David Ericsson
David doesn’t go for simple slogans like “less is more” –
instead he claims design has to be obvious. That might imply
a certain love for an Italian master like Enzo Mari, but also for
bespoke furniture from all around the world. After graduating
from the prestigious Carl Malmsten Furniture School almost
10 years ago, David has produced quite a list of designs,
many of them aspiring or already fully grown furniture classics.
“Wood is my favourite material, not only because I hail from
the forests of Småland in southern Sweden, but also because
I feel it can be used a lot more; particularly pine, which has
had a bad reputation since the terrible 1980s yellowish,
hard-lacquered polyurethane versions.” As for creating a little
punk of a chair, which has won prizes both at home in
Sweden and in France, David explains that when he was
young he enjoyed working in a record shop in Värnamo.
“You get hooked. First it was The Clash and all the others in
the punk movement, then it was Vegan punk or whatever.”
By extending his education through studying aesthetics and
philosophy in Umeå, as a teacher he has contributed to a
more humanistic design approach at the Carl Malmsten
Furniture School. “You have to let the design process run its
course. Look at Pinzo – the chair might look simple, but the
attachment of the back and the precise angle requires quite
an advanced solution.”
How is your design influenced by your studies of aesthetics
and philosophy at university?
“I want objects to have meaning; the user should understand
why my objects look and work in a certain way.
As a designer you’re part of something bigger. It’s not just a
product, it’s about contributing to the fabric of society.”
What are you reading right now?
“I’m intrigued by Stefano Mancuso’s book The Revolutionary
Genius of Plants: A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence
and Behaviour, I’m alternating that with a classic: Mio, My
Son, by Astrid Lindgren.”
What are your music preferences apart from punk?
“Right now I’m listening to a lot of Beck; I’m playing his double
album Stereopathetic Soulmanure.”
PINZO
David Ericsson | 2O19 -2O2O
