Icon: Stig Lindberg

Hellooo!!! I can spend hours ogling and sighing over the beauty of things from artists and makers throughout the ages, especially the amazing proliferation of items and artworks since the industrial revolution. So it is with the incredibly talented Stig Lindberg – a Swedish designer most famous for his homewares and ceramics produced while working for Gustavsberg Porcelain in the middle part of the 20th century.

 

stig lindberg - reptil - vases

stig lindberg – reptil – vases

 

stig lindberg - ornamental bowl

stig lindberg – ornamental bowl

 

Welcome to my new segment on design and craft icons!! There’s a good reason that people like Lindberg have earned themselves a place in the history books, and I think that we can always learn more from taking another look at them and their work, so in amongst presenting fresh work from emerging designers and small business help, I’ll be delving into these treasure-troves every now and then.

 

stig lindberg - platter - randnat

platter – randnat

 

Stig Lindberg - leaf platters

 leaf platters

 

stig lindberg - coffee pots

coffee pots

 

Stig was a master at design, inventive, often whimsical and humorous. He designed prolifically for Gustavsberg, everything from elegant, plain white tableware, right through to his distinctively bold graphic surface decorations. His forms were quintessentially mid-century Scandinavian, with their graceful curves and clean lines.

 

stig lindberg - 5-part vase

5-part vase

 

Stig Lindberg - cups and saucers - Bersa

cups and saucers – Bersa

 

Born in 1916, Stig studied painting at the University College in Stockholm, and went to work at Gustavsberg when he graduated in 1937. He became their Artistic Director in 1949 and stayed there until his retirement in 1980.

Principally a designer of tableware and probably best remembered for his leaf-decorated dinnerware, Bersa, he also produced a number of handcrafted pottery pieces, and also designed patterns for homewares and fabrics, and even several television sets for Luma.

 

stig lindberg - pottery fabric

pottery fabric

 

stig lindberg - herbarium

herbarium

 

stig lindberg - bulbous

bulbous

 

You can see more of his work here.