“He was self-confident, romantic, playful, perceptive and a complete financial idiot”: The legacy of Stig Lindberg

You would be hard pressed to find a Swede – or any discerning design lover, for that matter – who hasn’t spent time at home with Stig Lindberg. The illustrious illustrator and designer infiltrates our kitchen cabinets, tablescapes, and just about any available surface: walls, floors, furnishings. His simple, playful patterns spur feelings of familiarity and nostalgia, placed proudly on display, passed down with love through generations.

It can be argued that it all started around 1919, when Stig was just a few years old. It was then that a pamphlet entitled Vackrare Vardagsvara (Beautiful Everyday Goods) was published by the art historian Gregor Paulsson, advocating for aesthetically-pleasing, democratic design to be made accessible to all. And Stig set out to do exactly that, applying to work at Gustavsberg Porcelain Factory in 1936 at the age of 20. Business was sluggish and the manager was hesitant to take him on, but a confident Stig is quoted as saying, “If you employ me, I will make sure there are jobs at the factory”.

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From the handsome, towering brick factory in Värmdö, east of Stockholm, Stig forever changed the face of Swedish design. “Working there, as he did for almost his whole life, the freedom of expression was unseen in other industries,” says Stig’s son Lars Dueholm-Lindberg, who today is manager of Stig Lindberg's estate and heritage. “It gave him and the ones that he engaged, often his students from the art school [Stig was simultaneously the head teacher of ceramics at Konstfack for some time], possibilities to experiment – as long as they also made best-selling products for the masses.”

According to Lars, Stig assumed the role of Gustavsberg’s “golden boy”, allowing him to work for others beyond the factory and add to his repertoire of ceramic and porcelain products with textiles, glass, book illustrations and more. “I can’t always work with the same things in the same material,” Stig said in a 1958 interview with the newspaper Morgontidningen. “I would feel like an actor who plays the same role his whole life. Like a squeezed lemon.”

Remaining a fixture at Gustavsberg throughout almost his whole career, Stig was appointed creative lead between 1947-1957 and again from 1972-1980. It was during those years that he, with help from his talented team, produced his beloved works – both within and beyond the walls of the factory – from the iconic ‘Berså’, ‘Spisa Ribb’ and ‘Domino’ patterns to his more obscure output. Photographs of the designer at his peak document a dapper man, complete with a bow tie, thick-lensed glasses and mischievous, animated glint in his eye, his hands occupied interchangeably with a creation of his own or a smoking pipe.

“He was a kind of multi-talented renaissance man that seldom saw limitations, but on the flip side, he had little room for taking criticism or advice,” Lars says. “Strict with students and co-workers, but also warm and encouraging when he saw something he liked. Stig was self-confident, romantic, playful, perceptive and a complete financial idiot.”

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According to Lars, and as verified throughout the design history books, Stig was also a workaholic. “His ideas and vision were more important to him than money or family,” says Lars. “But when there was time for us it was wonderful, like on our holidays together – little did we know that they were really business trips.” Lars recalls the time that his father did spend at home as a re-purposing of the space into a showroom or studio, hosting visits from journalists, customers or colleagues, while their kitchen became a practical test facility. “Checking if a certain ceramic oven and stove-proof dinner set really was oven-proof could often ruin my mother’s dinner, and kitchen,” Lars laughs.

As we reach almost 200 years since the Gustavsberg factory was established, and 100 years since Stig brought his singular artistic expression to its products, the love for the designer’s legacy shows no signs of fading. “I always say that Stig Lindberg will never go out of style,” Lars says. “From his start in the ‘30s to his last breath in the ‘80s, he was not merely following the trends of the decades, but he was also the trend-setter. One can always find something appealing in Stig Lindberg’s designs.”