Thomas Eriksson

Thomas Eriksson (b. 1959) is a Swedish architect and designer whose practice spans architecture, furniture, and interior design. His clients have included Asplund, Cappellini, and Scandinavian Airlines. His 1992 cross-shaped medicine cabinet for Cappellini entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Eriksson was among the designers brought in for IKEA’s first PS collection, launched at the Milan furniture fair in 1995 under the heading of democratic design. The collection assembled several strong and distinct design voices; Eriksson’s contributions combined minimalism with a flash of visual wit.

His most recognisable object from IKEA PS 1995 is a small sheet-metal wall clock in the shape of a keyhole, lacquered red. The simple, slightly rounded silhouette, with an aperture that functions simultaneously as a hanging point and a small storage compartment, with a slim clockface mounted on the door, became an icon of the collection. It distils a formal economy into something that is at once a clock, a cabinet, and a wall sculpture. The piece has since become one of the most recognised objects from the original PS series and is now sought after as a vintage find. Eriksson’s work demonstrates that democratic design need not mean the absence of personality.