Examensarbete ?Nuodå? Ett samarbete med AB O.H. Sjögrens
The ambition of this project is to make an overview of the Swedish upholstery industry and to make a suitable complement to the Carl Malmsten upholstery collection.The Swedish furniture industry employs about 20 000 people in 815 companies. Totally the branch had a turnover of 17,5 billion Swedish krona in the year 2000. Of these 815 companies most of them are small family driven companies with low-tech industry. 10 % of the 815 companies stand for 60% of the production. These are large-scale companies and have a hi-tech industry, even compared with other types of industries. Approximately 25% of the Swedish made furniture is being exported.The upholstery industry is spread over the country but mainly concentrated to the south of Sweden, Småland. After conversations with seven chosen upholstery companies in Tibro and Tranås area I discovered that the companies all have very different views of the market, some of them are increasing there sales and some are shutting down. During the past decade the furniture industry experienced difficult times with competition from low-price-producing countries like The Baltic country and Poland. Even though the corporate climate is rough the seven chosen companies has one thing in common and that is the aversion to outsource the production. They are frightened of losing control over the quality and to maintain hi-quality is of vital importance as it is signified to Swedish made furniture.One of these companies is AB OH Sjögrens who has been my calibrator in this final project. This is the company that produce the Carl Malmsten upholstery furniture. Personally it was interesting to work with Carl Malmsten as a platform as I am linked to him trough education at Carl Malmsten CTD at Linköpings University and employment at Carl Malmsten store at Strandvägen in Stockholm.Together with AB O.H. Sjögrens a designbreif was made where it was decided that this project was supposed to result in a sofa that would harmonies with the Carl Malmsten furniture called ?Rundrygg? and ?Jättepaddan?. The ambition is to offer the consumer a generous sofa as a complement to Carl Malmsten?s small sofas.When I look at my work I can se that I have not fully been able to answer the question about what the characteristics for upholstered furniture to be optimal in Swedish production are. My work describes instead the search for a suitable match to Carl Malmsten?s furniture. The focus landed on creating new furniture and the project resulted in a sofa that is inviting and generous.