For 17 years, Form Us With Love has been experimenting with design as a method to improve life. The studio’s projects include furniture and lighting for the likes of +Halle and Muuto, soundproof panels created through Baux, the company the team co-founded in 2013 to elevate office working conditions, and more in-depth research and consulting projects that have defined the studio’s most recent endeavours. ‘We believe our approach to design advances industries. Design is our way of forging real change,’ say the team about their work.
During Stockholm Design Week 2022, they opened the doors to a new studio space, located on the waterfront in the city centre and serving as a functional space for creation as well as a gathering place to both show their work and host designers and brands for collaboration.
The workshop, featuring the modules in different configurations
Designed in collaboration with architecture practice Förstberg Ling and branding firm Figur, the studio takes over the spaces of a former travel agency, and it has been stripped back to a blank canvas for the team’s operations. The new space, they explain, ‘was geared towards design in progress’, aiming at a hybrid space that would allow them not only to display their work to guests, but also to practically operate in the environment.
The studio is defined by a series of hangar doors, serving as sliding walls that separate a street-facing gallery from rooms dedicated to office, workshop and communal areas. The colour grey was chosen to aid concentration and form a backdrop to their creative ideas.
The office
Throughout the space, a modular system (designed by Form Us With Love to respond to the demands of a dynamic workspace) features perforated steel modules that have been configured into desks, storage, a library, and display plinths – possibly the beginning of a new venture for the team as they further explore possibilities of the design.
‘The most important tool for us is our studio,’ says co-founder John Löfgren. ‘With small interventions, [the space] is now an amazing tool for the team, experts, and brands to co-create. The new space is designed to be transformative, adapting to the team’s design methods instead of the other way around.’
The hangar doors, separating the studio’s street-facing gallery space from the office and workshop
During Stockholm Design Week, the team took the opportunity to showcase the work-in-progress behind some of their latest projects, from experiments with materials and recycling, to paper packaging for personal and home care disruptor Forgo.
‘Early last year we gathered our team to clarify what had been cooking in the background for years. What kind of design studio do we want to be?’ adds co-founder and CEO, Jonas Pettersson. ‘We found that we all shared this ambition that design should be about improving life. We took the decision to work on projects that we feel have the potential to improve life for people, business, and the planet. The space brings vitality to our design process. Where we can show that design can have an impact.’
Modular cabinets serving as material library
The studio’s kitchen by Very Simple Kitchen
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