Design | Tom Dixon is a design superstar, whose lamps are already a basic concept in design: for Ikea, he proposed the design of a coffin

First broke a leg, then broke an arm.

And both accidents pushed designer Tom Dixon’s life in a new direction.

The leg was broken when Dixon had just started an art school in London on a basic course. During the long hospital stay, Dixon fell behind in his studies and no longer wanted to go back to school.

He ended up playing bass in the band Funkapolitan. The professional musician’s career ended when Dixon drove his motorcycle into a car.

“I was looking at an attractive girl walking down the street and I hit a car. I flew over it and landed in front of that beautiful girl,” Dixon says in the interview and laughs.

Dixon’s arm was cut, and at that very moment his band was about to go on tour. Dixon’s friend was hired as the bass player. There was no going back.

“My friend was a much better bassist than me, and after the tour I couldn’t get my place back.”

When one a door closes, a new one opens.

Dixon has grown into a superstar, one of the most famous designers of our time. His designs – such as armchairs and lamps – have been acquired by the most important museums, he has stores around the world and his products are sold in 90 countries. 1,000 of the most popular lamps are produced per month.

He has also collaborated with the furniture giant Ikea, and in 2018 he implemented a sofa with an aluminum frame for Ikea, which also functions as a bed. Actually, Dixon would have liked to design a coffin for Ikea, but it didn’t fit the company’s line

A good week ago, he arrived in Helsinki to perform. He was invited here by the new Design Helsinki design event and Nomart, which imports his products.

Dixon has said that he is a completely self-taught designer.

When the career in the band ended, Dixon started running clubs with his friends. First, the friends rented a strip club in London’s Soho, and when it became successful, they moved their club to the basement of a nightclub in Barkley Square.

“It was a popular club and a great way to make a living.”

Since nightclubs only happen on weekends, Dixon had a lot of free time during the week. He got the idea to restore his own vintage cars and went to a car repair shop to practice welding.

There, he discovered that he liked welding and how easily new shapes could be created from metal.

“The work of a carpenter requires patience, as you have to wait for the glue to dry. But welding is fast and you don’t have to be so precise.”

Welding gave a new direction to Dixon’s life: he began to take shape as a designer. Soon he was already presenting his chairs to the public in his friend’s store.

In 1983, the designer stood out with his fanciful steel chairs welded from pieces of small-winged British floral decorations, as if Hanoi Rocks had rushed into the middle of a classical opera.

Finnish audience In the hall of the Design Museum, you hardly remember Dixon’s furniture welded from scrap metal, but part of his later production is already a basic design image. Dixon has learned to combine everyday life and luxury with rare skill: for example, Dixon’s lamps – shiny balls and the clouds that form from them – add sparkle to interiors, and you can recognize them from afar. You see a lot of them not only in homes but also in restaurants and hotels.

From the beginning, Dixon’s products have sold well. The designer himself believes that he has been helped by the fact that he did not go to schools in the field. He has learned by doing – and selling.

“In art schools, you learn to think about design as an artistic activity. But I thought that if I can’t sell my designs, there’s no point. And then, to my surprise, people were willing to pay for my products.”

At the end of the 1980s, Dixon already had twenty people working and exhibitions in different parts of the world. At the same time, the avant-garde Italian furniture manufacturer Cappelini was looking for new ideas and designers.

“It was lonely doing design in Britain, but Italy had a different culture. There I was part of a big community. And their craftsmanship was and is unmatched: upholstery and leather processing – everything was possible in Italy.”

Cappelini’s S Chair became Dixon’s breakthrough. As the name suggests, it is s-shaped. In it you can see references to the iconic Panton chair, which Verner Panton designed in 1959. Dixon’s S Chair has also been on sale for 30 years.

by Tom Dixon however, the designer at university was the interior design store Habitat, and that’s where he first learned – about new product categories, seasonal products and global supply chains.

“I learned where the products are made and how much it costs to make them.”

Habitat, which also operates in Finland, was founded by the standard-bearer of British design, Sir Terence Conran. The company hired Dixon as its creative director in 1998, by which time Conran had already sold his company to Ikea.

During the next ten years, Dixon designed less but ordered products from other designers even more. At that time, Habitat had 70 stores in Europe. Dixon had the latest statistics and research at his disposal.

“At Habitat, we knew how people behave and what products they actually use.”

Whereas he designed luxury products for Cappelin, at Habitat he learned what kind of design ordinary people want.

Already in Habitat while Dixon began to think about how he could get more out of his experience and name.

Dixon had learned that there was one big difference between the worlds of fashion and design. Design houses are named Hay, Cassina or B&B Italia, for example, while fashion houses are named after designers.

So Dixon founded his own company and named it Tom Dixon.

“I am known because I am a brand. And my communication, my product and my universe are one and the same.”

Since then, Dixon has learned that own name as a business name can also be a problem.

First, the company was owned by a Swedish and then a French investment company. Dixon noticed that when money comes in, it goes to the owners. At the same time, he is expected to forge growth every year.

Are you sad that you sold your company and your name?

“Let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t do it again,” he says.

“Now the people I hire tell me what Tom Dixon should be. It is frustrating. And comical.”

Still, the company is already 20 years old.

Yet Dixon’s time in Finland is not discussed.

Dixon was hired in 2004 as Artek’s artistic director. He soon found himself in trouble.

“Artek was a difficult job. Everyone in Finland is interested in what Artek does. All of Finland owns Artek.”

Dixon says he learned a lot about the history of design and the birth of modernism while at Artek. “But while Artek was radical in the 1920s, in the 21st century it was conservative.”

He tried to develop and update the company, “bring global thinking into the company instead of traditional Finnish thinking”, but he failed.

Over the course of five years, Dixon brought in new designers and good old Eero Aarnio. From Aarnio, he took, for example, the Rocket bar stool, which is still on sale, into Artek’s collection.

Dixon broadened the selection of materials, and Artek started selling, for example, bamboo products and recycled composite.

“It was more difficult to change direction than I had thought. But I have a lot of warm feelings for Artek.”

in Finland Dixon learned that sometimes the pieces don’t fall into place. Fortunately, the former welder knows that there are always good seams.

Only the present moment is interesting.

“Brexit, pandemic, war, hyperinflation. In business, you have to shape yourself out of these problems.”

Nowadays, Tom Dixon is interested in locality, nature and gardening – and brand new materials.

“I’m interested in cork, in mushrooms – many new experiments will come to nothing, but we have to find new materials that won’t harm this planet,” he says.

“In the future, I will probably focus less on design and more on growing. I can’t say more yet.”