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Marvellous marbling In less than a year, Clara Bergman and her mother have gone from launching a new design brand to producing stylish but playful trays and coasters for sale in design boutiques across the Nordics, Europe, Australia and even New York City. The inspiration behind Studio Formata, the designer explains, is a love of paper and unexpected meetings of colours, shapes and materials.
the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The link between the two disciplines is in a love of the abstract, of “creating unexpected meetings of colours, shapes and materials”, she says.
By Linnea Dunne | Photos: Erik Djurklou
That creativity and playfulness is very much evident in Studio Formata’s popular collection of trays, serving boards and coasters. “Our thing is to use old craft traditions and techniques in a new context,” says Clara Bergman. “To use abstract expressions and colour to invite our customers to mix and match and have fun.”
“I love design and architecture, and in our family we’ve always been crazy about paper, bought nice cards and paper in little boutiques in Italy where they demonstrate paper marbling and so on,” says Clara Bergman, the designer at Studio Formata. “I wanted to push the boundaries of what can be done with marbling. It’s such an old technique and I wanted to try to create something modern with it.” She learnt the craft and started producing modern design items with a historical touch, resulting in a collection of birch veneer trays with colourful marble designs. The trays are handmade using materials from certified suppliers and everything is made in Sweden. Keeping it local is in the brand’s DNA; Studio 40 | Issue 94 | November 2016
Formata is a family business run by herself and her mother. The reach of the products includes retailers as far away as Spain, France, Australia and New York City, as well as a wide range of boutiques throughout the Nordic countries and the UK. “It’s all happened really quickly – we had the first trays in our hands less than a year ago,” says Clara Bergman. “But the feedback has been great and we started getting orders really early on from lovely quality shops who had seen our products on social media. Social media really has been great for us.” Clara Bergman, who lovingly refers to her creative work as “spattering paint”, is also currently studying architecture at
For more information, please visit: www.studioformata.se