# NK Textilkammare Geometric Print (Astrid Sampe, Signerad Textil)

> The reduced, geometric household textiles of NK's textile department in Stockholm under Astrid Sampe: small ruled units, stripes, checks, arrows and thin outlines repeated evenly, mostly on screen-printed linen and cotton, some on woven linen, in black and white with a few flat accents of red, blue or yellow. Sampe's late-1940s fabrics followed Mondrian; the 1954 Signerad Textil collection put artists' names, Aalto's among them, on industrially printed cloth. Quiet, rational cloth with no focal point and no type in the repeat.

- Period: 1937–1971
- Where: Northern Europe
- Origin: Stockholm: the textile department (Textilkammaren) of the Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) department store. NK employed Astrid Sampe (1909–2002) as a textiles expert in 1936, and in 1937 she became head of the newly founded department; SKBL dates her NK post to about 1936–1960, English Wikipedia says she led the department until it closed in 1971, and Swedish Wikipedia that she left NK in 1972 to set up her own studio. The period's start of 1937 marks the department's founding, not this strand: the geometric prints documented here belong to the late 1940s and the 1950s. She designed around 250 patterns in various techniques and materials (SKBL), for NK and for manufacturers such as Kasthall and Almedahls, and brought in designers such as Viola Gråsten, Stig Lindberg and Arne Jacobsen. NK's textiles were printed by the metre at Erik Ljungbergs Textiltryck in Floda, which also printed the 1954 'Signerad Textil' collection of designs by twelve artists (SKBL); Alvar Aalto's '14/6' was printed and distributed by NK Textilkammare for it. The department also commissioned woven cloth (from Mölnlycke, per SKBL), and Sampe's Linnelinjen household linen for Almedahls was woven, so the strand covers mostly printed but also woven household textiles. This entry covers the department's reduced, geometric strand, not all of its output.
- Branch: Rational modernism
- Also known as: NK Textilkammare, NK:s Textilkammare (the textile department of Nordiska Kompaniet), Signerad Textil (Signed Textiles, 1954), Swedish Modern geometric textile print
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/nk-textilkammare-geometric-print/

## How it works

- Build the repeat from one small geometric unit (a stripe, a square, a short arrow, a thin outline) and repeat it evenly so that no part of the cloth becomes the centre.
- Rule the lines straight and keep them thin and even; leave the wobble of the hand-cut edge to other prints.
- Start from black and white, then add one to three flat accents of red, blue or yellow, in the Mondrian manner, rather than many colours.
- Keep the scale small enough for curtains, tablecloths and household linen, so the pattern reads as a calm texture across the room.
- Let the designer's name and the pattern's name carry the identity, instead of lettering or emblems in the repeat.
- Design mainly for screen printing by the metre in industrial runs (flat colour, no shading, a repeat a printer can register), and carry the same stripes and checks into woven household linen.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (defining)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (characteristic)
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (defining)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (defining)
- [Measured density](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/measured-density/) (characteristic)
- [Generous white space](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/generous-white-space/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (defining)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Primary triad](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/primary-triad/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (defining)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (defining)
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (characteristic)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (defining)

### Ornament
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (defining)
- [Rules & bars](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/) (defining)
- [Geometric tessellation](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-tessellation/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (defining)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Textile & craft](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/textile-and-craft/) (defining)
- [Screen printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/screen-printing/) (defining)

### Tone & intent
- [Rational & objective](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rational-and-objective/) (defining)
- [Calm & contemplative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/calm-and-contemplative/) (characteristic)

Avoids: Floral & vegetal, Abundant decoration, Full polychrome, Horror vacui, Single focal point, Painterly brushwork, Stylised figuration, Naturalistic depiction, Gradients, Optical pattern, Straight photography, Illusion of depth

Palette: #f2eee4, #161616, #c62a20, #1f4f9a, #e5b51f, #8f8b82

Typefaces: No lettering in the repeat: the pattern carries the identity, and any type belongs on a plain label, tag or panel beside the cloth, The printed selvedge mark naming maker, pattern and designer in capitals, such as 'TEXTILKAMMARE MADE IN SWEDEN "14/6" ALVAR AALTO DESIGN' on Aalto's 14/6 (MFA Boston 2012.847), The artist's name as the brand: the 1954 collection was sold as Signerad Textil ('signed textiles'), naming each pattern's designer, from Astrid Sampe to the architect Alvar Aalto, For accompanying graphics, a quiet geometric or grotesque sans set small and flush left in the Swedish functionalist manner, such as Futura (a modern pairing, not a documented NK house face)

Known for: Astrid Sampe, 'Tattoo', 1956, screen-printed linen furnishing fabric retailed by Nordiska Kompaniet: white stripes on a yellow ground with black double-pointed arrows facing each other across them (V&A CIRC.164-1956); Alvar Aalto, '14/6', screen-printed cotton for the Signerad Textil collection, printed and distributed by NK Textilkammare, 1954: a black, grid-like print on white cotton, the selvedge marked 'TEXTILKAMMARE MADE IN SWEDEN "14/6" ALVAR AALTO DESIGN' (MFA Boston 2012.847); the Nationalmuseum holds the original design (NMH 39/1982) and a length in the black-and-white colourway (NMK 151/1979); Astrid Sampe's late-1940s curtain fabrics 'Rutil' and 'Fibra' and tablecloth 'Campari', inspired by Piet Mondrian, with 'simple geometrics in black, white, with blue, red, and yellow accents' (SKBL); Astrid Sampe and Marianne Nilsson, Linnelinjen household linen for Almedahls, shown at H55, Helsingborg, 1955, including the woven linen kitchen towel 'Kökstrivsel' with red and black stripes (still made by Klässbols linneväveri); Astrid Sampe and Louise Fougstedt, archive binder of textile samples made by Almedahls AB for Nordiska Kompaniets Textilkammare, designed 1955–59 (Nationalmuseum NMK 190/1976); The organic, outline edge of the strand: Astrid Sampe, 'Coral Structure', 1954, screen-printed linen furnishing fabric with outlines of coral formations on a dark ground, Nordiska Kompaniet (V&A CIRC.589B-1954 and CIRC.589D-1954, given by AB Nordiska Kompaniet)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Scandinavian Functionalism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/scandinavian-functionalism.md) (1930–present)
- Influenced by: [De Stijl](https://stylogeny.com/styles/de-stijl.md) (1917–1931)
- Alike in its design choices: [10-gruppen (Tiogruppen) Printed Textiles](https://stylogeny.com/styles/tio-gruppen.md) (1970–2015), 63% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Zagreb Modernist Graphics (EXAT 51 to Teatar &TD)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/zagreb-modernist-graphics.md) (1951–1975), 53% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Early Computer Art & Plotter Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/early-computer-plotter-graphics.md) (1963–1980), 51% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Finnish Bold Print (Marimekko Modernism)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/finnish-bold-print.md) (1951–present), 49% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Brazilian Concrete Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/brazilian-concrete.md) (1951–1975), 49% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Festival of Britain 'Contemporary' Pattern (Lucienne Day and the Festival Pattern Group)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/festival-contemporary-pattern.md) (1951–1960), 48% alike

## Sources

- https://www.skbl.se/en/article/AnnaAstridSampe
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrid_Sampe
- https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrid_Sampe
- https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O269707/
- https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O269705/
- https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O16643/
- https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/9129/
- https://coraginsburg.com/artworks/9529-alvar-aalto-14-6-printed-cotton-1954/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Gr%C3%A5sten
- https://collections.mfa.org/objects/566020

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “NK Textilkammare Geometric Print (Astrid Sampe, Signerad Textil)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/nk-textilkammare-geometric-print/