Paavo Tynell was prominent Finnish designer. His work with studio lighting brought him international acclaim, creating works characterized by their use of polished metals such as stainless steel and brass. His boldly Minimalist forms are often combined with large, domed lighting fixtures supported by thin, spindly stands or columns. Starting his career as a tinsmith, he would eventually go on to study at Helsinki's University of Applied Arts and subsequently qualified as a master craftsman in 1913. Tynell would go on to find the company Taito Oy, which was the first in Finland to manufacture industrial lighting. He was born on January 25, 1890 in Helsinki, Finland, and his later-in-life designs became increasingly more abstract until his death in Tuusula, Finland on September 13, 1973 at the age of 83.