Product Designer: Markus Johansson
Markus Johansson the product designer grew up in a small village in Hyssna , Sweden, and communicated through using pictures rather than words. When he was little he was full of energy and had a great desire to create. This is how he knew that one day he wanted to be a product designer.
He started studying for one year at Fidu in 2005, this is where he had his first exhibition in 2006 at the Formers Hus in Hellefors. Then he went on to study at HDK, a Bachelor program, from 2006 till 2009 where he exhibited his work at the Degree Project Exhibition in Kokokaka 2009.
In his final two years (2009 – 2011) of studying his HDK Master program he had his work displayed at several other exhibitions, the Interior in Kortrijk (Belgium), Check and Furniture Fare in 2011 Stockholm, Super studio Piú in Milano and Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg.
After these six years of studying Furniture and product design at various schools, he is now working as a freelance designer.
Currently he has two partners, Tommy Eije Gustavsson whom is also his web designer and Olle Anderson. They started a business Markus Johansson Design Studio which is located in Gothenburg (Sweden).
His vision is to create through combining technology, furniture and form.
His only goal is to develop and shape and to never repeat anything in life. Thus his goal is to create products with new shapes and also they have to have lasting value.
Environmental awareness is very important to his, except when it may prevent his creativity.
Thus the materials used was mainly wood, corian and leather or fabrics.
Thus the materials used was mainly wood, corian and leather or fabrics.
His opinion about design is as follows: “design is about conveying an emotion that affects human life and enhance everyday life. I get my inspiration from different areas between humans and artifacts, through various tests, processes and studies where I am looking for the true paths.” http://www.markusjohansson.com/
His most popular design at the moment is the NEST, see pictures below. This product is design on 28 October 2010 and since then has caught the eye of the design world. The materials used is braids of round rods and they consist of free forms with no right angles, it’s basically made out of wood and is environmentally friendly. These chairs can be ordered in various colours with the seat in either leather or fabric finish, the most popular colours are beech or ash.
His vision is to create through combining technology, furniture and form. His only goal is to develop and shape and to never repeat anything in life. Thus his goal is to create products with new shapes and also they have to have lasting value.various fabrics. The nest is represented by Galleries l’eclectico in Italy and Bastad 125 in Sweeden. The new development is that the Nest goes to Milan and is going to make its first appearance at the furniture fair in Spring in Milan.
One of his other widely publisged designs is the Cirrata lamp. In his own words he describes this piece the best…” 'unexpected experiences and surprises wait deep down on the ocean floor: a body with many arms which sweeps along
and lights up the depth. Arrogant and presumptuous, there is no doubt about who is the ruler down here. a lonely
but nevertheless unafraid character with forms born out of the resemblance to other inhabitants of the deep depths.
sometimes still, sometimes alive, all depending on occasion and company. the character is 'cirrata', a glowing lamp
in the darkness of the ocean.'
and lights up the depth. Arrogant and presumptuous, there is no doubt about who is the ruler down here. a lonely
but nevertheless unafraid character with forms born out of the resemblance to other inhabitants of the deep depths.
sometimes still, sometimes alive, all depending on occasion and company. the character is 'cirrata', a glowing lamp
in the darkness of the ocean.'
His project adopts the form of this sea creatures
Markus explored with a variety of materials and techniques and decided to use the heat formable corian and which is available in various colours.
The Corian is molded on this wooden base below to get its unusual shape that he uses as stated in his description for this project.
Furthermore he made a few projects during his studies.
One of the projects he did while studied at HDK were
Flip:(see picture below)
This project was commissioned by Brio, they had to design toys that would fit into their product line.
Markus created a toy that can be driven on both sides and his motive was the appearance of motion changes depending on whether you drive the toy on its back or stomach. His vision for this toy was, “find characteristic expression in which function and form becomes a whole.”
Flip:(see picture below)
This project was commissioned by Brio, they had to design toys that would fit into their product line.
Markus created a toy that can be driven on both sides and his motive was the appearance of motion changes depending on whether you drive the toy on its back or stomach. His vision for this toy was, “find characteristic expression in which function and form becomes a whole.”
