Design Blog

Design:

Swedish design knows no bounds

Diversity is the keyword of the Swedish design scene. Emotional values are now reckoned to be as important as function in Swedish craftsmanship and design in general. Everything is tested and retested, both aesthetic norms and traditional ways of working.

Swedish crafts have seldom displayed the vitality or range of expression they display today. You can find everything from traditional crafts, with glass and Sami handicrafts two of the most popular, to designers working with exciting modern designs and materials.There are a number of reasons for this diversity. One is an attitude questioning established approaches in the crafts that used to be prevalent at Swedish craft colleges.

Modern Swedish designers

About ten years ago, more and more students and recent graduates began to shift their focus from a deep interest in technology, materials and function towards a new desire to tell a story with the things they made, to use these objects to comment on our times and their own activities.

In the same process, commercial culture and its various manifestations were raised to an equal level with the more traditional aesthetics of Swedish craftsmanship, including the quest for something seen to be genuine and uncontrived. The boundaries between design, art, fashion and the crafts became more and more permeable.

Famous designers

Sweden has many talented designers working worldwide for Swedish com-panies such as IKEA, H&M and Sony Ericsson.

Others work under their own name, for example the architects and designers Claesson Koivisto Rune and Thomas Sandell and the glass artist and designer Ulrica Hydman-Vallien, who produces ceramics, watercolors and textiles as well as painted glass and acrylic paintings. She has also decorated one of Sony Ericsson’s cell phone models and British Airways’ aircraft tails.

A new generation of designers

A successful new generation is now following in the footsteps of the established designers. The designers Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken and Anna Lindgren together founded the Swedish design group Front. Their product design is based on experiences, discussions and experiments. Their best known products include the Pig tray, a pig that makes up the framework of a table, and the Horse lamp