creative spaces :: stockholm

While I was in Stockholm for Design Week, I was very lukcy to be able to visit several designers’ workspaces. Note Design Studio (pictured above) had “popped up” in a temporary office-come-exhibiting space overlooking the harbour. They kindly invited us to have a nose around, and very kindly fed us delicious Kanelbullar (Swedish cinnamon buns)!

Their office is on a mezzanine level at the back of the building, overlooking the exhibition space, and with views of the harbour. I love the way that the design of their desk lamps echoes the shape of the street lights at about the same height outside.

Their desks are adorned with colourful storage containers, and due to our early arrival, the signs that they had planned to out up around the space to help us navigate! (They also still all their slippers on, so as not to dirty the white floor before our arrival!)

But the best bit has to be their view over the exhibiting space below, where they have all their products on display in a light, airy, double height space, with more views over the water.

While I was in Sweden, I really got an insight into how the environment, both natural and built, feeds into Swedish designers’ work – you can see the colour palettes coming through, and the quiet understated aesthetic. This space must have the same affect on the designers at Note Design Studio – it is a calm, quiet space to think.

The next studio we visited belongs to Jonas Wagell of Hello Industry. The space was made up of three square rooms, each one leading to the next. The door from the street led through a fully glazed wall into a light-filled office. This led to a kitchen with a large table suitable for eating lunch, having meetings, or just spreading out your work. And finally the back room was a workshop, which is what really drew Jonas to the studio.

A deep, waist-height shelf ran the length of the left hand side of the office area, and was loaded with design and architecture books – Jonas has quite a collection!

The walls are covered with completed projects and works in progress, all attached with colourful circular stickers. (Note to self – must get some of these for my own space!)

Sometimes it’s the really little touches that make all the difference and these little stickers work really well to hold together a display of quite disperate materials.

The middle room was a temporary HQ for a specific project, so scale drawings and models covered the table and more inspirational images adorned the walls – this time, all attached with pink washi tape.

And then the workshop at the back is where the magic happens…

Finally, we headed underground to what used to be a garage to meet Fredrik Färg and Emma Marga Blanche aka Studio Färg & Blanche.

Aside from an exhibition of their work, which they’d put together just for us, the space looked pretty hard working – with their office positioned as far away from the noisy machinery as possible!

A place for everything, and everything in its place…

They have recently invested in a new sewing machine; describing it as their Christmas present to each other for many years to come! It’s a monster, sewing through incredible thicknesses of tough materials with ease.

They also rent out some of the space to other creatives, providing a work space where ideas flow freely, jumping across the boundaries of disciplines.

It was so good to a “behind the scenes’ look at the design industry in Stockholm, to not only meet the designers, but to see the spaces that inspire them everyday.

Further reading for the especially geeky:

• creative spaces :: jailmake
• creative spaces :: chloe owens
• creative spaces :: godrich interiors
• creative spaces :: homeslice

With thanks to the Swedish Institute and the Embassy of Sweden in London for inviting confessions of a design geek on the Stockholm Design Week press trip. More posts to follow – watch this space.