MiD Student Blog
Join our student bloggers as they discuss design, business, and everyday happenings in the studio.
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Student to Present Paper at Scandinavian Studies Conference in Seattle
The annual Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies conference will be held in conjunction with the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies conference in Seattle, Washington on April 22-24th. I will be presenting a paper on design and politics in contemporary Sweden on the panel: Swedish Public Art and Design: Vapenhus to IKEA. I will be blogging about the panel and the reception of my paper from the conference late next week. Below is the abstract for the paper.
Designpolitik:
Do the Politics of Design Follow the Political Mood of a Nation?
Socialist Sweden has been known for its egalitarian design since 1930 when the Stockholm Exhibition showcased modern furniture and home interiors that were functional yet very affordable for a middle-class citizen. The interiors of such things as supermarkets, libraries and apartment houses took practicality for the user into great consideration. This driving philosophy continued into the next decade when in 1943, Ingvar Kamprad opened the first IKEA in Älmhult. Kamprad opened his store with the idea that anyone should be able to buy housewares that are stylish but also affordable for most people. IKEA has since opened in thirty-seven countries around the world, making Ingvar Kamprad the richest man in Sweden. The 1950s saw functional beauty in the designs of Sigvard Bernadotte, a prince turned designer who used plastics as his material of choice.
The populist spirit that pervaded these designs echoed the politics dominating the country at the time. Since the peak of egalitarian design, the Swedish political climate has changed significantly with the Social Democrat majority giving way to the Moderates. Have changes in politics and a rise in consumerism changed the way Swedish designers see consumers? Or is there still a core ethos within design circles to create functional objects that stay affordable for the majority of Swedish society? In my paper, I hope to answer these questions by looking at leading Swedish companies, both within Sweden and those that have gone global, to find if they make these considerations in their designs.
