ARVI N I US FÖR LAG
NOR DIC DE S IG N E R S Author: David Sokol Editors: Frida Brismar Pålsson and Lotten Skeppstedt Picture editor: Ann-Christine Carlsson Graphic design: Sandra Praun, Designstudio S ISBN 978-91-85689-02-6 © 2010 Arvinius Förlag. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, digital, photographic or mechanical or otherwise without the prior written permission of Arvinius Förlag. Arvinius Förlag AB Box 6040, SE-102 31 Stockholm, Sweden Tel +46 8 32 00 15 / Fax +46 8 32 00 95 E-mail: info@arvinius.se www.arvinius.se
NOR DIC DE S IG N E R S
CONTE NTS
I NTRODUCTION BY DAVI D SOKOL……………………………………6
G U N I LL A L AG E R H E M U LLB E RG……………………………………132
RVW…………………………………………………………………………246
A N D E R S N O R D……………………………………………………………8
HAR R I KOS KI N E N………………………………………………………136
S C E N A R I O I NTE R IØRA R K ITE K TE R………………………………250
A N N A K RA ITZ……………………………………………………………12
H E E WE LLI NG DE S IG N………………………………………………140
S IG U R DU R G USTAFSSON……………………………………………256
AN NA VON SCH EWE N…………………………………………………16
I LKK A SU PPAN E N………………………………………………………144
S I SUSTUSAR KKITE HTITOI M I STO CAROL A RYTSÖL Ä………262
A R X A R C H ITE CTS………………………………………………………22
JA KO B WAG N E R………………………………………………………150
STOKKEAUSTAD DE S IG N……………………………………………268
BAR E MØB LE R DE S IG N STU DIO……………………………………30
JOHAN CAR PN E R DE S IG N…………………………………………154
STRAN D + HVASS………………………………………………………272
BJÖR N DAH LSTRÖM……………………………………………………34
K AE LS STU DIO…………………………………………………………160
SU PE R KO…………………………………………………………………280
B R I KO LÖ R…………………………………………………………………42
LE NA B E RG STRÖM DE S IG N…………………………………………164
TI N E MOU R ITS E N………………………………………………………284
CAM I LL A DI E DR ICH……………………………………………………46
LOS PALU R DOS / FAG R I NG I NTE R NATIONAL……………………170
TVE IT&TOR NØE…………………………………………………………288
CAM I LL A KROPP…………………………………………………………50
MALI N LI N DAH L…………………………………………………………176
U LL A CH R I STIAN SSON………………………………………………292
CAR LO VOLF………………………………………………………………56
MARGOT BAROLO………………………………………………………180
U LR I K A MÅRTE N SSON………………………………………………296
CECI LI E MAN Z……………………………………………………………60
M A R I E - LO U I S E G U STA F SS O N……………………………………184
Z I NC…………………………………………………………………………302
CHAR LOTT K. KN UTH……………………………………………………68
MARÝ………………………………………………………………………188
I N DEX………………………………………………………………………308
CL AE SSON KOIVI STO RU N E…………………………………………72
M O N I CA F Ö R STE R……………………………………………………194
PHOTO CR E DITS…………………………………………………………318
C O LM I O……………………………………………………………………80
MORTE N H I PPE DE S IG N………………………………………………202
C O M PA NY…………………………………………………………………84
M U U N G A N O……………………………………………………………206
D IT TE H A M M E R STRØM………………………………………………88
N AOTO N I I D O M E………………………………………………………210
E LI SAB ETH H E N R I KSSON……………………………………………96
N I NA JOB S………………………………………………………………214
FOR M US WITH LOVE…………………………………………………100
O L AV E LDØY……………………………………………………………218
FR I DA FJ E LLMAN………………………………………………………106
OLI M B DE S IG N…………………………………………………………222
F R O NT……………………………………………………………………112
PE NTAGON DE S IG N……………………………………………………226
FUGG I BAGG I DE S IG N…………………………………………………120
PE R MAFROST……………………………………………………………234
FU R N I D……………………………………………………………………124
P ETE R O P SVI K…………………………………………………………238
G U N I LL A ALL AR D………………………………………………………128
PU R E DE S IG N……………………………………………………………242
Yet ergonomics, which once was a defining characteristic of furniture design in the region, does not hold the same universal sway over today’s practitioners as it did in the 1970s. Scandinavian designers may want to portray a sense of humor, a nod to history, or a bow to function. They may strive to democratize design, or they may treat it as precious and art-like. They may render and fabricate ideas by hand, or with the help of the latest technological wizardry. The field is polyglot.
I NTRODUCTION
Welcome to Nordic Designers, the second Arvinius compendium of Scandinavian designers. Observant readers of the series’ first installment, Nordic Architects, will notice that the methodology of this book diverges slightly from the original.
of the products he creates today. But these pages should also refute any notion that Dahström’s work stops with a sketch. He is obsessive about research, enthused and humbled by his engineer collaborators, and invigorated by functional performance.
The distinctions between volumes may seem almost nonexistent. Once again Arvinius is featuring an array of creative minds that represents the geographic span of Scandinavia, as well as a large range of ages and perches, thanks to the initial recommendations of former Forum AID editor-in-chief Mark Isitt. As promised previously, Nordic Designers comprises continual coverage of the Nordic design community as it expands and evolves. And the format of the book is unchanged, in which every chapter forms a sort of mini-monograph divided into an essayistic introduction, a question-and-answer section, and illustrated project descriptions.
Front is located in the same city as Dahlström, yet occupies a world apart. Rather than execute a meticulous, preconceived form, this instantly famous trio often hands some responsibility of articulation to another party, such as animals or Internet gamers. Here, then, cofounder Charlotte von der Lancken takes on my concerns about authorship and challenges any layperson’s notion of design as merely object-based.
But look more closely at those individual chapters and contrasts emerge. Most notable, you will find that the inquiries posed to our 59 subjects aren’t nearly as consistent as in Nordic Architects. Whereas that undertaking insisted on uniform questioning – as a means of sharpening the differences between answers, and between the architects themselves – the interviews that make up Nordic Designers are casual and spontaneous. Conducted over a series of months, these conversations should be acknowledged as just that – conversations. They weave and dart according to the intricacies of each subject’s biography and oeuvre. Consider Björn Dahlström, for example. Both words and pictures devoted to this accomplished Stockholm-based designer underscore the well-known lineage between his early career’s sole focus on graphic design and the legibility 6
The list goes on. Both Helsinki-based Harri Koskinen and Stockholm’s Anna von Schewen achieved great success while still in the nascence of their career – with the Block lamp and Latta chair, respectively – and so their interviews explore the stresses and opportunities that followed on the heels of setting the bar so high, so early on. Those designers who have accumulated a lifetime of achievements, such as Norwegian Olav Eldøy or Linda Steen of Scenario, are queried as much about their personal arcs as they are the trajectory of their given professions. Indeed, the character of the profession justified refreshing the approach to the Nordic Designers interviews. The possibilities of product and furniture design veer far more widely than architecture, the edges of which are hemmed by building codes and other regulations, budgets, and even the 0s and 1s of design software. Perhaps the limitation that our Nordic designers face most dramatically is ergonomic: The obesity epidemic excepted, the human form hasn’t changed much since the birth of formal product-design disciplines an eye-blink ago.
Diversity isn’t the only rule. For example, the Nordic countries have approached the movements underlying much of this diversity with some tentativeness. By 2000, Hella Jongerius had already tallied up seven years of proposing objects that were simultaneously unique and manufactured, visibly adapting traditional craft processes to industrial design to do so. That was also the year Frida Fjellman launched her own studio in Stockholm, and began producing a body of work that belongs to sculpture, product design, and craft – or to no group whatsoever. She recalls viewers’ desire to categorize her delightful pieces, and admits that many of them are still frustrated by the perspectives and techniques she straddles. Whether one is ruminating over the what-if inventions of Front, deciphering Frida Fjellman’s blurred disciplinary lines, or applauding the social awareness of designs by additional book subjects Muungano and Marý, one other commonality comes to light. To varying degrees, the participants in Nordic Designers are struggling with the concept of value in a world sodden with things. Mainstream understanding of what designers do or their workday experiences may not be perfectly refined, but more than ever people recognize that their world is saturated with design. And they are growing ever pickier about consuming their next example of it, especially so thanks to the current global recession. There have been only rare mentions of limited-edition merchandise: Apparently design-art counts among the newer phenomena that haven’t necessarily pierced the cautious Scandinavian filter. But in a similar spirit, the interiordesigner and architect subjects of Nordic Designers refer to the one-off products tailored to particular spatial commissions; product designers couch their wares as contemporary heirlooms. Pervasive among all of them is the desire to see their creations handed down rather than discarded. Moreover, many designers view the pursuit of timelessness as an act of ecological responsibility, and they say so in this book.
What is so remarkable about the Nordic design community is the fearlessness with which it treats entrepreneurism. That, too, is on display in the biographies and conversations of Nordic Designers. An American, particularly a relatively fledgling professional, establishing her own design studio is still a novel fact; Nordic designers may found an office immediately upon graduating from school. That is partly a testament to principles of design in which each government has enrolled, and certainly to the socialsecurity safety nets they’ve put in place. Also, it reveals a certain self-confidence that spans Scandinavian culture. Nordic designers’ entrepreneurial boldness isn’t necessarily at odds with their slower, more deliberate adoption of trends sweeping the global design community. To be sure, some designers are launching those trends themselves, to revert to the example of Front. For many of our remaining subjects, however, the contradiction is more easily smoothed by this principled pursuit of quality. Faddishness does not guarantee endurance, especially as fashion cycles accelerate in all design disciplines. And through that lens, newer phenomena that seem to be here for the long term suddenly appear not nearly as concrete as some proselytizers would have us believe. Tessellated forms – the motif of a new era of Mannerism, or an ornamental gesture that will be accepted by the marketplace for only so long? Sustainability – absolutely crucial, yes, but do carbon-footprint calculations quantitatively support high-tech materials over locally harvested wood (or vice versa), for example? Through the 20th century, this region’s designers’ high regard for quality provided Scandinavian modernism with a reputation that is as strong as ever. And even though today’s designers don’t all worship in the same church, their reserved approach to new cults and shared devotion to value ensures thoughtful, substantive, innovative participation as soon as these nascent trends have evolved into fullfledged movements. David Sokol
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“No matter how I begin sketching at the beginning of a project, I often end up with straight lines. I think it’s my obsession with perfection and structure, which contrasts with the fluid and dynamic nature of creative thought.” Indeed, the Swede’s portfolio, which encompasses interiors, graphics, and products, is full of clean-lined designs that would be considered totally slick except for one element that is always slightly awry – an asymmetrically placed knob or logo, a beveled corner. Anders Nord cites an interest in “otherness” for making these moves, and he has developed this stance at schools ranging from Forsbergs School of Graphic Design to the New York Film Academy to London College of Printing, and with clients including the BBC, British Airways, Iittala, Alko and Monocle. You’ve been schooled in Stockholm, New York, and London. What’s your impression of design education in different countries? If I hadn’t started at Forsbergs School of Graphic Design, I don’t think I would have gone any further in design. The school in New York was very professional, and when I went to London, it was a different ballgame. In Sweden, we were all looking at the same thing with the same perspective and the same heritage, but in London we were 60 students representing 25 different countries. Your commercial work dances between architectural, graphic, and product design. Do the disciplines influence one another? Nothing is separate, everything is linked together. For instance, a chair is going to be placed in an environment, and it will be sat on by people who are then going to exchange business cards. Everything communicates with one another.
had flowers on it. When I first came in contact with fashion designers such as Helmut Lang, and then architects like Adolf Loos, it was a relief – this was a great contrast to my upbringing! My work is a response to that and has carried on ever since. I always look for the absolutely essential to communicate an idea. Are there other themes that drive your work? I would never have started within the creative world if it hadn’t been for the surrealist artist Luis Buñuel. For me, Buñuel has always been a source of great inspiration. I became interested in how openly something could be questioned and portrayed with just a small detail. For me, a slightly wrong, small detail is perfect imperfection. And to explore this interest further, I do personal as well as commercial work. You have also mentioned “otherness” as a defining concept for you. I have this obsession with “framing” things. I’m not very fond of circles. I try to work within the box and see what I can do with it. Dorian, a sculpture I made, is a good example of my thinking about the frame – how it can be manipulated, and what goes on outside of it. That’s one notion of otherness. Now that you’re back in Sweden, what would you say are the crucial identifying characteristics of the design scene there? I think so much has happened in the last 10 years. Sweden has become more individual and confident, and not predictably Nordic as such. Many Swedes are going abroad to study, exploring new work, and gaining global experience. At the same time, many international designers have come to Sweden. The Swedish design scene is expanding, and it’s all opportunity from here on out.
Would you say there’s an origin for your minimalist design language? I was brought up in a home where everything 8
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Previous page and this spread: Kagami Chair, Kagami Contemporary Art Club, 2008. Kagami, a Parisian gallery that promotes contemporary artists, invited Nord to design a chair that would represent the gallery’s identity and philosophy. Kagami is the Japanese word for mirror, and its characters define a mirror as “reflecting with neatness the border of things.” Questioning that notion of perfection, a mirror is installed underneath Kagami Chair at a 45degree angle, giving the illusion that the seat is slightly off balance. And despite a minimalist, neutral style that blends well with the gallery environment, the placement of the mirror transforms the chair into a multivalent experience: It’s a gallery object that is viewed, a reflective surface by which the “forgotten” planes of the gallery are viewed, and a device that frames and emphasizes whoever may be sitting in it. Simply, Kagami Chair questions vision in an environment where the gaze would seem most straightforward.
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Anna Kraitz dances between art and design. For people who equate industrial design to all symmetries and perfect corners, her work may be difficult to pin down. “I can even feel that way myself sometimes,” says Kraitz, who has been running her eponymous studio since 1999. Regardless of its classification, the design community approves of Kraitz passionately. She began working with Källemo in her inaugural year, for example, and in 2008 she was awarded the Bruno Mathsson Prize. Equally emphatically, Kraitz’s designs chronicle life both current and remembered. She takes a long view toward history, too, noting, “I don’t think we can look to the future and create new things if we don’t look back and remain interested in how people solved problems and perceived the world in the past.”
way. I use the same gaze, the same perspectives, and the same way of thinking as if I was working with drawing or sculpture. But I add function. So the end result is different now.
You have studied disciplines other than design, and you have studied outside of Scandinavia. How has this variety of experiences influenced your work as a designer? It’s different to come from an artistic background when you work with design, when compared to coming from a technical or practical background. One isn’t better than the other – but it’s different. My studies at the Art Academy in Budapest have probably had a significant impact. I was there only a couple of years after the wall came down, and the school became a reflection of a part of the world where the old meets the new, sometimes in a rather brutal way. An old-fashioned way of teaching art – hours of meticulous anatomy lessons, which were very beneficial for me, for example – collided with new concerns and currents. There was a constant ongoing debate about modernity and contemporary art and what it stood for.
But does the statement actually trivialize design as a practice? We are surrounded by things and objects. They are part of our everyday life. The fact that they are common does not make them trivial. The contrary may in fact be true. The more common objects are, the more fundamental they become for the experience of life. Therefore I think it’s interesting to use objects to depict the everyday, or at least the way I experience it.
Your artist statement mentions that you want your designs to share “trivial observations” with users. Like what? Like waking up in the morning, braiding your hair, and putting on your jeans (depicted in the vases Early Bird). I want my work to tell stories about personal experiences and memories. I want my work to make commentaries on the everyday. I use furniture and objects to tie down and capture the world around me. A world that sometimes, for a moment, can reveal itself as unfamiliar and sometimes seem surreal.
Do you think there is a lineage between “classic” Scandinavian product design and your own body of work? My work may not be typical, but it’s characterized by simple forms that trace back. I have a hard time liberating myself from Scandinavian heritage, but then again, I’m not sure if I want to, or if I should even try.
Would you say that the studied irregularity and sculptural form of your work are consequences of your painting career? Absolutely. You could say that I work in the same 12
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Previous page: Early Bird, Anna Kraitz, 2008 “During a certain period, my daughter was an early riser. That made me an early riser too.” Early Bird, a series of vases, records part of Kraitz’s morning toilette, then – specifically the process of buttoning garments, belting pants, and braiding hair. This spread: Beatrix, Källemo, 2007 Named for Kraitz’s daughter Beatrix, this easy chair intimates that raising a child is both a delightful and chaotic exercise – the multicolored buttons seemingly randomly embedded behind the seat back suggesting a certain disorder.
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After graduating from Konstfack in 1995, Anna von Schewen worked at Pelikan Design in Copenhagen for two years, but she had always intended to open her own business. That studio, specializing in architecture as well as product design, launched in Stockholm in 1997. She began accumulating accolades almost immediately, and her resume now lists the Elle Interior Design Award (Swedish edition), Bruno Mathsson Prize, the Excellent Swedish Design Award, and Furniture of the Year among them. Although von Schewen’s work appears organic and almost second-nature, it’s actually the result of intense technological research and development. Here she discusses the many facets of inspiration, and the long, sometimes isolating, sometimes collaborative process of realizing a vision. In your portfolio I see a love for the sinuous, unbroken line. How did you come to embrace that design vocabulary? This curved line isn’t only about form, it’s about function – if a playful way to achieve a function. The Latta chair, which is one of my first projects, is very much a curve. But this curve responds to the shape of the body when you sit so low to the ground; and if you want to have a seat that doesn’t have legs you need some point where the seat touches the floor. Simply put, the curve has very much to do with a function. How do you attack a project – is form following function? I’m inspired by a lot of things other than function. Again, Latta is a good example of everything I try to grasp. Clothing, sailing, worlds totally different from furniture gave me the idea of working with flexible seat constructions in wood and textile. Yet to mold elastic laminated wood, you arrive at this kind of curve. Ultimately, the shape comes both from the function and the material. It’s difficult to say which comes first. You go back and forth while sketching a project. 16
You recently gave birth to a daughter. Other designers such as Alfredo Häberli and Nico Schweizer have turned their attention to that scale of furniture and products after having children. Might you do the same? Yes. As a parent you get a user perspective on things you’ve never used before. You really are testing the function of these things. You’ve referred to Latta as a decent encapsulation of your work. What are the consequences of setting such a high standard so early in one’s career? Of course I want to continue doing interesting things. Have you been designing products with mass fabrication in mind since then? It depends on the project. The Sound Object was very experimental and idea-based, and it didn’t go into production. Then there are products like Hug, which is experimental – I wanted to work with organically shaped wood – in an industrial way. I want to keep a high level of experimentation and idea whether the purpose is mass production or limited series. How do you cope with the loneliness of working as a designer? It’s important to have time to concentrate on your work, and that sometimes entails working alone. But when developing a project there are lots of situations of collaboration with the factory, the client, etc. People are always around.
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Previous spread: Latta chair, Own production, 1997 Sauna, Private client, 2007 The project was about creating a modern structure by the sea. Von Schewen worked with the sounds and views of the sea as a kind of primary building material. Left page: Merry, Collection Pascale, 2004 With Merry, the traditional wooden candleholder of Swedish Christmases is transformed into a playful, almost flirtatious composition. Right page: Krage, Svenskt Tenn, 2003 This vase assumes the look of the world’s most elegant beaker, its tapered top ringed in pewter. The accompanying bowl, flattened, assumes a more industrial appearance. Yet together the Krage pieces suggest a certain ceremony that elevates the tablesetting experience.
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Next spread, left page: Dress, Gärsnäs, 2009 The armchair Dress sports two facades. The exterior features a line of creasing that evokes a waistline, and which focuses observers’ attention on the back. Users, on the other hand, will liken the chair’s interior to a tactile embrace. To underscore these different aspects, the exterior and interior of Dress may be upholstered in different textiles, much like a coat and its lining. Next spread, right page: Twist, Gärsnäs, 2008 To develop Twist, von Schewen translated the continuous leather surfaces of a sandal to the scale of furniture. The chair also applies the CNC router technique von Schewen examined six years earlier for the Hug chair, in which twisted surfaces of solid wood create a seatshell.
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