Erika Pekkari

Grounded in a deep commitment to living in the present, Erika’s designs begin as personal expressions and evolve into innovations used and loved by millions. She grew up with an older sister and brothers in a small northern Swedish town near the border with Finland. During the long summers in the Nordic archipelago, they played shipwreck on a raft made from an old barn door, built tree houses and tussled on a “wrestling mat”-patterned rug. Erika still vividly remembers its bold, geometric designs in contrasting colours. From an early age, her mother encouraged Erika to pursue sewing and crafts. At 21 Erika moved to the Swedish capital, Stockholm, and began building a career in fashion.

Erika started out taking courses in hand weaving, spinning and sewing before shifting to industrial knitting, pattern construction and garment manufacturing. She then studied fashion at Beckmans College of Design and went on to work as a clothing designer for major fashion brands. Over time, her interest broadened to encompass interior architecture, and designing furniture and other interior products.

In 1989, Erika wrote a letter to IKEA and was promptly invited to their headquarters in Älmhult. Soon, she was creating everything from sofas and rugs to glassware and storage solutions alongside teams of product developers, technicians and logistics experts.

“There was an entrepreneurial spirit – a constant drive to find innovative solutions,” says Erika. She remembers those days as fun, creative and productive. “Together, we imagined and shaped the future.”

One of Erika’s first creations for IKEA was HAPARANDA, a sofa with an accompanying armchair. She aimed to create the feel of a large, comfortable sofa in a compact format, featuring clean lines. Later, Erika participated in the very first IKEA PS collection from 1995, which established the concept of Democratic Design, and she became deeply involved with the IKEA mission to make it possible to enjoy a better life at home in small spaces.

In 1999, her pop-culture status was cemented when the protagonist in the cult movie Fight Club mentioned her name while browsing an IKEA catalogue. Erika believes her name was chosen because it “sounds like crispbread.”

Erika’s creative process is always in motion. “I absorb and find nourishment in everything I experience, and within myself.” When an idea starts to take form, she sits down to sketch and build a model. For the NIKKALA sofa, designed in the 1990s, she collaborated with prototype makers, engineers, logistics specialists and project managers at IKEA. “We rose above our individual roles and joined forces to tackle the challenge of creating a grown-up sofa at a low price. It was so much fun, and the result was a sofa the whole family could use to play, lie down in and relax – a sofa you wanted to live in.”

After a couple of decades as a product designer, Erika wanted to expand her work to shape entire environments. After completing postgraduate studies at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, she transitioned from product design to interior architecture for offices and public spaces. The problem-solving skills she had developed at IKEA proved invaluable. She also designed for companies such as Svenskt Tenn and Nobel.

Erika remembers her time designing for IKEA as a dynamic and productive period. “I liked creating for the many. It brings me joy! It was a time of intentional thinking and creating that helped me learn and grow – both as a person and a designer.”