Åsa Gray

Åsa grew up in a home filled with textiles and crafts handpicked by her mother, who enjoyed interior decorating. Åsa first dreamed of being a poet, but a high school teacher made her realise that art and design were her true calling. “He told me ‘Åsa, you are an artist’, which gave me the courage to go for it.”

After a summer course at Carl Malmsten’s Capellagården and a year of handicraft training at Nyckelviksskolan, she started at Konstfack in 1968, at a time when it was greatly influenced by the era’s revolutionary spirit. “It was a wild time,” she remembers. Åsa was inspired by the ideas of William Morris, Bauhaus, Wiener Werkstätte, Scandinavian modernism, and credits the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design with making the furniture and design industry realise they needed designers and artists to make the everyday more beautiful for the many people through good design.

“Always knock on the door to new opportunities.”
– Åsa Gray

Even before graduating in 1972, Åsa sold a pattern to legendary textile expert Hedvig Hedqvist, then head of textiles at classic Swedish co-op brand KF. Later, Åsa worked for Danish design centre Scandinavian Environmental Design. She then joined Katja of Sweden, one of the first internationally known Swedish fashion designers. Katja Geiger was an important mentor who encouraged Åsa never to compromise on her independence and artistic integrity.

In 1979, Åsa was head of design for a children’s clothing brand. Enjoying the work but frustrated by a male-dominated corporate culture that undervalued young women, she was intrigued by a newspaper ad from IKEA. “It said something like: ‘We’re not serving your future on a silver tray, not promising you the moon, but tell us what you want to do’.”

Åsa was hired by IKEA in 1980, first as a product manager for bathroom textiles, where she quickly doubled turnover introducing fresh pastel colours into the brand’s primary colour scheme. Before long, she switched to in-house design, working on projects like the innovative TOMORROW series. She loved travelling to factories worldwide, with freedom to try new ideas on the factory floor, working closely with production teams to get the best quality and function at the lowest price.

Åsa’s favourite memories include developing products for the TOMORROW programme, which demanded innovative ideas that made IKEA shine a little extra. She also created mouth-blown glass pieces for OBJECTS, a temporary department in IKEA stores in selected cities like Paris, Amsterdam and New York. Her design process, then and now, starts with sketches and paintings, sometimes in full-scale. She is guided by her personal vision rather than trends.

At IKEA, Åsa also met her soulmate, designer Tord Björklund. They left IKEA together, in 1995, but continued as freelance designers. Tord passed away in 2018 but Åsa still lives in the home they built together. Here, she is surrounded by the pieces she and Tord designed, including her iconic ULDUM rug. Her advice to young designers? “Always knock on the door to new opportunities,” she says, a reminder of the spirit that guided her career. Her legacy at IKEA and beyond is one of bold colours, fearless creativity, and a commitment to making beautiful, affordable design for everyone.