Lena Bergström
Encyclopedia
Biography
After high school, Bergström started working as a decorator at Domus department store. She moved to StockholmStockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
to study at various art & crafts schools, and eventually started at Konstfack
Konstfack
Konstfack or University College of Arts, Crafts and Design is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden.- History :...
, the University college of art, crafts and design in Stockholm. Bergström describes her sudies as interdisciplinary, which is also shown in her work. After graduating at Konstfack in 1989, Bergström started working as a freelance designer. She got her breakthrough in 1992 with the textile collection X-tra, O-lik och I-hop for textile manufacturer Ljungbergs, which was awarded Excellent Swedish Design
Excellent Swedish Design
Excellent Swedish Design was a design award handed out by the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design 1983-2002...
. The success continued with an exhibition at the Swedish Pavilion at the Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
World Exhibition. The next year she was awarded Excellent Swedish Design once again for the collection "Ume, Lule, Pite"; a development of her graduation project at Konstfack.
In 1994 Bergström got employed by Swedish crystal manufacturer Orrefors
Orrefors
Orrefors is a locality situated in Nybro Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 696 inhabitants in 2005. The internationally acclaimed Orrefors glassworks are situated here....
, and she has been a member of their staff ever since then. For Orrefors, Bergström designed several prize-winning products such as the Havanna and Drop collections, the crystal vase Squeeze in 1997, the votive Puck in 1999.
Besides her career as a glass designer, Bergström has also continued working with textiles, for companies such as Ljungbergs textiltryck, Designer's Eye, SAAB
Saab
Saab AB is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937. From 1947 to 1990 it was the parent company of automobile manufacturer Saab Automobile, and between 1968 and 1995 the company was in a merger with commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania, known as Saab-Scania.-History:"Svenska...
, and Design House Stockholm
Design House Stockholm
-History:Design House Stockholm was founded in 1992 by Anders Färdig, who had previous owned the brands Höganäs and Boda Nova. Originally, Design House Stockholm worked only with product development for other brands. In 1997 the company founded its own product collection, based on the ideas of...
.
Lena Bergström is represented at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, The Röhsska Museum of Fashion, Design and Decorative Arts in Gothenburg, the Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
in London.
Style
Bergström’s textile work is distinguished by its graphic qualities, while her glass and crystal designs are often soft and organic. In her own words, she likes soft glass, and hard textiles. She also appreciates mistakes in the process; the vase Squeeze is a result of an accident that occurred in the glassworks while losing concentration at work – the result was a deformed, waving vase, that was awarded Excellent Swedish DesignExcellent Swedish Design
Excellent Swedish Design was a design award handed out by the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design 1983-2002...
.
Awards
Bergström has received numerous awards, including 12 Excellent Swedish DesignExcellent Swedish Design
Excellent Swedish Design was a design award handed out by the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design 1983-2002...
; ELLE
Elle
Elle may refer to:*Elle, Central African Republic*Elle , a fashion publication*Ellé, a river in France*Elle , a female given name*Elle , a Sri Lankan game similar to baseball*Ælle of Sussex, a Saxon king...
Decoration Design Award, UK 2002; Swedish ELLE Interiör Design Award 2003 & 2006. She was shortlisted for the Bombay Sapphire
Bombay Sapphire
Bombay Sapphire is a brand of gin distributed by Bacardi that was launched in 1987. Its name originates from the gin's popularity in India in of the days of the British Raj and the sapphire in question is the Star of Bombay on display at the Smithsonian Institution...
Prize both in 2002 and 2005.