Discover the Swedish designer Anna-Lena Emdén

Anna-Lena Emdén is a Swedish designer and artist whose bright, playful textiles adorned children’s rooms for decades. With plenty of humour and charm, her detailed patterns – filled with countless flowers, animals and people – told stories that linger in the memory of many.

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As a little girl, Anna-Lena Emdén made imaginative clothes for her dolls using patterns she designed herself. She was inspired by her mother, who made all her clothes. Even then, she knew that one day she would work with textiles and patterns. After secondary school, like many girls of her age, she attended a home economics course where she learned everything from cooking to weaving. “I wasn’t very good in school, but here I suddenly received praise,” she remembers.

Strengthened by her teachers’ encouragement, Anna-Lena took a job at a wool factory before going on to study at the Swedish Textile Institute and then a short period at The Art Industrial School in Finland. Word of her innovative patterns spread quickly, and even before graduating – barely 20 years old – she received a job offer from the classic Swedish textile company Almedahls. As one of their two designers, she created playful children’s patterns that inspired many of her contemporaries to also let loose with colourful mushrooms and flowers.

A young woman with a pixie cut sits next to two chairs and a hanging fabric with a colourful, imaginative pattern. — Anna-Lena Emdén’s patterns had a rich mix of characters and activities, sparking children’s imaginations and encouraging them to create their own stories.

Children's pattern of storybook characters, a prince on a horse and a princess in a tower, in bright colours. — Anna-Lena created *Prinsessan och grodan* (The Princess and the Frog), during her time as design manager at Almedahls in the 1970s. It was immediately picked up by IKEA.

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After five years at Almedahls, Anna-Lena started her own business. She produced baby collections for Fritsla trikå and developed several patterns for Borås Wäfveri. Their then studio manager, Vivianne Sjölin, became head of the IKEA textile department in 1974. Soon enough, she commissioned Anna-Lena to create patterns that would brighten countless childhoods. Over the years, she made more than 200 patterns for IKEA, the last one released in 2004.

Many of Anna-Lena’s textile patterns told a story of everyday life at home, on a farm or at a circus. They featured a lively jumble of characters – princesses and frogs, cheerful elephants, chicks, piglets, or circus performers. “Back then, we drew and painted by hand across the entire width of a fabric – unlike today’s computer designs where a small pattern is often repeated,” she explains.

1976

Duvet cover with a floral pattern in bright red, yellow, green, and white, HILMA.

The HILMA floral pattern was one of Anna-Lena’s first designs for IKEA as a freelancer. It was printed on everything from duvet covers to pre-cut fabrics and wallpaper.

1977

Duvet cover with a pattern inspired by the Garden of Eden, featuring flowers, trees, and Adam and Eve, LUSTGÅRDEN.

LUSTGÅRDEN duvet covers, with a charming pattern by Anna-Lena Emdén, came in different colours.

1977

Simple repetitive pattern with a sun peeking behind a white cloud, surrounded by seagulls in a blue sky, BLÅ HIMMEL.

BLÅ HIMMEL was a cheerful children’s pattern that was used on products like duvet covers and roller blinds.

1979

Lively monochrome pattern based on children's drawings of family members and flowers in brown on white, FAMILJEN.

Anna-Lena’s young daughter created the original drawings for the FAMILJEN pattern. It was available in several colours and featured on a variety of products.

1979

Group of soft toys, including a girl doll, a teddy bear, and two fabric bales, KONRAD.

KONRAD was a series featuring a family of bears and their friends, designed to spark children’s imagination and inspire parents’ creativity.

1985

Laughing girl in pink pajamas sits on her bed holding a fabric decorated with drawings of a sow and her piglets.

The SAMANTHA pattern featured a mother pig and her beloved piglets – seen here on fabric and as homemade soft toys.

1988

Pattern with balloons and clowns in blue or red jumpsuits and red noses, CIRKUS.

CIRKUS was a series of patterns inspired by the world of clowns and other artists, with playful shapes, bold colours, and a touch of whimsy.

1988

Pattern with rabbits splashing paint around, one rabbit taking a bubble bath, PENSEL.

PENSEL products looked as if they had been decorated by the little bunny rabbits themselves, splashing paint everywhere while having lots of fun.

1988

Two wall clocks with 1990s youthful style patterns, SIGGE SNAGG.

The hugely popular SIGGE SNAGG pattern told many stories, adorning everything from clocks and storage boxes to bedsheets and lamps.

1994

Rolled-up soft toy imitating a huge green snake with a long red tongue, DJUNGELORM.

The diverse DJUNGEL series included this giant soft snake DJUNGELORM, as well as patterns on textiles and other products.

2004

Pattern depicting different trees in a forest, in pastel colours against a cloudy sky, TASSA SKOG.

TASSA SKOG told the story of life in the forests of Småland, the birthplace of IKEA.

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Anna-Lena Emdén has always enjoyed creating versatile patterns that can be used in many different contexts and products. Among her favourites were designs that ended up on everything from roller blinds to wallpapers and storage boxes. Patterns such as SAMANTHA – with a cast that included mummy pig and her piglets – became particularly popular. One beloved fabric was KONRAD, with a whole teddy-bear family, which could be cut out, sewn together and filled with stuffing.

Around 2010, Anna-Lena began photographing her fabrics and sharing them online. She was completely unprepared for the huge attention this attracted among women of all ages who remembered her designs from their own childhoods or from their days as parents. Thousands were discussing, trading and collecting her fabrics dating from the 1960s onwards, on a mission to preserve and spread the knowledge of Anna-Lena and other female designers who had brought colour and imagination into their homes.

Textile pattern with various characters – people and animals – shown in buildings surrounded by a wild landscape. — The 1990s SIGGE SNAGG pattern, in which various characters appear from edge to edge on the fabric, reflects how Anna-Lena enjoyed creating patterns that utilised the entire width of the fabric.

Textile pattern showing a girl from the front and back, with her clothes and accessories in the same views, KONRAD. — Anna-Lena Emdén shows the MAJA doll pattern, part of the larger KONRAD series. Many parents would cut the figures from fabric sold by the metre and make the actual doll, complete with clothes and accessories.

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At home in Vänersborg, signs of Anna-Lena’s wild creativity can be seen everywhere. There are knitted flower pots and a customised bicycle created for exhibitions at the art gallery Galleri3, which she runs with two friends. A gigantic, slightly intimidating fly hanging from the ceiling was even created for an exhibition at the Textile Museum in Borås, Sweden.

Even though she has her hands full, Anna-Lena looks back on her collaboration with IKEA with a touch of nostalgia. “It was simple and fun, and I had a lot of freedom to develop my own ideas.”