Tord Boontje

Tord Boontje is a Dutch designer whose education at the Eindhoven Design Academy and the Royal College of Art London set the foundation for Studio Tord Boontje. Established in 1996, the studio’s early projects involved creating studio produced low-cost or free products such as Transglass, Rough-and-Ready furniture and the Wednesday Collection. While his work was starting to be shown in exhibitions, institutions such as the British Council and the Design Museum recognised and supported his talent. By 2002 the unique Garland light for Habitat was a widely recognised and distributed product and the articulate and beautiful Blossom chandelier for Swarovski was making waves; but it was an installation created in the Moroso showroom during the 2004 Milan Salone that sent the international media into a frenzy. Titled ‘Happy Ever After’, this was an installation full of texture, colour and imagery. This sensorial experience made the statement that design can be married with emotion. It established that the Studio’s work draws from a belief that modernism does not mean minimalism, that contemporary does not forsake tradition, and that technology does not abandon people and senses.