Alumni interview, product design: ODDA Design Studio
Here they tell you about how it all started, what they bring with them from Beckmans, and tips for those who are curious about working as a designer.
Tell us about ODDA Design Studio – how has the road been from start to now?
"ODDA Design Studio is a Stockholm-based agency that works with product, furniture and interior design. We who run ODDA are Hanna Wik and Robert Wettebrandt, and we got to know each other when we ended up in the same class at Beckmans in 2014. However, it took until 2018 before we decided to start working together. We had worked together a lot during school and thought it worked well. We decided about a year after we had graduated that we wanted to try collaborating again, and six months later we decided to run fully as a studio and formed the company ODDA.
We work in interior design with a focus on lamps and furniture. When we work with interior design, we want projects to breathe sustainable and smart design. We like traditional crafts and modern techniques in clean materials and exciting colors. We keep track of trends but focus on working with designs that last a long time. What we create today should be as relevant and desirable today as in the future. Thinking about the aging and construction of materials has become a big part of the work for a designer and that is also how we want to work.
What projects are you working on right now?
-Right now we are working together with several different lamp manufacturers, which feels fun as we both always felt a little extra for lighting design. When we first collaborated during school hours, it was precisely the lamps we developed. The lights we made then were noticed in several media and it felt obvious for both of us to continue working on that type of project.
We are also currently working with interior design for private individuals, and that we are developing unique furniture for a new hotel concept that will open in Sweden in autumn 2020. What we are working on the most at the moment is a new exciting company that will be launched this autumn, where we have worked with overall identity creation and all designs. It feels really exciting and scary, we have really got to show what we are capable of!
What do you have with you from Beckmans that has been important to your career?
-In addition to experiences and lots of contacts, we had the opportunity to explore and develop our own design processes and different ways of communicating it. It is something we still do and feel confident about thanks to the varied courses and the many approaches that we needed to apply during the training.
One project that helped in the start was the alumni project at the Institut Suedois in Paris,a project that has received a lot of international attention. Through the project, we got the chance to work together with large companies such as DUX, Karl Andersson & Söner, Kasthall and Ekdahls to develop products for the interior design at the Swedish Institute.
Do you have any tips for those who dream of becoming a designer?
-We both started in preparatory training, which gave us the opportunity to build a portfolio and to get help with work samples when we then applied further. However, if you have not attended a preparatory school, our top tips for those who are curious about working as a designer are to actively look for design and learn more about design history. Search for both contemporary designers and historical references. Borrow books at libraries, search the internet and check in design stores. By learning more about history, you become more confident in how you want to work and create.
