Antti Nurmesniemi graduated from the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki 1950, whereafter he traveled to Sweden and Denmark where he met a.o. Finn Juhl and Hans J. Wegner. In 1951 Nurmesniemi was back in Helsinki and joined the architectural office of Viljo Revell and Keijo Petäjä, working on their Palace Hotel project for which he designed the Sauna Stool.
In 1953, Nurmesniemi married Voukko Eskolin, who came to be one of the leading designers for the Marimekko Company. Two years later Nurmesniemi won two prizes in a competition organized by the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design. He decided to devote himself to industrial design and subsequently founded a design studio in Helsinki 1956. During the late 1950’s Nurmesniemi worked on several exhibition designs in Finland and abroad, while also designing for Pehtoori, Artek and Arabia.
Nurmesniemi designed the Finnish pavilion at the Milan Triennale in 1960 and -64 (the later designed together with Voukko Eskolin Nurmesniemi) for which he received the Grand Prix. In the pavilion, Nurmesniemi used different variants of his All purpose chair.
From the early 1960’s to the late 1970’s, Nurmesniemi worked on several major renovation and interior architect projects, including the Olavinlinna Castle in Savonalinna, Eliel Saarinen’s Helsinki Central Railway Station, and the Finnjett cruise ferry. In 1964 Nurmesniemi was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal and four years later he began designing railway compartments for the Helsinki Metro.
From 1977 to -82 Nurmesniemi was the president of the Finnish Association of Designers and in 1979 he joined the board of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), where he was president from 1989 to -92. Nurmesniemi was also an important person in the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design, where he was active as a board member and designed the organization’s centenary exhibition in 1975.
For Japanese company Fujitsu, Nurmesniemi designed the phone Antti in 1984, while also designing furniture for Italian Cassina including the Touli Lounge Chair. In 1986 he was appointed Honorary Designer for Industry by the RSA in London. A retrospective of Nuremsniemis work was shown at the Helsinki City Art Museum in 1992.
Nurmesniemi lectured in interior architecture at what today is the Aalto University in Helsinki from 1963 to -69, where he also became a professor in 1973. From 1978 to -83 he was active at the University in Bergen. In 1988 Nurmesniemu was given an professors title and became an honorary doctor at the Kingston Polytechnic in London 1994 where he also was a professor from 1974.
Of Nurmesniemis last designs, one can mention the high voltage poles he created for the inlet between Sundholmen and Mejlans outside of Helsinki. Antti Nurmesniemi passed away at the age of 76. He is represented at a.o. the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, the Röhsska Museum of Craft and Design in Gothenburg and the Museum of Furniture Studies in Stockholm.
