The Finnish National Opera staged an opera about the love story of two foxes, and the name of the opera was quite Shakespeare: "The Cunning Little Shrew".
It is a burlesque play by Leoš Janáček, based on the comics of Rudolf Těsnohlídek and Stanislav Lolek.
Designer klaus haapaniemi was responsible for the visual design of the opera.
In addition to the visual communication on stage, he also designed a throw pillow, a silk scarf and a set of utensils inspired by opera.
The opera tells a somewhat sad love story.
In order to facilitate the understanding of people who have not seen the opera, Haapaniemi made a cute animated little video showing how the opera on the stage became a picture in the plate.
A charming and beautiful fox girl, dancing alone in the forest, meets all kinds of different people, a badger cowering in a corner, a goat blowing a flute, a chicken couple wearing top hats... Finally, she meets the cute fox boy, who happily dance together in the woods. A spherical golden light spread out, and they turned into paintings on a white plate.
Don't think of this as an occasional work, in fact, he is a designer who is addicted to storytelling.
His work includes home collections: hand-printed textiles, cushions, tapestries and handmade carpets, accessories collections: silk scarves, silk pajamas and nightgowns.
Almost every one of his works has a story, and they come from art, ballet, music, and fiction... It seems that each of his works is a small world of its own.
This is a noble and mysterious black swan pillow, of course, stuffed with velvet:
This is a whale the size of a universe, and it's with a planet full of lilacs:
This is a green crane, which is probably just idle, walking in a garden full of strange flowers and plants:
He also designed a pillow line for his cat lady and her friends, and probably there is no more flattering meow-lord flattering strategy than this:
His recent "Polar Byzantine" series of silk scarves was inspired by the lyrical poetic stories of the famous Finnish writer Rosa Liksom.
It is an epic about animals and nature, like a polar odyssey, each silk scarf corresponds to a chapter in the book, and each chapter is a beautiful polar scenery full of fantasy.
Penguins, elk, owls, seals, sea lions... This kind of situation because of a silk scarf wants to read a novel, and it is really the first time I have encountered it.
In addition to the "tanssi" series of the little shrew, there is also a "taika" series, which is a magical forest series that is not limited to the present, and the imagination is more unrestrained and free.
In Finnish, "taika" means magic. Haapaniemi made up her mind to build her own fantasy kingdom through her own works.
However, it is probably the fox who is still haapaniemi's favorite. In his view, the fox is some kind of totem connecting myths: "The fox is mysterious, but it is common. In fairy tales, the fox always uses its wit and cunning to trick its opponents around. It reminds us of the importance of independent thinking."
The opera fox is not addicted, he also made a group of glass foxes, the same is the famous Finnish glass manufacturer iittala, using their unique glass blowing technology, to make these two cute foxes: red red fox and blue silver fox.
In Finland, the fox lights up the Northern Lights at night with its tail. The cunning of the fox is like the fragility of glass, and there is a kind of unpredictable indiscretion between male and female, like the handiwork of glass.
Wandering around the world of haapaniemi, almost always intoxicated with no way back.
He laid out a colorful story with bright and full colors, and then attracted your imagination, with basis, trying to find the original to see the end, unfounded, weaving in your own mind.
Perhaps this is what haapaniemi tries to express through design, why can't you live your daily life more poetically, a pillow, a scarf, a dinner plate, they can all have a richness beyond themselves, a little imagination, can make your life different.
Say goodbye to monotony, take the swans and foxes, and live in a fairy tale world.
(Unless otherwise noted, images are from the official website of klaus haapaniemi & co)