I first become aware of Fredrikson Stallards work during my time in Melbourne working with interior designer Shareen Joel. Being 12,000km away and completely disconnected from the european design scene, Dezeen.com became my daily bible for everything design which was first port of call with morning coffee pouring over all the new works being shown and released
Amongst all the chaff and popular figures of the time like Tom Dixon, Bourrellec Brothers, Jasper Morrison et al - the raw, expressive works of Fredrikson Stallard stood out amongst a sea of tame mass production works.
At the time, the late Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs was still writing each article himselt, with pieces such as Iris at Design Miami/Basel, King Bonk, and of course the inimitable Pyrenees Sofa.
Our first meeting came mid spring by all three; chance, luck and timing. Earlier in the day I had submitted an application for either a Visualiser / Designer position. That meant a portfolio, cv, and as a primarily visual person, the dreaded cover letter which every firm in London uses as a sieve/shit test for filtering out the weak, lazy and frankly just boring applicants.
At the time I was contracting to a visualisation studio in Old Street which is not quite what I had in mind moving out to London and had taken the afternoon off in somewhat cavalier fashion to walk down and check out Clerkenwell Design Week, a small but important showing of mostly boutique furniture and lighting brands post Milan.
I have a very distinct memory of standing inside the semi derelict Farmiloe building on St. John St. at the time, admiring the sleek Jaguar art car sculpture when my phone rang. It was Ian Stallard - they loved my portfolio and could I meet.
Being London, there is usually a ping pong of dates & availability checks before meeting which was often weeks away, however when Ian said their studio was in Clerkenwell, I said ‘how about now?’ 10mins later we were discussing specific works they needed assistance with, jewellery for Brioni (which also features in the book) and a large stainless steel facade sculpture in Paddington Basin.
Several years later I was commissioned to provide a large suite of images for their ‘Glaciarium’ collaboration with Swarovski, a range of bespoke crystal components and avant-garde chandeliers.
Fredrikson Stallard: Works by Skira traces Ian & Patriks story from humble beginnings to global art/design superstars.
The full suite of Glaciarium images produced for Fredrikson Stallard can be viewed here & here.
