From Lars Hall’s announcement of Tom’s Platinum Egg: “Tom Hedqvist is the art director in the advertising industry who has designed the most textiles. Tom Hedqvist is the art director who has inspired the most glass designers in this country. Tom Hedqvist is the art director who has done the most television programmes on fashion and design.” Which actually kind of says it all. Still, it may be appropriate to list a few more of the basic facts...Read more. Born in 1948, Tom Hedqvist grew up at Thiel Gallery in Stockholm, where his father was the museum director and also a working artist. (A residence and studio were included.) His mother was a fashion illustrator. In 1966, he was an assistant to Inez Svensson, the legendary textile artist. From 1969 to 72, he studied advertising and graphic design at Beckmans School of Design. During this period, he became a cofounder of the textile collective 10-gruppen, of which Inez Svensson was also a member. With their bold, colourful patterns, 10-gruppen would make Swedish design history. From 1975 to 89, he was an art director at Arbman, HLR and Hall & Cederquist. In 1990, he founded the FGH agency together with Göran Fredriksson and Johannes Göransson. While at FGH, Tom Hedqvist designed a packaging series that ended up making an indelible impression on generations of Swedes, namely Arla milk cartons. When Arla’s relationship with a famous British design agency suddenly broke down, Tom Hedqvist was given a single weekend to come up with a new proposal. His solution was extremely simple and, in his view, totally obvious: stripes. Wider stripes for the red whole milk cartons, thinner for the blue low-fat milk cartons. And so on. As time went on, Tom Hedqvist came to feel increasingly like an outsider in advertising, and instead became a teacher and a communicator in other cultural areas, often encouraging and supporting the younger generation. In 1994, he was made a professor at Konstfack, the University of Arts, Crafts and Design Konstfack, and in 1995, he became creative director at Orrefors Glassworks.

After the Platinum Egg: Popular, deeply committed rector of Beckmans School of Design from 2000 to 13. Director of Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg from 2013 to 16. He never stopped designing textiles for IKEA and various other clients. Tom Hedqvist is represented in the Nationalmuseum.

– B.E.