Designer · Sweden · 1913–1988
Yngve Ekström
Yngve Ekström (1913–1988) – Swedish self-taught designer, co-founder of Swedese and designer of the 1956 Lamino armchair.
About the designer
- Lifetime
- 1913–1988
- Country
- Sweden
- Manufacturers
- Swedese
Yngve Ekström was born in 1913 in Hagafors, Småland. He was self-taught – a cabinetmaker, stonemason and designer; he began working at the local furniture factory at the age of thirteen. In 1945, he founded ESE Möbler with his brother Jerker and Bertil Sjöqvist; in 1961, the company adopted the name Swedese.
In 1953, Lena Larsson invited him to an exhibition at NK-Bo, the interiors department of Stockholm department store NK. In 1955, he designed the Gracell, Sibbo and Arka chairs for other manufacturers, and in 1956 the Lamino armchair – in 1999, readers of Sköna Hem voted it Swedish furniture piece of the century. Later designs included the Rondino swivel armchair (1964) and the pine Furubo series from the turn of the 1960s and 1970s.
Ekström’s work was shown at Röhsska museet in Gothenburg (1963), the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (1970) and in Toyama (1987); his work is held in the collections of Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and Möbeldesignmuseum. He died in 1988.
Key designs
-
Lamino
Armchair selected in 1999 by readers of Sköna Hem as Swedish furniture piece of the century.
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Gracell, Sibbo, Arka
Chairs for other manufacturers.
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Rondino
Swivel armchair.
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Furubo
Pine furniture series.
