How I ended up designing tableware
Where it started
As a kid, I spent a lot of my time at Pola, my family's clothing company. Its story goes back to 1927, when a shirt factory in Helsinki was bought by Frans Isak Kurikka and renamed Pallo-Paita. His son Pentti Kurikka founded Pola in 1952, and over the following decades the two companies made shirts and clothing that were sold across Finland and exported to Sweden, Norway, Britain and the Soviet Union. By the mid-1980s they employed around 400 people.
Later, my granddad, Jukka Kurikka, ran Pola as its managing director, and my grandmother, Ia Kurikka, designed its collections. It was a place where things were designed, made and sold under one roof. Being around that left a mark on me. From an early age I knew that I wanted to create.
Industrial design
I never set out to design tableware, though. That wish to create took me into industrial design, which I studied and worked in for years, first in Sweden, then in Italy and Denmark. It was a good education in how things are made, and in how much thought can go into an everyday object.
Coming home
When I moved back to Finland, I was curious about how the objects around us are actually produced here. What I found surprised me. The craftsmanship was remarkable: glassblowers, ceramists and other makers with skills passed down over generations. And yet it was surprisingly hard to find. Most of what ends up in our homes and restaurants is made in large, distant facilities, with no connection to the people who make it. I wanted to understand why.
The answer came through food
The answer came, somewhat by accident, through gastronomy. Meeting head chefs at some of the best restaurants in the country, I saw the same pattern again and again. Their cooking was rooted in local ingredients and traditions, but the plates and glasses they served on rarely reflected that. The same glass and ceramics filled dining rooms everywhere, generic and disconnected from the places they were used.
The chefs felt it too. They wanted tableware that was as distinct as their food, something that belonged to their restaurant and set it apart. That is where my work began.
Where the name comes from
The name Iisak is a combination of three names: Frans Isak, who started it all, Pentti Iisakki, who founded Pola, and my own, Isac. It is a reminder that designing and making things close to home is something my family has done for generations, long before me.
What I do today
Today I design every piece around a specific theme, gastronomy or brand, and bring each design to life together with a network of independent glassblowers and ceramists in Finland. Much of the inspiration comes from nature, from its textures and shapes, like the ripples that shifting sand leaves on the seabed in our Sandwaves pieces.
Every design starts as a piece made for a specific restaurant or hotel. Through our sale periods, the same pieces can now find their way to your table too.