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IKEA the book.
Designers, products and other stuff.

Language: English, Swedish
Author: Staffan Bengtsson
Graphic design: Elisabeth Björkbom
No. of pages: 450
Format: 175x239 mm
Binding: Soft cover
Published in 2010
ISBN 978-91-85689-06-.4
Retail price ca.: 425 SEK / 45,2 EURO

Along with Volvo and ABBA, IKEA is Sweden’s most internationally successful brand. In recent years, furniture pieces from IKEA have occasionally turned up at international design auctions. These inexpensive, owner-assembled, everyday products have become collectors’ items. Meanwhile, the designers behind the furniture at IKEA have long been unknown to most of us. IKEA the book brings them into the light to describe their creative and successful work. The book takes the reader on a journey into the internationally celebrated world of Scandinavian design. What ideals are IKEA’s designs based on? What makes the KLIPPAN sofa and the BILLY book case as sought after in Basel and New York as in Stockholm? How did Ingvar Kamprad get world-famous designers like Verner Panton and Hella Jongerius to create original pieces for mass production in IKEA’s factories? IKEA the book is more than a walk through the fantastic history of The Great Furniture Factory; it holds something for anyone with an interest in design processes and stylistic ideals.

Nordic Designers

Language: English
Author: David Sokol
Graphic design: Sandra Praun
No. of pages: 320
Format: 210x260 mm
Binding: Hardcover
Published in 2010
ISBN 978-91-85689-02-6
Retail price ca.: 495 SEK / 52,6 EURO

The companion book to Nordic Architects highlights the contemporary talents working in a region that has been famous for product, furniture, and industrial design since the reign of Gustaf. In design as in architecture, recent progress has been defined by a clean aesthetic, craftsmanship, and empathy for the human experience. These traditions have prefigured the latest trends in Western design, such as universal access and the burgeoning of eco-friendly design. But other recent movements, like the emphasis on intellectual conceit over form-making, have perhaps caught designers off-guard. In informal interviews with 59 of the region’s best-known designers, such as Peter Opsvik, Front, and Ilkka Suppanen, writer and editor David Sokol explores the once and future Nordic identity, the exigencies of local manufacturing, and the competitive global marketplace.

Nordic Graphic Designers

Language: English
Graphic design: Sandra Praun
No. of pages: 320
Format: 210x260 mm
Binding: Hardcover
Published in 2010
ISBN 978-91-85689-22-4
Retail price ca.: 495 SEK / 52,9 EURO

Nordic Graphic Designers is the third volume in Arvinius’ series on Nordic architecture and design. The book demonstrates the diversity among graphic designers from the five Nordic countries, but also tracks a distinctly Nordic identity shared by a great variety of designers. The book serves as both an encyclopedia of contemporary expression and a catalog of leading designers, with established titans and rising stars side by side. Among other things, we learn what inspires the creativity of Kari Piippo, Acne, and Bleed. An introduction gives the reader a diagnosis for today’s Nordic graphic design. Each of the following chapters is devoted to a single designer, beginning with a brief interview. One of the questions illuminates how environmental consideration can be incorporated into the graphic process. In contrast to Arvinius’ previous books Swedish Graphic Designers 1 & 2, we find that many of today’s designers are trying to limit the carbon footprint of the products they make. The interviews also discuss whether graphic design in the Nordic countries should now be considered artistic handicraft rather than a tool in the service of commercial interests.

Monika Förster

Language: English, Swedish
Author: Mark Isitt
Graphic design: Sandra Praun
No. of pages: 160
Format: 190x240 mm
Binding: Hard cover
Published in 2010
ISBN 978-91-85689-28-6
Retail price: 495 SEK / 52,6 EURO

Monica Förster’s journey looks a long one. From Lappland to Milan. From cultural wilds to the sophisticated epicentre of the modern world. From her role as only child growing up in her mother’s and father’s inn – room 201 was hers – to that of internationally acclaimed furniture designer. In reality all is logical, however. But in Förster’s somewhat illogical way. This book explores Förster’s universe. On her bedside table lie copies of Vogue Italia alongside books on prime numbers and cosmology, and it is by her clashing of such opposites, by thinking the strikingly unexpected, that tricky tasks win their simple solutions. The outcome – some of the most trendsetting products in recent Scandinavian design. The book further traces her development from youthful rebel, anti-designer almost, protesting against anything to do with proportion and composition and proving it by knead-ing together silicon and glass fibre and all those other materials that Scandinavian designers traditionally reject. The journey leads us ultimately to the respected position she holds today, commissioned by some of the world’s leading producers and applauded for her creative sensibility.

Björn Dahlström Industral Designer

Language: English
Graphic design: Matilda Plöjel
No. of pages: 200
Format: 165x215 mm
Binding: Hard cover
Published in 2010
ISBN 978-91-85213-20-7
Retail price: 595 SEK / 63 EURO

A form is transformed and reduced to a symbol for some-thing when its details reinforce the overall impression. Dahlström has an infallible sense of form, just like a musician can have an infallible sense of pitch. His feeling for design seems to be absolute. His creations become portraits of themselves and their role in the world. Their physical form is completely new, but at the same time his creations express something natural and self evident. Some of his design products therefore seem like archetypes.

Depending on where he places an object’s centre of gravity, he also steers the observer’s experience of it. In the world of cartoons, the characters with a low centre of gravity are stupid and kind, like Obelix. Those who have a high centre of gravity are reserved and shy, like Professor Calculus. Björn Dahlström’s empathy for both these characters seems to be equally strong; there are traces of both of them in his design.

Scandinavian Design in the Doll’s House

Language: English
Authors: Ulf Beckman, Yvette Wadsted Graphic design: Gabor Palotai Design
No. of pages: 288. Format: 165x215 mm
Binding: Hard cover
Published in 2010
ISBN 978-91-85213-17-7
Retail price: 495 SEK / 52,6 EURO

This book takes you on a journey through changing trends in post-war Scandinavian interior design, reflecting the Nordic way of life that has influenced interior design through-out the world.

Starting in the fifties with the influence of Carl Malmsten, a style eminently suitable to reproduce in miniature. In the sixties, the main influence came from Denmark. Brio marketed a miniature selection of furniture from Fritz Hansen scale 1:12.5.

Three internationally well-known Swedish toy makers Brio, Lundby, and Micki built electrified dolls’ houses from the early forties, the two-storey structure is based on houses commonly found in Sweden. A selection of wall-papers found in these dolls’ houses from different periods are also shown in this book. Enjoy!

Upplandsgatan 41, Box 6040, SE-102 31 Stockholm, Sweden, phone +46 (0)8 32 00 15, fax + 46 (0)8 32 00 95, info@arvinius.se