photos: Suvi Kesäläinen
Published on 8 Dec, 2020
