Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Top Swedish Design Brands of 2016
Paul Rösth, head designer and founder of Kattvik.
Keeping your light shining “I’ve always had a strong sense for lighting. Ever since I was a young child I’ve found it incredibly important to adapt the lighting to suit the occasion. I was born under the Libra star sign, so I’m sensitive to it,” laughs Paul Rösth, head designer and founder of Kattvik. By Linnea Dunne | Photos: Kattvik Design
A keen problem solver with an eye for aesthetics, Rösth naturally was not impressed when, during a perfect summer evening of chilled wine, fresh seafood and great company, the wind kept blowing out the candle. That night, the idea for the Kattvik candlestick was born. “I’m as much an inventor as I am a designer,” says Rösth, who took his father, Paul Rösth Snr’s, initial candlestick idea and tweaked it to become perfectly suited to long evenings on the terrace of his home in Kattvik in western Sweden; or equally to any occasion in need of that cosiness factor. “Design is all about finding solutions to problems, and people have 16 | Issue 89 | June 2016
been overwhelmingly positive about the Kattvik candlestick,” he says. “They’re often initially apprehensive, thinking the glass will soot, but it doesn’t. The foot I designed, with the holes, makes sure that oxygen gets around so that the glass remains perfectly clear and the light won’t go out.” Rösth has a varied background, having started out with door-to-door sales at Husqvarna in 1984. After years in the restaurant industry, as an environmental consultant, a media sales man, advertising executive and sales teacher, he settled for life as an entrepreneur and small business owner. Now the plan is
to stay put, he says. “The idea is to enjoy that freedom of being able to work when and from wherever you want. Of course the freedom comes with responsibility; you may be able to determine your own hours, but as another business owner put it, ‘you can work just as much as you like’. You can always improve things.” Indeed, improvement is part and parcel of the business idea behind Kattvik. “You have to constantly keep evolving,” says Rösth about the behind-the-scenes work of marketing, logistics and strategy. “The product is just the first step.” So how will the brand evolve next? All going to plan, an advent candle holder will be unveiled at Swedish design fair Formex in August – a product sure to strike a chord with many a cosiness-conscious Swede. For more information, please visit: www.kattvikdesign.se