Designer Tom Dixon's eponymous studio—known for its sleek surfaces and futuristic forms—has seen a global expansion since its beginnings in 2002. During New York's Design Week, a new space was unveiled in the heart Soho. Cultured sat down with Dixon to talk about the new expansion, developing his forward-thinking collections and where he draws inspiration from.
Why did you think it was important to open a space in New York? Tom Dixon has had a couple of temporary spaces but now seems like the right time to commit to an expansion here. The US is our biggest market so it only makes sense to have a permanent store here.
Tell us about the design of the store. What you were trying to accomplish and have your customers experience? The two-tiered space offers both a more traditional retail experience and a place for the industry to come and interact with our products and materials. We have set up our Design Research Studio now in both NYC and LA, which is exciting as we expand further here in the US.
I remember visiting one of your installations in the early days of Design Miami/. What do you think has changed for the world of contemporary design in the last decade? Accessibility—which is something always at the forefront of our minds here at Tom Dixon—we’ve always tried to make our products as accessible as possible. Our accessories, candles and stationary are doing very well and we’ve recently delved further into textiles—cushions and blankets and upcoming we’ll have the US launch of the IKEA bed DELAKTIG we designed. It’s going to be great to get our product in front of so many more customers!
Tell us about your new products? It’s all about mixing up the color scheme. The Blue, The Black and The Silver all feature a rigorous application of a super glossy black, a sharp, precise stainless and electric blue—we’ve been inspired by fetish rubber, space age silver and pop art blue—a crisper, cleaner and more futuristic palette for this year.
Who are your design heroes? If you had to describe a singular space as perfect, what would it be and why? My design heroes do not necessarily come from design—Jimi Hendrix, Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi come from music, engineering and sculpture but have had more influence than the more obvious Albini, Panton and Castiglioni who are from our design world. The places that I love are artists’ studios and architect-built houses; Corbusier’s Cabanon, Foundation Maeght or Vasarelli’s museum are all perfect!
