Gustaf Nordenskiold

Normally, when we think of Swedish design there is a certain smoothness simplicity that springs to mind. However, all things Swedish aren't as clean cut as that IKEA shelving unit you attempted to put together last week. Some Swedes practice a noticeably anti-IKEA aesthetic. One such designer is ceramic and glass design specialist Gustaf Nordenskiold, whose creations have turned the perceived Swedish design sensibility on its ear by highlighting a certain complexity in things as normal as lighting fixtures and coffee mugs. Nordenskiold's creations eschew symmetry in favor of more natural seeming deformities and entanglements that despite their jagged and chaotic nature still appear to give off an air of order, which is more than we can say for that shelving unit that you lost half of the screws for.