Gillis Lundgren

Gillis Lundgren (1929–2016) was the fourth employee of IKEA and one of the most consequential figures in the company’s history. He joined the fledgling operation in 1953 as a graphic artist working on the catalogue, collaborating closely with founder Ingvar Kamprad: Lundgren illustrated covers and photographed products while Kamprad wrote the copy. By 1954 he had become a full-time employee and advertising manager.

The pivotal moment came in 1956, when Lundgren tried to load a low coffee table into the boot of his Volvo 445 Duett. It would not fit. He reached for a saw, removed the legs, and packed everything flat. That improvised act of necessity became the founding principle of flat-pack furniture, a philosophy that would transform the global household-goods industry. The table, known as LÖVET, went into production as one of IKEA’s first mass-produced items.

Over the following decades Lundgren designed more than 400 products for the company. His most enduring contribution is arguably the BILLY bookcase, whose first sketch he drew on a paper napkin in the late 1970s. BILLY debuted in the 1979 IKEA catalogue and has since sold over 140 million units, making it one of the most-produced pieces of furniture in history. An earlier favourite was the TORE drawer unit, launched in 1959, which Lundgren himself considered his finest work; it is now displayed in museums as an example of pioneering industrial design.

Throughout his career, Lundgren remained committed to the idea that well-designed, functional furniture should be affordable to everyone, a conviction that aligned naturally with IKEA’s broader democratic-design mission. After retiring he continued as a consultant into his eighties. In 2012 he received the Tenzing Prize in recognition of his lifetime achievements. He died on 25 February 2016, aged 86.