“A lamp with a strong personality.” This is what design group Front wanted to make when they were tasked with designing a lamp for the IKEA PS 2009 collection. Anyone who has seen the bent, unconventional IKEA PS SVARVA floor lamp must surely agree that they succeeded.
At the time, design group Front was comprised of four women who had known each other since their days at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm: Anna Lindgren, Katja Pettersson, Sofia Lagerkvist and Charlotte van der Lancken. They quickly made a mark with their bold, imaginative design, always in combination with respect for old techniques. IKEA PS SVARVA was developed using wood turning, one of the oldest decorative techniques around.
“We realised that if we split a turned wooden pole into several pieces, we could create bends that were otherwise impossible with wood. In that way we could produce a whole new impression: a bendable, turned wooden pole!” as the design group explained on the product’s launch. The designers wanted the lamp to feel like a “good friend reading over your shoulder”.
IKEA PS SVARVA has read over many a shoulder since its launch. The floor lamp was sold at IKEA for a full seven years. It is now on display at the Nordiska Museet and is very popular on the second-hand market. SVARVA was also made in a smaller, desk-lamp version.
