Charlotte Rude and
Hjördis Olsson-Une

Among Charlotte and Hjördis’s teachers at Konstfack University were design giants like Stig Lindberg, inspiring them to take bold and unexpected leaps. Charlotte especially remembers the glass artist Bertil Vallien, instilling in them that creative process mattered more than the medium. After graduation, they wanted to experiment with glass, leading them to Elme glassworks in Älmhult, Sweden, near IKEA.

With limited means, they furnished their small Älmhult flat with their own particleboard designs, built with materials bought cheaply from a construction site. When the neighbours, employed at IKEA, saw their creations they encouraged them to take their designs there. Instead of buying their designs, then range manager Gillis Lundgren offered them positions as in-house designers. Curious and eager to learn, they accepted and started at IKEA in 1968. Founder Ingvar Kamprad believed they would bring fresh thinking and told them their main job was to inspire and energise the older designers.

Charlotte and Hjördis had free rein and spent a lot of time in IKEA workshops developing their particleboard innovations. Their first particleboard series, POKUS, featured modules in different shapes and sizes, many fitting together like a puzzle. Customers were encouraged to be creative when combining modules and, if they wished, to paint the untreated surfaces in their favourite colours. They also used particleboard when building a 100 square metre play area in the Kungens Kurva IKEA store in Stockholm in 1971. The biggest hit here was the huge ball pit, inspired by plastic packing materials and bean bags.

The duo always worked as a team. “Sometimes I came up with the idea, sometimes it was Hjördis. She was incredibly creative, and I was good at getting things done. We developed everything together and put both our names on all products,” said Charlotte, whose favourite design is the DINO highchair. The inspiration came from Bo Wadling, then in charge of the IKEA test lab, who said parents felt that most highchairs were clumsy and prone to tip over. Charlotte and Hjördis started sketching a circle within a circle. A steel frame with a sturdy round base and a smaller round frame for a vinyl seat – an instant success.

One of Charlotte and Hjördis’s favourite things about working at IKEA was the annual trip to the Milan furniture fair with Ingvar Kamprad. It was inspiring and a welcome change from the sleepy little town of Älmhult. “Ingvar would send us to find inspiration,” Charlotte remembers. “Then we’d meet up and share what we discovered. Ingvar had an eye for spotting useful details.”

In 1973 they decided to leave IKEA to live in Charlotte’s hometown Copenhagen, Denmark. Charlotte and Hjördis went on to freelance while studying at the Royal Danish Academy, Hjördis graduating from the Furniture Design programme and Charlotte from the department of Industrial Design. After spending a year at a glassworks in Mexico, they parted ways. Hjördis wanted to return to her family’s farm property in northern Sweden, where she had built a ceramics studio. Charlotte carried on travelling and teaching while working as a designer.

After a long, creative life, Hjördis passed away in 2022. By then, Charlotte had retired. In 2024, when she turned 83, their iconic chair GOGO was re-released in the IKEA Nytillverkad collection, now called ÖNNESTAD. She remembers their five years at IKEA fondly. “It was a fantastic time. We learned so much and were free to explore and develop our ideas. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”