titiMadaming in London town!

Haha another rope of months (can I actually say that?) has passed… I think most of you have forgotten that my blog even exists but I decided to carry on writing again... This is very good therapy. Facebook has stolen all my spare time I have online BUT that will change now.


(This is Fred)
To begin with I need to talk about titiMadam. The trade show we did in June went amazingly well. We got loads of interest and the 9 deals we signed there have now grown into 48 different retailers all around Europe, I really want to hit 50 before Christmas…





We did another trade show last September that went really well as but I think the biggest news is that we decided to buy our own laser cutter. It is called Fred as it is massive, red and has bad temper and it lives in Mentmore Studios close to London Fields where Adam and me are taking care of it. Or more like Adam is taking care of it, I just try deal with the customers and PR side of the business. The business is running very smoothly and that is what I’m mainly doing now. The new collection is coming out in January, website business is doing quite nicely and over all we are making a living from our animals, which is quite amazing feeling!



Summer in Finland... aaaaah!

After the nice long holiday in Helsinki I moved to Hackney where I share a house with Inka & Signe (plus few mice that I haven’t met yet, but heard that they are quite annoying creatures). Inka is Emma’s old friend from Finland and Signe is from Copenhagen. Things are great in the house, I love living here and London has pretty much stolen my heart.


For those who remember that I got a place to do my MA in Eindhoven, I still haven’t decided to go or not… I put it on hold for this year and I need to decide before January will I go there or not. But the thing is that the ‘design burnout’ I had after handing in the major project is still there and I don’t think I want to study furniture or product design anymore. HELP!
I actually feel like doing/studying something else. I definitely want to do MA but I’m more interested of interiors or something else ‘furniture related'. I’ve done some research about MAs in London and there are where to choose from but I’m a bit afraid if I decide to skip Eindhoven I will regret it in some point. Oh well, will see.

The project I did in uni got amazing response already at New Designers. The desk has been published in many magazines around the world (the best being Wallpaper, January issue), I exhibited in few places during London Design Week in September and in January I should pack the desk and go to Birmingham for a design show. I'm shortlisted for the Young Designer of the Year Award and the winner will be announced there. In February I’m going to Germany for another design award ceremony… So lot of things are happening with my products even though I’m not so into designing more at the moment.

Now Christmas is here again… It is amazing how fast time goes… It feels like ages ago when I lived in Rochester and so many things has happened. Now lets just wait for the next chapter to begin! I have started wearing high heels, I’m into cooking (thanks to Jamie Oliver) and I’m really keen to learn how to knit. My 30’s here I come!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Ps.I went to Paris again few weeks back with Inka. I saw all my French fries there and the city was as brilliant as always. But visiting and meeting so many people from Budapest made me think how much things has changed after the great months we shared there. I met amazing people and learnt so much… I miss those times. Puszi to my Budapest!

Tiina is a bachelor

Last Friday was our major project’s hand-in day. We’ve been celebrating for few days now but today has been the first day I’ve had time to think that my life here in Kent is basically over. Which is sad! It is time to move on and once again an important chapter in my life is close to the end. I’m going to stay here until the end of July then I go to Finland for three weeks or so. I really need a holiday and to think something else than design, actually think something else than anything to do with design.

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Anyways, I’m so proud about all of us. People made some amazing work and projects here and nobody went crazy or flipped because of the stress, and if someone did it only lasted a minute or few.


It is a bit depressing to think I’ll never sit in Kbar again and drink that awful Carlsberg they have in the taps, I’ll never again get a hummus sandwich from subtop OR I’ll never sit in the studio until eight o’clock with Adam. I’m wondering how will the second year students cope without us there..?

These years have been amazingamazingamazing and I have to say that all the people made it as great as it has been. So big kiss to all of you. Actually the whole spring has been great. We had the best vappu ever here. We celebrated for three days just chilling, barbecuing and enjoying the weather. Summer came here really early, but now it is gone again..



I actually feel a bit like when I left Budapest, but in a bigger scale. I just read some of my old posts from my blog, one year ago I was watching ice hockey games in Hungary and cheered for Finland during Eurovisions (and again we did not win gold or the song contest… thank god we bet Sweden though, hihi). These past few months have been brilliant. I haven’t had this much fun in a while. Maybe it is the spring, or the excitement of graduating…

Ok, really depressing text. Lets move on.

My major project turned out to be the best thing that has ever came from my head. 15 weeks project is really long and in some point I was so sick of it thought it was absolutely bollocks, but after Iiro took some amazing images of my table I totally changed my mind. It is just a big difference to see your work in pictures.




The idea is that you can move the green and white steel parts around the desktop so that you can create your own workspace and add things on it as much as you like. I had some problems during the making process, but everything clicked in the end. The desk is still on a prototype level, but I’ll fix it for New Designers.

titiMadam website is finally working. It still need a bit of fixing but you can buy stuff online now. We got a deal from a shop called LUX in Helsinki (Uudenmaankatu 24) and another deal from Paris. Some people contacted us after they saw our designs online and asked could the start selling our jewellery in their shop. That is cool.

Also we are doing a show called Pulse in Earl Court in the beginning of June. We made a really fast decision with it but thought that doing a trade show would be the best thing for us. Hopefully we get loads of contacts and sales and this titiMadam thing would really start to kick off! So thumbs up people.

Ok, I carry on cleaning now. I’ve been going through my stuff and throwing so much things away. I definitely have the same problem than my grandmother had… I keep and collect everything!

No more excuses

I just had a look at my blog for the first time in months. Obviously lot of things has happened after last December, my personal and ‘professional’ life needs lot of updating. Also I’ve had angry feedback from Hungary, Chile, Finland and England because I haven’t been writing that much… So lets start!

After visiting Helsinki in December I went to Budapest in January. The city was as amazing as ever. It was absolutely freezing there but Szimpla and spas kept us warm. We spent crazy 10 days celebrating memories and having fun with Andrea, Attila and few other people I met during last spring. I truly had missed that place. Charles, a second year student from UCCA is there at the moment going through all the fun I did. I’ve understood that he is enjoying it as much as I did.

In the end I managed to finish my minor projects. Corian should have done the sink by now (so much for the deadline in January). I will know more about that tomorrow. I changed the decorative pattern in the end. Now it should be more functional and I think it makes more sense as well. The design divides people in two parts. One half says, like my darling sister, that the grooves are a devil to clean and the other half seems to think that the pattern is beautiful and functional. Well, it was never meant to be a sink for housewives or cleaning enthusiasts.

I participated in Royal Society of Arts Design Directions competition with the sink and got shortlisted in Ceramic Futures division. I did not won but earned honourable mention and my design will be in on their online exhibition. I’ll send the link as soon as I get it. Also my Stor chair got shortlisted in a competition by Dwell UK. They were looking for new ideas for their range. They have not announced the winners yet so keep your thumbs up!



My Darlings project (second minor) turned out to be more like a research project about stereotypes in furniture and other every day objects. I carried on the first idea of Darlings bench and started working from old and salvaged items. I ended up with 5 different wine glass designs that I’m not so happy about but I really like the chair I made. I got excellent feedback from both of my projects and I’m quite proud of myself that I managed to get everything ready on time.



I don’t think I ever mention about my urgent need and wish to do my masters straight after I graduate from UCCA. Well, I applied to three different places, to Taideteollinen Korkeakoulu in Helsinki (I don’t know why.. I’m not ready to move back to Finland yet), to Royal College of Arts and to Design Academy of Eindhoven. I got as far as the interview in RCA. By far the scariest experience in my life. I was sitting in same table with Ron Arad and Jurgen Bay among with other big names talking about my work. Or it was more like a quiz about my creations. It felt like being in Xfactor or Dragon’s Den. Seriously. I can’t remember that much about the 10 minutes I spent there.
In the end I did not get in there but the great news is that I got accepted to Design Academy in Eindhoven. I never ever thought I could get in there. I went to visit the place few weeks ago with Adam. We jumped on a plane and spent one day there wondering around my future hometown. The university is great! The building is an old Philip’s factory with most amazing faculties. I got really good feeling about the uni, one of those heureka! moments when you just realize that this is what I should and want to do. During the interview there I got this feeling that the people were truly interested and fascinated about my work, a feeling that I did not have after the interview in RCA. They interviewed 4 people from 40 that day and I was one of the few who got in. I heard there were 240 applicants in total so I did well. So that is the big news. The program starts in September. Now I should figure out what to do during the summer.

titiMadam is doing really well. Our website should be up and running anytime soon and we have expanded to Finland and to France with our animals and rings. We really want to get everything working with Adam before I go to Eindhoven. Check www.titimadam.com after few weeks and tell me what you think.

Otherwise life in Rochester is same. I know already that I will miss that place a lot. I will graduate in few months, which is totally unrealistic feeling. Time has gone so fast. I just keep thinking back what I have done during these years… Lot of things to be proud of, I think.

Well, that is it for now. I should be in bed already.
I promise to update more often. Now when I have ‘time’… yeah right.