Voluntary Benefits Articles and Publications

Bruno Mathsson was a Swedish designer who was born in Varnamo in 1907 into a woodworking tradition. His father a well known cabinetmaker and furniture maker was well known as well as having four generations of Mathsson wood workers before him. The things he learned growing up were the feel and nature of wood, the tradition of excellence, and the technical skills that are essential when making furniture.

Furniture designer Mathsson wanted to learn everything he could about the technical issues and design styles he worked with. He taught himself by reading books from museums and design centers and networking with other designers. Functionalism was a design style that Bruno was very interested in. He actually won a scholarship for one of his functionalist chair designs.

Feeling that traditional flat board furniture had too many limitations, Mathsson decided to try designing chairs with no springs at all and with light upholstery. He wanted the chairs to have clean, elegant lines and to be able to change positions. This was actually so controversial an idea at the time that some of his designs were hidden away until he became a well-known and respected designer.

Mathsson was so interested in what he termed "the mechanics of sitting", that he decide to attempt experiments to learn which pattern a human made when they sat down, even going to the extent of sitting in the snow to observe the result. Mathsson received a Grand Prix design award in 1937. By that time, his chairs were being displayed to the world again.

One of his classic designs is the Pernilla chair. It is made in easy chair and lounge chair formats with bentwood and lamination techniques employed as part of the design. It can be upholstered or made with webbing. During war shortages of materials, Mathsson experimented with jute and hemp and anything else he could obtain, and this design can be adapted to nearly any wood or material. Pernilla chairs typically have an attached pillow.

In 1935 Bruno Mathsson designed the Bruno Mathsson Fällbord table. This became one of his most famous designs for a modular table that can be configured in many different ways which is still as modern today as it was in the 1930s. In fact, there is a timelessness about most of Mathsson's designs, including his highly-desired Bruno Mathsson Jetson, Miranda, Bruno Mathsson Eva and Pernilla chairs.

Another notable table (Mathsson bord) that is still particularly popular is the Mathsson Superellips. It is a huge testament to his work that so many pieces of his furniture (Mathsson m¶bler) continue to be in such high demand. Mathsson died in 1988 after an illness, leaving a legacy of his family craft taken to an even higher level.

Bruno Mathsson was a Swedish designer famous for his furniture designs. Much of his design education was self-administered and over time he learned to branch out from traditional designs and incorporate a more functional feel to contemporary furniture. By studying the mechanics and variations in sitting styles, he was able to design one of his most famous designs, the Pernilla chair. Another of his many timeless pieces of furniture is the modular fällbord table. His classic designs are well suited to anyone looking for something a little different (annorlunda m¶bler) to much of the mass market furniture available today.