++cataci.com Topics/Jonas Bohlin++

PD : Do you think that design is progressing based on new findings?

JB : Partly it is progressing based on new findings, but partly it is built upon on an old culture, maybe more so. For instance, most furniture is still made of wood. They are still stuffed with the same old stuff. Things change a bit to keep up with the development in its expression and design. The machines have changed, but they are not able to do so much more.

They can do things only more effectively than before. This is the case in Sweden anyways. Internationally, a lot of the creations are done in plastic and a lot of investments are done in moulds. The costs are much higher, but then they know that they have a great international sales capacity. Swedish customers do not buy a lot of plastic furniture as they probably do in Mediterranean countries. We have worked more based on our natural assets, which are wood and leather, and so on. The countries lacking natural assets are the ones that have used artificial materials more in their creations. I believe that our design development is built more on old tradition than on hi-tech.

IKEA, for example, has a large market with many consumers because they have that kind of infrastructure in their sales organisation. They need to produce a lot of everything, but they do not do it in a sophisticated way. They just use free workforce and they do not use a sophisticated production process. In this way, their production is based on an even older tradition. Those who work in the production process do not get so much, while owners of companies do. In this sense, nothing new has happened.

PD : Do you think that trends in design are new or recurring?

JB :They are quite recurrent. It is similar to fashion design. You can recognise the 50's, the 60's, and so on. Some things have changed a bit and I guess this is because there are new ways of production, new ways of printing on textiles, and so on. Because there are things that are prohibited or regarded as non-ecological, new materials have been developed. In the textile industry, new ways of producing textiles came up and this gave a large influence on the fashion industry, and it has also been affecting the furniture industry. But wood is wood and steel is steel. Even if you see some difference in colours, etc...., there is no big difference after all. Go to the furniture fair, and look at a wooden chair that is designed today and one that was designed 70 year ago. I am not sure that you will find any differences.

PD : Do you keep up with the trends in your creations?

JB :I think that everybody keeps up with the trends unconsciously in one way or the other because you are exposed to it everywhere. So it is impossible to keep yourself from getting influenced by the trends. However, I do not read the magazines and so on, and I do not go to the furniture fairs, because everything that I see and experience becomes closed doors rather than possibilities. Therefore, I try to keep away from quite a lot of what is happening. Also, I don't have time for that. When shall I have time to look on what others do when I don't have time to do my own stuff? I think that I am inspired by things in my surrounding, and by the nature that I see, rather than by what other people do.

PD : Do you think that there is a common Swedish way of thinking that reflects on Swedish design?

JB : In the past, it has been said that Swedish or Scandinavian design represents functionality and simplicity, but over the past ears this idea has vanished a bit. Today, we are inspired by other cultures, in our colours and more, since aspects from other cultures have become a part of our idioms too. But somewhere in our backbone we still have the functionality and simplicity. This is not something that can be changed in a short period such as ten or fifteen years, but it is rather a hundred-year process. It is based upon our climate, our nature, and our melancholy. We have this in common with Japan and other countries; a particular kind of expression due to the fact that functionality and simplicity have been crucial in order for us to survive in the past. I believe that this creates solidarity. It expresses that our society is not only based on people with a Swedish origin, but also of people from other cultures that worship other gods and so on.

PD : When you work in Japan, do you keep Japanese culture in mind when creating?

JB : When I go there, I visit restaurants and hot springs. I look at their idioms, their trees, and how they wrap things, and so on. This inspires me to use their culture in my creative process. I use what I find on the spot and make it into my own. For instance, the ceiling paintings that I am going to do in the restaurant in Japan - it will be foliage inspired by the willow that they plant. It is a meeting between my world of forms and theirs. So I do not go there with a bag full of ideas, but rather with a bag half-empty leaving space to fill with their world of forms, and then one has to shake it a bit and see what comes out of it.