Explore the exhibition

All their products are the result of teamwork – Knut and Marianne together with the model workshop, Knut and Marianne with other IKEA employees, and Knut and Marianne together with suppliers.

Many of their ideas are born at the factories, where they can see what is actually possible to achieve. The discussions on the factory floor are always inspiring, and the brother and sister are always brutally honest with each other.

“We were born to go against the tide. Stubborn as mules. We love to argue for a long time over details and technical design. We fight and laugh our way forward and have the best job in the world!”

“We’ve never begun the design process by saying we’re going to make a stunning-looking product. Instead, we think backwards.”

This backward thinking starts with a function, a material and a low price. That’s when you know it’s going to work. But it’s certainly a huge challenge trying to make an inexpensive product good.

“But we’d rather see one of our creations sell in hundreds of thousands instead of just a few,” say Knut and Marianne. It’s a great thing to have the ability to reach out to as many people as possible. Working with Democratic Design – form, function, quality and sustainability, at a low price – is in the siblings’ DNA. “We see the boundaries as a challenge. How much good form, function and sustainable quality can we fit into a low price? And it’s a challenge that we enjoy.”

How much play and education can you fit into a few stackable plastic beakers? Knut and Marianne answered the question with MULA. The mixture of soft and slightly harder plastic, bright colours, geometric shapes, wavy and straight edges makes play fun and educational for any baby. Stack, knock down, stack, knock down again, maybe sieve something, then stack and knock down again. No end of fun, and there’s even a happy clown to discover.

A child’s stool can be a low-profile little product, but Knut and Marianne put a lot of thought and love into FÖRSIKTIG (PATRULL). Right from the start, the idea was to make a stool that was attractive, easy to keep clean, and very reasonably priced. The shape is soft and embracing, which is ideal for small feet. And by using two different plastics, one with more friction than the other, it’s not slippery when a child stands on it.

This series of children’s furniture was created when Knut and Marianne suddenly found themselves with 1.5 kg of plastic. The challenge was to make two stools and a table from it. At a low price, obviously. The furniture should also pass virtually every test there was. The result was the UTTER series. Furniture so light that children themselves could easily carry it around, yet sturdy enough to withstand all kinds of play and rough treatment. And it works just as well outdoors as in. Rain, sun, snow and mud – this furniture was made to survive anything. Simplicity is the common thread. Simple, clear design, simple to assemble, simple to keep clean, simple to store as it’s stackable, and simple to play with.

Knut and Marianne created this series of large-spotted storage boxes for all the stuff lying around the home. The boxes come in different sizes and heights, and can be used for everything from beads and hair bands to doggie treats and erasers. They are leak-proof and scratch-resistant, with soft, out-facing edges. They are easy to lift, have a large internal bottom space, and are also easy to wash up. So function, function and more function.

What if there was a cabin bag that was not only super practical, but also good looking? And fun. With all the travelling Knut and Marianne did during their years at IKEA, it’s no surprise they started thinking about the ideal cabin bag. Function was the main focus. Details were important. It had to be practical and look good. And it had to have something new. With a spotted relief pattern in black on the outside and bright orange on the inside, that was the design sorted. With an adjustable handle, silent wheels, a safety hook for keys, large outer pockets, a smart inside and everything you could ever want in the way of functionality, the UPPTÄCKA cabin and laptop bag became a huge success.

This is one of the really big sellers at IKEA and has been in the range for a long time. The very first drawing was made back in 1984 and it became a series consisting of a letter tray, desk organiser, document file, magazine file, wastepaper basket, desk pad, and notepad holder. The material was found at a factory in Korea, where expanded metal was used for loudspeaker covers. Very exciting! But the material was a bit too expensive for IKEA. So to get the price down, they adapted the thickness of the metal. The material created closed storage, but with a transparent feel. Visible, yet not visible. During the 2000s, DOKUMENT has been updated with new functions, new design, new packaging and – of course – a new, even lower price.

Out of all the favourites, this is a favourite favourite. Maybe because a playful childhood was such an important part of the Hagberg siblings’ creativity. Children’s furniture used to be essentially shrunken-down adults’ furniture. The aim here was instead to start from the children’s world, and put the focus on function and imagination. With their bright colours, softly rounded shapes and funny, protruding legs, these were not just chairs and tables. Anyone with a bit of imagination could see anything from red and blue monsters to climbable rocks. The series has featured in exhibitions and won design awards. But above all, it has been a creative playmate for children around the world.

Knut Hagberg and Marianne Hagberg have won a great many awards for their products. In the LISABO series they have combined good design with revolutionary technology. Because LISABO did not need traditional metal fittings for assembly, they were able to create a slender piece of furniture with a clean design that has won a Red Dot Award. The OMTÄNKSAM furniture series also won a Red Dot Award. The pair were also awarded Excellent Swedish Design for the PUZZEL series.

Feedback from customers on how their products have made a difference is probably what Knut and Marianne are most proud of. “That’s when you know you’ve created a better everyday life for the many people,” to quote the siblings.

Few designers have been as productive as Knut Hagberg and Marianne Hagberg, but not every product makes it into production. Sometimes, things grind to a halt. But why? In this case it was the battle between price and quality that prevented BJÖRKSNÄS seating furniture ever getting made. The series already included beds, bedside cabinets and drawers. The quality was high and the products were well-liked. Knut and Marianne were encouraged to transfer the feeling of craftsmanship from the bedroom furniture to some high-quality seating furniture.

“There was genuinely a feeling of inherited items – that’s how good the quality was. The highest class materials only,” say the Hagberg duo. But despite the excellent results – you can see the sofa, armchair and footstool here – IKEA thought the price should come down by almost 35%. So Knut and Marianne put their foot down – forget it!

“It was really good value for the money: good design, function and excellent quality, sustainably manufactured with a feeling for craftsmanship, all made out of high-class materials, at an amazing price compared to the same furniture on Fashion Street.”

You might say that these three products capture the whole challenge in creating Democratic Design at IKEA. It’s a constantly ongoing discussion, indeed sometimes quite an argument, about what the price of good design, good function and sustainable quality should be. What do you think?

What happens when a small group is set a big, difficult task? They work simply. When Knut and Marianne were asked to make products out of birch, they decided to base the whole project on the idea of simplicity. Along with a small group of people with different areas of expertise, they headed off to the supplier and got to work. The aim was to make a collection of furniture for the whole home, preserving the lovely feeling of natural materials and craft-like expression, but keeping the price very low. So basically, a classic IKEA challenge – increase the value but cut the costs.

The result was a timeless Scandinavian series that expresses a new kind of simplicity in both its materials and function. Simplicity of design, yet also simple to treat and repair. Easy to clean around, as most of the pieces have high enough legs to get the vacuum cleaner under.

The ROBIN series is all about simple, honest design with good function and quality, at a very low price. With a bed, a desk and storage, the series covered most of what a teenager’s room or young family home needs. And its neat dimensions and lightweight materials made it easy to move around the home, and to take with you when you moved.

The chosen material was a functional, rational one: foiled chipboard. But to give the series a little character, a thick, birch-coloured plastic edge-strip was added to contrast with the bright colours. Also, in order to make wheels of good quality for the series, the designers worked with a manufacturer of roller-blade wheels. Obviously!

Knut Hagberg and Marianne Hagberg always, without exception, manufacture prototypes early on when developing products. But why do they love prototypes so much? “It’s the first physical manifestation of a product. Everything else is just theories, ideas. Only when you have the prototype in front of you can you see and understand the product’s potential – or lack of potential.”

They also both love the interplay between the model workshop’s wisdom, the suppliers’ experience, and all the long, winding discussions centred around the prototype. A prototype that has to be tested, evaluated, altered and measured, and then sent off to a supplier where it breaks out of its chrysalis to become a real product.

The Hagberg siblings do all their design jobs together. In fact they work so closely together that sometimes they can’t even see who has done what on a drawing. And they do all their drawing by hand. “Nothing can replace that link between eye, thought and paper. We always sketch in 1:1 scale, and when we’re done we go over to the model workshop and make a first prototype – together.”