Tastemakers – design house
Design House Stockholm launched in 1992 the aim of promoting Scandinavian designers on the global market. Now with six stores worldwind and several products in New York`s MoMA, they have certainly hit their target. Head of marketing Hans Hjelmqvist talks about beautiful bike baskets called Carrie and his practical philosophy of design
words by Bethan Ryder
1. What it is Design House Stockholm?
Design House Stockholm works with designers in the same way that a publishing house works with authors. There are so many young and up and coming designers out there with unique ideas, but with no means to develop them. We give them the opportunity to develop and manufacture their ideas and distribute their products to the global market.
2. How would you define Scandinavian design?
Scandinavian design has its own aesthetic expression and appearance. The basics are purity, simplicity, functionality and naturalness. In May, Time magazine selected us for their prestigious design list. I think that shows how important Scandinavian design is right now on the global market. Our new store on Kings Road in London has also been doing very well since it opened in June this year.
3. Do you believe that less is always more?
In general, yes, but not always.
4. Should form follow function?
Design House Stockholm’s core design philosophy is: ‘Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful and if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.’
5. What is the beauty of being a collective?
You inspire and support each other in decisions regarding design, materials and production.
6. What do you look for in a designer?
We are looking for great design ideas. It doesn’t matter if you’re an established designer, or a designer who has just graduated from design school. We are looking for ideas that improve life. The products have to be interesting for the global market, as we sell our collection in Europe, America and Asia.
7. What is your bestselling product, what do think is your most quirky and what do you consider to be the most useful?
Design House Stockholm’s bestselling product right now – and our quirkiest and most useful – is a new bike basket called Carrie designed by Marie-Louise Gustafsson; it’s functional, unique and shows a new side of Scandinavian design which is more colourful and playful. We are currently working on an exhibition titled Scandinavia Today at SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), it will include new contemporary design from Design House Stockholm. The bike basket has been a huge success in San Francisco, we have been selling so many baskets, it seems the people of the city just love it!
8. Who is your favourite historical Scandinavian designer?
Stig Lindberg, his design is as contemporary now as it was back in the 1950s. Design House Stockholm reproduces his textile designs for the global market. We find the young as well as the older generation love his patterns.
9. Which piece of architecture do you most admire and why?
If I had to pick one from a long list of impressive works in Scandinavia, it would be Gunnar Asplund’s Stockholm City Library. The library is currently being extended; over 1,000 architects from all over the world have competed to build on his work, showing the influence he still has on architecture today. Stockholm’s Skogskyrkogården (The Woodland Cemetery), also by Asplund, was recently added to UNESCO’s world heritage list.
10. Where is your favourite place to hang out in Stockholm?
Sturehof, a seafood restaurant that’s a real old classic and the new Pontus Frithiof restaurant which combines great food and interiors by Agneta Pettersson and Frankenstein Stockholm.
11. What advice would you offer to a budding designer?
Be bold.
Design House Stockholm
11 Smålandsgatan, Stockholm,
+46 850 908 113.
Shop online at www.designhousestockholm.com
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