# 10-gruppen (Tiogruppen) Printed Textiles

> The printed fabrics of 10-gruppen, a Stockholm collective of ten textile designers founded in 1970: bright, flat all-over repeats of stripes, checks, dripping drops and simple figurative motifs such as dogs, bananas and Stockholm landmarks, in a few saturated inks on cotton or linen. Against the discreet patterns then usual in Swedish textiles, they made cheap, cheerful pattern for everyday goods, sold by the metre at IKEA and on bags and trays in the group's own shop. Unlike Marimekko's large organic shapes, the repeats are mid-sized, cleanly drawn and often pictorial.

- Period: 1970–2015
- Where: Northern Europe
- Origin: Stockholm, 1970. With the Swedish textile industry in crisis in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ten textile designers formed 10-gruppen to bring their colourful patterns to producers and buyers themselves, selling finished fabrics instead of pattern sketches so they kept more control of their work: Inez Svensson, Gunila Axén, Birgitta Hahn, Tom Hedqvist, Ingela Håkansson (later Håkansson-Lamm), Britt-Marie Christoffersson, Lotta Hagerman, Susanne Grundell, Carl Johan De Geer and Tage Möller (founders as listed by Swedish Wikipedia; Nationalmuseum gives 1970, an IKEA Museum press release 1971). Svensson had headed the design studio of Borås Wäfveri from 1957 to 1967, and Borås Wäfveri printed several of the group's fabrics. The ten worked side by side at one large table, each on their own patterns. Their colourful, eye-catching prints broke with the discreet patterns then usual in Swedish textiles and were at first thought provocative and hard to sell. The patterns are said to draw on painting, architecture and older Swedish folk art (sv.wikipedia); Hahn also drew Stockholm landmarks such as Slussen, the Public Library and Globen (Nationalmuseum). The group made collections for IKEA (the first in 1978, dated 1979 in some IKEA Museum texts, sold at about EUR 1.50 a metre; a second in 1985) and opened its own shop at Götgatan 25, Stockholm, in 1983, later also selling bags and trays. Hahn, Hedqvist and Håkansson ran the company until 2015, when the Götgatan shop closed (28 February 2015) and the group was dissolved and taken over by IKEA (Swedish press reported a sale; IKEA Museum speaks of acquiring the archive; LACMA dates Tiogruppen 1970-2014). IKEA holds the archive and has reissued patterns (AVSIKTLIG, 2017; STRIX/STRAX as NICKFIBBLA, 2023).
- Branch: Rational modernism
- Also known as: 10-gruppen, Tiogruppen, Tio-gruppen, Ten Swedish Designers, Group of Ten
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/tio-gruppen/

## How it works

- Repeat a mid-sized motif edge to edge across the whole cloth, so the pattern itself is the picture.
- Choose plain, everyday subjects (a dog, a banana, a raindrop, a traffic interchange, a stripe) and draw them as clean, flat, simplified shapes.
- Print a few saturated, unmixed inks side by side, and set one bright motif against black and white or a strong ground colour.
- Combine figurative motifs with stripes or checks in the same design rather than separating picture and geometry.
- Leave out florals, shading and optical tricks: keep the cloth flat, legible and cheerful.
- Price and place the pattern for ordinary homes, on fabric by the metre, curtains, shower curtains, bags and trays.

## 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)

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

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

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

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (characteristic)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (characteristic)
- [Geometric primitives](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/geometric-primitives/) (occasional)
- [Rounded & pill](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rounded-and-pill/) (occasional)

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

### Ornament
- [Rules & bars](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rules-and-bars/) (occasional)
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Pattern & repeat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pattern-and-repeat/) (defining)
- [Flat vector illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-vector-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [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/) (characteristic)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (characteristic)

### Tone & intent
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (defining)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (characteristic)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (occasional)
- [Utopian & idealistic](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/utopian-and-idealistic/) (occasional)

Avoids: Floral & vegetal, Gradients, Pastel, Illusion of depth, Optical pattern, Naturalistic depiction, Halftone & Ben-Day dots, Painterly brushwork, Straight photography, Ironic & self-aware

Palette: #f4f1e8, #161616, #f6c800, #e8641c, #2e9e4f, #1f5fbf

Typefaces: No lettering in the repeat: the motifs carry the cloth, and pattern and designer names belong on labels, catalogues and shop graphics, IKEA's capitalised Swedish product names (STRIX/STRAX, PLASK, SOLREGN, RANDIG BANAN, as IKEA Museum writes them), the form in which most buyers met the group's prints; this naming is IKEA's convention, not a choice of the group, and the only lettering tied to the prints in the sources

Known for: Gunila Axén, 'Hundar' (Dogs), from 10-gruppen's first collection, printed cotton, Borås Wäfveri, manufactured 1972, pattern repeat 45.5 x 42.5 cm (Nationalmuseum Stockholm, NMK 134/1987); a blue colourway dated 1969–70 is at LACMA (M.2020.249.4); Inez Svensson, 'Strax', striped printed cotton on a cream ground, Borås Wäfveri, manufactured 1970, with its sister pattern 'Strix' in the same colours and reversed stripe widths (Nationalmuseum Stockholm, NMK 33/1972, gift of IKEA); sold by IKEA as STRIX/STRAX from 1971 and on the cover of the 1972 IKEA catalogue; Inez Svensson, PLASK shower curtain, IKEA, 1973: a pattern of dripping drops, also used on SOLREGN cotton curtains; 10-gruppen's first collection for IKEA, 1978, and RANDIG BANAN, yellow bananas printed on black and white stripes, from the second IKEA collection, 1985 (IKEA Museum); Tom Hedqvist, 'Radio X', textile print, 1983, given by Borås Wäfveri (Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, RKM 162-1985); Birgitta Hahn, 'Slussen', printed linen depicting the 1935 cloverleaf interchange in Stockholm, designed 1988 for Svenskt Tenn (Nationalmuseum Stockholm, NMK 199/2002); Tiogruppen AB (Birgitta Hahn, Ingela Håkansson, Tom Hedqvist), bags, 2003 (Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, NMK.2007.0689.001 and .002)

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

- Grew out of: [Finnish Bold Print (Marimekko Modernism)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/finnish-bold-print.md) (1951–present)
- Influenced by: [Scandinavian Functionalism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/scandinavian-functionalism.md) (1930–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [NK Textilkammare Geometric Print (Astrid Sampe, Signerad Textil)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nk-textilkammare-geometric-print.md) (1937–1971), 63% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Diné (Navajo) Weaving Design](https://stylogeny.com/styles/dine-weaving.md) (1700–present), 61% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Amazigh Sign System & Tifinagh](https://stylogeny.com/styles/amazigh-sign-system.md) (c. 0–present), 60% 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), 58% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [African Wax & Fancy Print](https://stylogeny.com/styles/wax-print.md) (1880–present), 57% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Andean Woven Graphic Systems](https://stylogeny.com/styles/andean-woven-graphics.md) (c. 600–present), 56% alike

## Sources

- https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/7762/
- https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/2293/
- https://collection.nationalmuseum.se/en/collection/item/76973/
- https://collections.lacma.org/object/267079
- https://collection.rohsska.se/en/collection/item/26108/
- https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collection/producer/50154
- https://ikeamuseum.com/en/explore/designer-portraits/inez-svensson/
- https://ikeamuseum.com/en/explore/product-stories/textile-collection-1979/
- https://ikeamuseum.com/en/about/press-room/unique-collection-of-180-fabrics-and-patterns-in-new-exhibition/
- https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/10-gruppen
- https://www.shift.jp.org/guide/?p=19264

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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, “10-gruppen (Tiogruppen) Printed Textiles”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/tio-gruppen/