Photo Credit: Tom Dixon
British designer Tom Dixon made his grand return to the West Coast for the first time in two years to unveil key pieces of his 2019 collection in a prequel to the official launch at Mlan's Furniture and Designer Fair Salone del Mobile in April. While stopping at the Tom Dixon Studio at Platform, he shared some of the lessons learned in the rock’n’roll business and simultaneously unveiled never-before-seen FAT furniture and OPAL lighting.
Here, he discusses FAT, his new upholstery range designed to hug the body and allow for multiple sitting positions—available as a dining chair, barstool and lounge chair, made from molded foam with metal legs, launching in high gloss black lacquer and made to order upholstery—and OPAL, a family of translucent globes using tinted white Opalescent polycarbonate, as well as how his business has evolved over time.
Photo Credit: Tom Dixon
We were excited to get a look at your new FAT Collection, Opal Lighting and Swirl collections. Can you tell us about your design process? How has this process changed over the years?
In French they say "Le plus ca change le plus c’est la meme chose"—meaning, it’s always changing but it’s still the same thing, a fascination with materials and processes from craft to industry. We design by making full-size mockups and prototypes, and then we work hard to get them made to a price and quality that makes them desirable.
The Tom Dixon brand is well known for cutting edge production and the incorporation of new technology methods into the production of your offerings. What are some key design and production development trends you are most excited about?
I think it’s an exciting time in lighting technology right now with innovative light sources and low energy changing and improving all the time. for the designer, the digitalization of manufacturing industry opens up all kinds of opportunity to experiment and get involved in flexible small batch production.
Photo Credit: Tom Dixon
In what ways do you see the Tom Dixon brand growing in the future? And with further technological production advances?
We have spent the last 15 years building an infrastructure for design, development and distribution of our products, and it almost still feels like a startup! We are getting more involved in complementary categories of perfumes and restaurants and textiles and electronics, we are partnering with other companies in associated fields, and hoping to stay innovative and restless. The whole industry remains to be disrupted in the way that music and transport and publishing has been, so we hope to be part of that.
If you had to choose just three of your favorite Tom Dixon items to furnish your home what would they include?
I’m only interested in the latest thing that we have just launched, so one high one dining and one low-fat chair please!
