Question time with design icon Ilse Crawford

Design is most powerful when it answers our questions about everything new happening in the world. And to get answers we need to ask questions. With the exhibition at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, February 3-7, this year´s Guest of Honour Ilse Crawford wants to engage visitors with a series of questions.

The exhibition and lounge “Question time” is a place to sit and contemplate. In the busy environment of the fair it is an opportunity to reflect and give feedback.

"We want to slow people down and encourage them to think about the wider significance of the fair experience and all that is on show. The lounge will feel a bit like a studio – our studio in Bermondsey, south London. As well as long work benches, chairs and task lights, we will construct a giant cork wall. We will pin a series of large questions and on the tables will be notepads and marker pens and printers – the idea being that people sit, think, respond and pin their answer on the cork wall."
-Ilse Crawford

Ilse Crawford, born in London, started her career as a journalist. At the age of 27, she was commissioned to launch the British ELLE Decoration, and ten years later her career took her to New York, where she was a vice president at Donna Karan Home. She returned to London in 2001 and started her own design firm, Studioilse Creative Direction and Design, which currently has 20 employees.

As founder of Studioilse, together with her multi-disciplinary, London-based team, she brings her philosophy to life. This means creating environments where humans feel comfortable; public spaces that make people feel at home and homes that are habitable and make sense for the people who live in them. It means designing furniture and products that support and enhance human behaviour and actions in everyday life. It means creating brands that balance the human experience with good business. As founder of the department of Man and Wellbeing at the Design Academy Eindhoven, her mission extends to nurturing a new generation of students to always question why and how their work improves the reality of life.

Ilse Crawford has done several projects in Sweden; concept development and interior design of Mathias Dahlgren's restaurants in Stockholm’s Grand Hotel, lighting for Wästberg, as well as brand identity and interior design of the luxury hotel Ett Hem in Stockholm. Other projects have included brand and interior design of Soho House New York and the concept and decor of Duddell’s in Hong Kong. Studioilse has also won multiple awards. http://www.studioilse.com/

Previous Guests of Honour have been: Patricia Urquiola, Ronan och Erwan Bouroullec, Naoto Fukasawa, Konstantin Grcic, Giulio Cappellini, Ineke Hans, Paul Smith, Arik Levy, Inga Sempé, Oki Sato/Nendo and GamFratesi.

Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair will be held February 3–7, 2015, at Stockholmsmässan.

For more information, please visit www.stockholmfurniturefair.com or contact:
Cecilia Nyberg, Event Manager, tel +46 8 749 43 86,cecilia.nyberg@stockholmsmassan.se
Lotta Signeul, Press Officer, tel +46 749 43 36 19, lotta.signeul@stockholmsmassan.se

Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair is the world’s largest meeting place for Scandinavian furniture and lighting design. Domestic and international visitors will find the most comprehensive selection of Scandinavian furniture, office furnishings, design, textiles, lighting and other interior furnishings for both homes and public spaces. Stockholm Design Week is also running parallel to Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair.