In beginning of September I was the convener when the Swedish Association of Designers hosted the development meeting of Scandinavian Design Alliance, this time in Stockholm. As always it was very nice to see the colleagues in the working team and we really took big steps forward. It is a very exciting project that will mean a lot not for only Swedish design, but for all of Scandinavia and the nordic countries!

Participating on the meeting were except me from the Swedish Association of Designers, Lennart Eng, Charlie Norrman and Jenny Lindahl Persson from Svenska Tecknare, Rachel Troye and Vera Pahle from Grafill, Søren Yran and Jørgen Holo from Norske Industridesignere, Martin Larsen and Steinar Valade-Amland from Danish Designers.

Lucky enough we also got some quality time in the sun, before the sky opened up and the rain was pouring down…

My work within design has taken me to many places. I have seen a lot and learned more! That has given me a sound experience and insight to a lot of different areas, which in my opinion is also one of the key factors to understand and manage the design process. To gather knowledge about market aspects, materials, production techniques, and not at least about the users – the people who respond and connects to the products and services we develop.

My approach is to be open minded and not afraid to get involved in new areas. Besides doing commissions for clients, I also teach and give lectures in design related topics. I am engaged in regional development, creating business networks, promoting culture and creativity, and making meetings and events and so on.  In addition I am a member of the board in the Swedish Association of Designers where I am representative in international networks, and just recently I was elected to vice chairman of the board.

Well what can I say? I like to be involved and affect…  and I am very happy to get the opportunity to meet all the interesting and skilled people. And I look forward to upcoming exciting meetings and projects. But first I will try to squeeze in some holidays… enjoy the summer all of you out there!

Here is a picture of Carina Oscarsson elected to Chairman of the board for the Swedish Association of Designers and me, elected to vice chairman. From the annual meeting in June.

Just before the easter, I contributed in this Phorecast Session – Work Life in 2022 at Almega in Stockholm. The mission was ordered by Almega, Saco and Unionen, aiming to get input to the cooperation for the Swedish service sector - Tjänstesektorns samarbetsavtal. The participants were handpicked and I was one of them. We were divided into three teams, and we worked for three days. My team mates was Eva Ribbenhall and Lars Lundqvist. Very nice and skilled people! It seems we made a good team, since we after the presentations were designated from the jury as the winners! As a part of price we were invited to come back and present our scenario once again – this time for the leadership board of Tjänstesektorns samarbetsavtal. Very honoring…

Here is a pic of all of the participants.

I travel a lot, my clients are spread all over. But mostly to Stockholm, it is a very design intensive region where a lot happens. And because I am engaged in the Swedish Association of Designers I try to attend to important events and meetings. It is quite a lot interesting in the pipe line ahead. Next year Helsinki is World Design Capital 2012, and I last friday I met the committee from Finland at Svensk Form, exploring how we can collaborate more. Also I work close to SVID – Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, right now with a very exciting project –  I tell you more later…

Well – that’s about it at the moment… besides I am also on parental leave allowing me to spend more time together with my son. He is one year old now – time flies!!

It has been a lot focusing on Scandinavian Design for me lately. Last week I was in a article in Svenska Dagbladet, a national newspaper, answering some questions about the Scandinavian Design Alliance. It had an immediate ripple effect with a lot of positive feedback! Here is the article - http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/varfor-behovs-ni_6034499.svd. And also one more from another newspaper - http://www.vt.se/nyheter/artikel.aspx?articleid=5861618.

Also last week our friends from east Iceland visited us at Nässjö Lärcentrum. Creative Communities, is a project where we exchange knowledge and learn from each other. This time we were focusing at the school in Nässjö and the eductions in design and product development, also sharing knowledge about wood manufacturing.

We visited A2 Design in Husqvarna, STANDARD Design in Jönköping and the Master’s Design program at Jönköping School of Engineering. Some of the group were visiting other wood related industries and small saw mills. To end up with we had this workshop about identifying East-Icelandic design.

Here is a video clip from the visit broadcasted by the Swedish Television.

When the Support Association for SVID had the annual general meeting it took place on SVT – Sveriges Television – the Swedish public service television company. I was there representing the Swedish Association of Designers. Besides the meeting we also got a presentation of the development and design process of the award winning web broadcasting service SVT Play.

Lisa Lindström, CEO from Doberman – the agency who has been involved in creating SVT Play – learned us more about digital service design and the work behind the scenes. Stefan Kervefors, production manager for SVT Play showed us the historic perspective and told us the story from the process. Also participating from SVT Erik Hedin, Peter Wissmar and Mats Liljengren.

Service Design is an interesting subject indeed - and it is very instructive to see how it can be implemented. Also it is thought-provoking how many services easily could be enhanced by putting in some knowledge about design and human centered interaction. SVT Play is a very good example of Service Design, proved by winning the award Design S last year, but there are also a lot of areas unexplored – not only connected to web and interaction design, but also to product design and all of the other everyday experiences we meet.

So, I went back to Copenhagen last week. This time representing Nässjö Träcentrum in the project Creative Communities. The project is about developing the design related businesses and educations on east Iceland. Very exiting! I met a group of five very nice women from Iceland who are involved in and managing the project, and our excellent hosts for the week Axel Andreas Beck and Peter Koppel from Vaeksthus Copenhagen.

The program was really interesting with a lot of learning and time to share experiences. We made field trips to, among other, Seidenfaden Design, CPH Design, Danish Crafts, Danish Design Centre and Designers Zoo. Also we got educated in  board work, mentorship and the business development tool Vaeksthjulet. As we had all these scandinavian/nordic friends gathered,  I invited Steinar from Danish Designers to help me inform about the Scandinavian Design Alliance that are in the pipeline.

The weather was icy cold but Copenhagen is still a very beautiful and interesting city, filled with top edge scandinavian design. Thank you all involved, for some very inspiring days. Specially to you, Peter and Axel, for putting together the program and taking care of us!

Troels tells us the recipe for building a successful design company as Seidenfaden. It is a very impressing journey they have done.

Lars Thøgersen shows the design thinking of CPH Design and their work, much from the aviation industry for Scandinavian Airlines.

From the Crafts Collection at Danish Crafts

Visit to Danish Design Center

Karsten Lauritsen tells us more about Designers Zoo

Some good examples of danish crafts and design from among others Anne Black and Ditte Fischer

Happy Icelanders in a cold but beautiful Copenhagen

One of the coolest stairs I have ever seen at HAY Copenhagen…

It is a lot of things going on right now. Last week I was in Denmark representing The Swedish Association of  Designers. I met my Scandinavian design colleagues from Danish Designers, NID and Grafill. We are working on SDA together – the Scandinavian Design Alliance, it will be a great cooperation between our organizations. I find it very motivating to work with this stuff…

From left Jørgen Holo – NID, Rachel Troye – Grafill, Charlie Norrman – Svenska Tecknare, Daniel Byström – Sveriges designer, Søren Yran – NID, Steinar Mowatt Valade-Amland and Karen Blincoe – Danish Designers.

Next week I am heading back to Copenhagen to meet a group from Iceland. This time for the school where I work – Nässjö Träcentrum. The school is engaged in a project aiming to develop the design- and wood related education on Iceland. I find it a perfect opportunity to spread the word about SDA and get new contacts.

And at last – som inspiring pics from Stockholm Furniture Fair Feb 8-12 and from Denmark.

See ya… D

Nice lamps…

Sara Larsson – A2 Design

Bolon

Marit Stigsdotter – Belysningsbolaget/bsweden

Francisco Gomez Paz & Paolo Rizzatto give us ”Hope”, Illums Bolighus

Strøget

It has become a tradition. Every year at this point people from Swedish furniture industry meet up in the heart of Småland, in Lammhult for the annual Möbelriksdag – the Furniture Parliament. This year about 300 participants did show up deep into the dark Småland forest in the big entrance hall of Lammhults/Abstracta on January 4th, well done! Möbelrikstagen is arranged by Möbelriket – the Kingdom of Furniture – a trading region and a network of design and furniture companies from Småland. Möbelriket working together to highlight the unique design and furniture history from the region. To name just a few examples: Lammhults, Abstracta, Norrgavel, Bruno Mathsson, Källemo and Ikea.

Möbelriksdagen is a kick-start. Kind of a team building event and gathering of our strengths together to meet the new year. A lot of interesting subjects, as design export, destination building and good examples in how to build long term sustainable companies and products. The program was tight! About 60 speakers entered the stage. Among those Jens Spendrup representing Företagarna, Stefan Nilsson from Trendgruppen, Patric Åström – Stockholmsmässan, Lars Bülow – Materia, Johan Lindau – Blå Station, Tomas Carlzon – MD Ikea.

The day was both inspiring and informational and I met a lot of new and old friends and had a good time all in all!

Thank you Möbelriket – Johan Sjöberg and Anders Wisth!

About 300 participants was attending Möbelriksdagen 2011

My pal Stefan Nilsson – Trendgruppen on stage – speeding up the audience…

The trends forecasted by Stefan:
Made Here – Now (made unique right now)
Made Here – Location (made unique geographically)
Made Here – Time-concious (made with time perspective)
Made Here – By me (made with personal signer)

Johan Lindau – Blå Station, together with Lars Bülow – Materia and the young designer Fredrik Färg

Representing The Swedish Association of Designers, I was participating at The Design and Learning Conference 2010 i Brussels recently. The objective of the conference was to explore in depth the multiple relationships between design and learning from a policy making point of view.

The first part of the conference presented the potential of design from different views by keynote speakers within the area. Then the conference  focused on three major areas, learning design; design and education and design and culture corresponding broadly with the European Commission ongoing work on design; on education; and on the cultural and creative industries.

From the conclusions it was emphasized that design is an important sector and has an vital role within the creative economy, and that there will be a board within the Innovation Union for working out design policies for the future invests in innovation and creativity.

After the conference I also got a glimpse of our beautiful European capital, and experienced a fantastic Christmas spirit at the square Grand Place and bought some Belgian chocolate… yummy!

In the beginning of this year I was working with destination design in Dalarna aka. Dalecarlia – a very nice place to visit. I was working together with Lisa Hellberg, landscape architect from Grontmij and Sara Tunheden, designer from Interactive Institute. Together we made a pilot study and some design proposals.

It is nice to see some of the concepts has been implemented. I have not been able to visit the area since I made the design for this sign, but a friend of mine was passing through Leksand recently and kindly enough sent this photo from the car.