Joakim Thedin

From the music industry to acclaimed designer in just a few years. Joakim Thedin fell in love with designing a combination of light and form. He now owns a design company and his work includes the bestselling Heaven for Markslöjd.

It all began in 2009. Joakim and his wife were taking their records down to the basement, because the family had transitioned entirely to Spotify. While putting away one of the records, he was struck by how beautiful the grooves were. Then and there, he had the idea to design a lamp made from recycled vinyl records. When the lamp was finished, it garnered some attention and was featured in an array of design magazines, sold at several places, and nominated for Object of the Year at Designtorget in 2010.

Joakim explains that his ideas and inspiration come from art, color, form and different production methods. Recently, he has developed an interest in the works of landscape artist Michael Heizer, and Hilma af Klint. Joakim is one of those designers who never sits down before a blank sheet of paper; rather, his ideas arrive in a steady stream. Usually, they pop up while he pages through all the design magazines he reads each month. He explains that the lamps appear in his mind entirely finished, and then he quickly scribbles down a simple picture for memory. Then he creates a digital original on the computer, and after that he places the lamp in a number of different settings to see what kind of environment it will fit into best. Then he often makes a prototype and presents it with the picture of the room to the companies with which he works. If a company chooses a lamp, he makes a production blueprint, which is then sent to the company’s producer.

Before Joakim made the transition to design, he was struggling in the music industry as a musician and songwriter. But after 10 years, he was tired of dingy rehearsal spaces, chili con carne and shabby hotel rooms, and started a design company instead. He was already working on the side with designing album covers, posters and press photos, so he says the shift was not aparticularly big leap. He adds that initially, it also wasn’t very different, except that he no longer had to suffer through loud drum sound checks.

Joakim considers it important to understand how the companies he works with think about their brands, collections and futures. When designing Heaven, he wanted to make a lamp that seemed almost to be floating in the room. When Markslöjd asked if he had a nice corner lamp under way, he designed Kino, a wall, ceiling and corner lamp. The Kino lamp is inspired by the classic holes along the sides of analogue film rolls. Only later did he realize that younger generations probably wouldn’t know what an old roll of film looked like, but they liked the lamp anyway.

When asked whether he considers form or function more important, Joakim explains that healways starts with form. He says a lamp must be beautiful, both on and off. Only then does he move on to function, through the strength and distribution of light, and the construction, durability and production method. Most important of all to Joakim is to make the most affordable and adaptable product possible, while retaining a high level of design, he concludes.

NAME: Joakim Thedin
PROFESSION: Designer
LIVES IN: Gothenburg