Estrid Ericson, a pewter designer and design entrepreneur, founded Svenskt Tenn, a highly influential Stockholm store and manufacturer closely associated with the Swedish Modern aesthetic and export success.
Education
She studied art and crafts at Stockholm University from 1913 to 1915, and after working at Svensk Hemslöjd and Willman and Wiklund, she founded Svenskt Tenn in 1924 with pewter designer Nils Fougstedt.
Biography
She participated in several exhibitions in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Zurich, New York, Copenhagen, and Barcelona to boost its reputation in the following years. Its most notable success came in 1925 at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels, where Ericson was awarded a Gold Medal.
She met émigré Austrian designer Josef Frank in 1932, and two years later, he joined Svenskt Tenn and became a defining force in the company’s design outlook.
Ericson and Frank’s work was exhibited in Sweden and overseas, including the Paris Exposition des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne 1937, the New York World’s Fair of 1939–40, and the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939, all of which received critical acclaim. In the years following WWII, the company prospered even more. Ericson sold it to the Kjell and Marta Beijer Foundation in 1975 when she was 81, but she remained in charge for another four years before handing it over to Ann Wall. She kept designing until she died in 1981, when she left her estate to a foundation that bears her name.
Sources
Woodham, J. M. (2006). A dictionary of modern design. Oxford University Press.
More on Swedish Designers
-
Ulla Forsell (b.1944), Swedish Glassware Designer
Ulla Forsell was born in 1944 and studied at the College of Art and Design in Stockholm and Holland. SheRead More →
-
Praktika Tableware (1933) designed by Wilhelm Käge
Praktika Tableware (1933) designed by Wilhelm Käge. White earthenware stacking dishes, oval with rounded sides.Read More →
-
IKEA Dragon 20-Piece Flatware Set, Stainless Steel
IKEA Dragon 20-Piece Flatware Set, Stainless Steel designed by Carl-Gustaf Jahnsson DRAGON flatware has been part of the Ikea rangeRead More →
-
A & E Design a Swedish Design Consultancy
A & E Design a Swedish design consultancy was founded in Stockholm by Tom Ahlström and Hans Ehrich (1942–). They worked in Italy earlier in the 1960s. The company has gained a reputation for functional, durable and ergonomically sound everyday products.Read More →
-
Estrid Ericson (1894 – 1981) Swedish designer and entrepreneur
Estrid Ericson, a pewter designer and design entrepreneur, was the founder of Svenskt Tenn, a highly influential Stockholm store and manufacturer closely associated with the Swedish Modern aesthetic and export success.Read More →
-
Carl Malmsten (1888 – 1972), Swedish furniture maker
Carl Malmsten was a Swedish furniture designer. Inspired by Italian Renaissance and Swedish 18th-century forms, his work is typical of the new trends of the 1920s. Read More →
-
Sofa, Borge Mogensen, 1945
This sofa’s straightforward execution and regular silhouette reflect characteristics that were considered essential for advanced design at the time. Nonetheless, the turned spindles, stretchers, and exquisite details owe a lot to Borge Mogensen’s use of the lexicon of traditional furniture forms—especially American Shaker and English Windsor—in his wRead More →
-
Wiwen Nilsson (1897 – 1974) Swedish Silver Designer
He was trained in the workshop of his father Anders Nilsson. He studied at the Konigliche Preussische Zeichenakademie, Hanau (Germany), and in the Paris studio of Georg Jensen while at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere and Académie Colarossi.Read More →
-
Carl-Axel Acking (b. 1910), Swedish Architect & Furniture Designer
Carl-Axel Acking (1910-2001) was a prominent architect and interior and industrial designer who was particularly active during the 1940s and 1950s. He studied at the National College of Art in Stockholm and the Art School and Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He was the architect of the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo and interior designer…
-
Sigurd Persson (1914 – 2003) Swedish metalworker & glassware designer
Sigurd Persson (1914–2003) was a Swedish sculptor, blacksmith, and professor who is regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most influential Swedish designers. Growing up in a goldsmith family, Persson founded his studio in Stockholm in 1942. Throughout his long career, he crafted objects in various materials ranging from metal to glass to plastic. Read…
-
Bruno Mathsson (1907 – 1988) Swedish Designer & Architect
Mathsson grew up in the town of Värnamo in Sweden’s Smland region, the son of a master cabinet maker. After a brief period of schooling, he began working in his father’s gallery.Read More →
-
Stockholm Design Week September 5-9, 2023
The Stockholm Design Week will be held from February 6 to 12 and from September 5 to 9 in 2023.Stockholm has a lot of places where design events take place, from galleries and showrooms to dinner parties, meetings after fairs, opening cocktails, museums, and cultural centres.Read More →
-
Julius Olaf Randahl (1880 – 1972) Swedish silversmith
In 1901, he moved to New York and worked for Tiffany and Gorham Manufacturing. In 1907, he worked at the Kalo Shop in Chicago before opening his own Randahl Shop in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1911.Read More →
-
Kurt Versen (1901 – 1997), Swedish lighting designer
In the 1940s and 1950s, executed many assignments from architects for flexible lighting appropriate to Modern interiors.Read More →
-
Ola Wihlborg, Swedish industrial and product designer
He took his first steps towards his career as a designer at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden, where he studied furniture and product design. After graduating in 2004, he began working as a freelance designer.Read More →
-
Sydney Opera House – Design Classic
The design of the Sydney Opera House (1956-73), which he won in an international competition, was Utzon’s crowning achievement. He envisioned a solid sculptural building made of a series of giant interlocking billowing white ‘sails’ inspired by the ships of Sydney Harbour.Read More →
-
Simon Gate (1883 – 1945) Swedish artisan and designer
Gate began his long affiliation with the Swedish glassmaking firm Orrefors in 1916. He worked as an artistic director and built the firm foundation for Sweden’sSweden’s substantial modern glass industry, alongside Edvard Hald, Vicke Lindstrand, Knut Bergqvist, and others.Read More →
-
Group of Ten (est. 1970) 🇸🇪 design collective promoting creative individuality
Because its members had previous careers in the textile industry, they wanted to be free to promote their creative ideas. Read More →
-
Ingeborg Lundin (1921 – 1991) Swedish Glassware Designer
Ingeborg Lundin (1921 – 1991) was a Swedish Glassware Designer. Between 1941 – 1946 she studied at Konstaackskolan and Tekniska Skolan, Stockholm.Read More →
You may also be interested in
Konstantin Grcic Unveils The CUP Chair For Plank – Encyclopedia of Design
For travellers, the benefits of plastic shell suitcases have come to be appreciated. They are extremely light and flexible, yet powerful and good looking. Suitcases made of thin vacuum-formed plastic sheets have completely transformed the product category. As a designer of the furniture, Konstantin Grcic was surprised by this ingenuity and the suitability of the modern chair covers for production and performance.