Folke Ohlsson

Folke Ohlsson was a born in Malmo, Sweden in 1919 and died in Atherton California in 2003. Folke studied at the School of the Gothenburg Society of Industrial Design before he began working for Swedish furniture and bedding manufacturer, Dux. In 1950 he moved to the United States with only a suitcase full of clothes and exact miniature scaled model furniture of his own design. He also carried a cardboard carton that contained the broken-down components of one of his chairs. According to Ohlsson, when he arrived in the United States he took his suitcase and cardboard carton to hotels all over the country inviting salesmen, department stores, and decorators to view his miniature designs and watch as he disassembled and reassembled his chair. He quickly became notorious for his patented “knock-down” construction that reduced shipping and storage costs and helped to make Dux a household name in the USA. Early in his design career Ohlsson almost exclusively designed in natural beech blond wood until critics quickly forced him to move to darker walnut and teak woods. At its peak production in 1955, the Dux line was sold in all 50 states including Alaska and Hawaii and grossed upwards of $1,000,000. Folke Ohlsson won a Gold Medal at the 1951 Milan Triennale and was given the Good Design Award by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His furniture was one of the first exhibits featured at Stanford’s art museum. Ohlsson’s pioneering knock-down concept revolutionized furniture production and transportation and lead to the birth of global companies such as IKEA today.