Tord Boontje

Product Designer

Tord Boontje is a Dutch-born product designer. After graduating from the Design Academy in Eindhoven, Boontje moved to London in 1992 to do an Industrial Design MA at the Royal College of Art. In 1997 he began tranSglass, a design collaboration with Emma Woffenden. Their objective is to embrace recycling, and they are keen to be in control of their own production process, for example using discarded wine and beer bottles spliced in different configurations to make new vessels. All products, vases, glasses and jugs are manufactured by the designers in their London-based studio.

Boontje also launched Rough and Ready, a collection of furniture made from easy-to-find wood and recycled materials, and made these designs available to anybody by freely providing blueprints of the designs, of which more than 30,000 have been distributed to date. Since then, he has launched Wednesday - a collection of tables, lights, chairs, cabinets, shelves, a bench and vases which introduces elements of decoration, sentiment and memory. Boontje describes the collection as 'a collection made without a lot of resources, but with a lot of time, care and love, a group of objects which are homely and loving, sparse yet pretty'.

He collaborated with fashion designer Alexander McQueen on product designs such as sunglasses, and with Habitat on the production of his renowned Garland light, and has a continued alliance with Swarovski, designing chandeliers. Boontje is a tutor in Industrial Design at the RCA.

His work has been exhibited widely, including: Great Brits, Design Museum/British Council organised exhibition for Milan Furniture Fair, 2003; Rough and Ready collection exhibited at Tate Modern, London, 2000; and Stealing Beauty Institute Contemporary Arts, London, 1999.

Boontje has also been honoured with nominations for the Designer Of The Year by Design Museum and ELLE Decoration in 2003, and his Garland light won awards for Best Light and Readers' Choice for Future Classics, 2003.

Tord Boontje is a Dutch-born product designer. After graduating from the Design Academy in Eindhoven, Boontje moved to London in 1992 to do an Industrial Design MA at the Royal College of Art. In 1997 he began tranSglass, a design collaboration with Emma Woffenden. Their objective is to embrace recycling, and they are keen to be in control of their own production process, for example using discarded wine and beer bottles spliced in different configurations to make new vessels. All products, vases, glasses and jugs are manufactured by the designers in their London-based studio.

Boontje also launched Rough and Ready, a collection of furniture made from easy-to-find wood and recycled materials, and made these designs available to anybody by freely providing blueprints of the designs, of which more than 30,000 have been distributed to date. Since then, he has launched Wednesday - a collection of tables, lights, chairs, cabinets, shelves, a bench and vases which introduces elements of decoration, sentiment and memory. Boontje describes the collection as 'a collection made without a lot of resources, but with a lot of time, care and love, a group of objects which are homely and loving, sparse yet pretty'.

He collaborated with fashion designer Alexander McQueen on product designs such as sunglasses, and with Habitat on the production of his renowned Garland light, and has a continued alliance with Swarovski, designing chandeliers. Boontje is a tutor in Industrial Design at the RCA.

His work has been exhibited widely, including: Great Brits, Design Museum/British Council organised exhibition for Milan Furniture Fair, 2003; Rough and Ready collection exhibited at Tate Modern, London, 2000; and Stealing Beauty Institute Contemporary Arts, London, 1999.

Boontje has also been honoured with nominations for the Designer Of The Year by Design Museum and ELLE Decoration in 2003, and his Garland light won awards for Best Light and Readers' Choice for Future Classics, 2003.

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