Tom Ahlström
 | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Swedish. (March 2025) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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Tom Ahlström | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 30 May 1943 Helsinki, Finland |
| Citizenship | Sweden |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Industrial designer |
| Family | Stig Ahlström |
Tom Ahlström (born 30 May 1943) is a Swedish industrial designer. He is the co-founder of A&E Design.
Biography
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Ahlström and his identical twin brother, Stig, were born on May 30, 1943 in Helsinki, Finland, to a Swedish-speaking Finnish mother and a Swedish father who worked as a businessman in Finland's steel industry.[1] He grew up in Västerås, Sweden, and moved to Stockholm in 1964. He studied crafts and silversmithing at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. While a student, he met Hans Ehrich, with whom he subsequently founded A&E Design (Ahlström and Erich) in 1968. The pair designed products such as the 1230 Diskborsten 'dishwashing brush' for Jordan A/S, of which tens of millions of examples were sold; as well as the ticket dispenser and numeric split-flap display for the AB Turn-O-Matic M80 Könummersystem 'queue number system' that "can be found in most supermarkets."[2][3][4]
Exhibitions and museum collections
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Designs by Ahlström and Erich are in museums such as the Möbeldesignmuseum,[5] Nasjonalmuseet,[6] Röhsska Museum, Nationalmuseum,[7] the Vitra Design Museum and Pinakothek der Moderne in Germany,[8][9] and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[10][11]
In 2018, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm staged a retrospective of Ahlström and Ehrich's work.[2] The exhibition included handmade models and prototypes, sketches, drawings, and finished products from the A&E Design archive, which the designers donated to the museum in 2015.[12]
Publications
[edit]- Widengren, Gunilla (1994). Tanken och handen: Konstfack 150 år [The Thought and the Hand, Konstfack 150 years] (1st. ed.). Stockholm: Page One Publishing. ISBN 91-71-25-018-2.
- Wickman, Kerstin; Landén, Anders (2018). A & E design: the book. Bromma: Business History Publishing. ISBN 978-91-984266-4-9.
References
[edit]- ^ Boldemann, Marcus (30 May 2013). "Dubbel känsla för form" [Dual sense of form]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 12 October 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2025.
- ^ a b "A&E Design". Nationalmuseum. Retrieved 2025-03-24.
- ^ "17 dagar kvar". Nationalmuseum (in Swedish). Retrieved 2025-03-24.
- ^ "Hans Ehrich, Tom Ahlström, Checkpoint Systems Inc., D 80 Købillett dispenser". Nasjonalmuseet. Retrieved 2025-03-28.
- ^ "Tom Ahlström". Möbeldesignmuseum. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
- ^ "Tom Ahlström, Industrial designer, Designer". Nasjonalmuseet. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
- ^ "Tom Ahlström (1943 – )". Nationalmuseum (in Swedish). Retrieved 2024-06-20.
- ^ "Bam-Bam, 1971; Tom Ahlström, Hans Ehrich". Vitra Design Museum. Retrieved 2024-07-29.
- ^ "Red Dot interview with Swedish designer Hans Ehrich". Red Dot. Retrieved 2025-04-02.
- ^ "Tom Ahlström, Swedish, born 1943". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
- ^ "archimagazine – La rivista – Hans (Otto, Georg) Ehrich". www.archimagazine.com. Retrieved 2025-03-24.
- ^ "A&E Design archive donated to Nationalmuseum". Nationalmuseum. Retrieved 2025-03-25.
External links
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