The Pattern Centre

The Pattern Centre is home to our museum's collection of printed textiles. The space is divided into an exhibition space, museum shop, archive, and research facilities.

The new exhibition tells the story of Finnish textile printing, an industry that began in Forssa in the 1860s. Forssa maintained its status as a focal place of printmaking know-how and design, through the age of industrial textile printing in Finland, and continued onwards from the 1930s as an important part of Finlayson Co.

From the year 1951 onwards the Forssa design studio hosted textile designers and artists who created patterns of different colors and designs: stripes, polka dots, florals, abstracts, and everything in between, always getting inspired by the movements of art, popular culture, and design of their time. These printed fabrics dressed our nation, decorated our homes, and spread across the border to international markets.

Our permanent exhibition includes information, illustrations, and photographs of designers and their time as well as printed textiles, made into textile installations. These installations have been created to showcase different styles and decades of Finnish printed textile design. You can learn about color layering, color theory, and textile printing in our exhibition that invites you to touch, feel and try for yourself!