Jonas Wagell on Working 11-Hour Days, Developing a Signature Style, and the Surge of Interest in Scandinavian Design

This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. Previously, we talked to Mathieu Lehanneur.

Occupation: Architect and designer

Location: Stockholm

Current projects: There are many, but a couple worth mentioning are a line of glassware for the German company WMF and a desk lamp for Design Within Reach that should be launched in October. It's our first project together. Next weekend I'm going to Taipei to look at prototypes, which is quite exciting.

Mission: What I try to do is basically make a simple, intuitive product—something that's not too complicated and not decorative, but that can be used every day. That's the aim. For instance, with kitchenware and tableware, I don't think there should be "fancy" plates and glasses; it's much more interesting to make stuff that's actually being used all the time. So I suppose that's my niche.

Left: Wagell's Cloud pendant for Bsweden. Right: Punch, a recent lighting prototype

Prego, prototype serving utensils in molded plastic

When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? I decided fairly late. I studied economics in high school, and although I was always really fond of drawing and painting as a child, I had almost forgotten about that. Then, when I was around 18, a friend of mine started studying graphic design, and I realized that was really interesting. So I started to study graphic design as well, when I was 19 or 20.

Education: I studied graphic design for a year, then I started working. After a while I switched to working part-time and going back to school part-time. First I studied communications and marketing for a year, then I went to Konstfack for five years, for a Master of Fine Arts.

First design job: After studying graphic design, I got a job at an ad agency in Stockholm—first as a graphic designer, but then quite soon I became a project manager. That was my first and only job before going back to school at Konstfack.

Who is your design hero? I don't really have a design "hero"—I think that's a big word. But I appreciate what Ettore Sottsass did with the Memphis movement. That came after the functionalist moment in design, and they did a lot of things that were more artistic—basically, where the aesthetics of the object were one of its functions. I think that's still relevant.

I also admire the Castiglioni brothers, although their work is almost the opposite of Memphis. They made a lot of functional items, but they also made a lot of experiments and tried out a lot of things that act as a sort of commentary on design.

Die Tonic armchair for Mitab