Svensk Form | ScandinavianDesign.com

Founding, 1845

Svensk Form was established in 1845 as Svenska Slöjdföreningen (the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design), the same year Konstfack was founded in Stockholm. The organisation was created to raise the standard of Swedish craft and industrial production at a time when Sweden was industrialising rapidly, and it remains the country’s national design organisation today, working across architecture, industrial design, craft, and fashion.

Vackrare Vardagsvara and Form magazine

In 1919, the architect and design theorist Gregor Paulsson published the essay “Vackrare Vardagsvara” (More Beautiful Everyday Things) under the organisation’s name, a text that became a founding statement for Swedish functionalism: well-designed, affordable objects for ordinary homes rather than luxury goods for the few. The same period saw the launch of Form, the organisation’s own magazine, which continues today as the world’s oldest design publication still in print, chronicling Swedish and international design for over a century.

The 1930 Stockholm Exhibition

Svenska Slöjdföreningen was a co-organiser of the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition, the event widely credited with introducing Swedish functionalism to a mass audience. Its chief architects were Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz, who designed the exhibition’s pavilions and grounds and, in doing so, established the visual language that would define Swedish design for decades. The exhibition put the organisation’s “Vackrare Vardagsvara” ideals into built form for the first time, on a national stage.

Excellent Swedish Design and Design S

In 1983, the organisation launched Utmärkt Svensk Form, an annual award recognising outstanding Swedish design, established under director Hans-Christer Ericson. The prize ran for nearly two decades before being restructured in 2002 into two separate initiatives: Design S, the professional award for established designers and companies, and Ung Svensk Form, a competition for design students and recent graduates that continues to identify new Swedish design talent each year.

Svensk Form today

The organisation marked its 180th anniversary in 2025, and as part of the celebrations it reintroduced the historic name Excellent Swedish Design for its award programme, with Prince Carl Philip serving as patron. Read more about the anniversary in the article on Svensk Form’s 180-year celebrations. Today, Svensk Form maintains a design library and the online archive designarkiv.se, and it collaborates with institutions such as Form/Design Center in Malmö to promote Swedish design nationally and internationally.

Svensk Form: Sweden’s National Design Organisation Since 1845

Founding, 1845

Vackrare Vardagsvara and Form magazine

The 1930 Stockholm Exhibition

Excellent Swedish Design and Design S

Svensk Form today

Svensk Form Names 13 Recipients of Utmärkt Svensk Form 2026

Ung Svensk Form 2026 @ Sara Kulturhus, Skellefteå

Ung Svensk Form 2026 @ Textilmuseet, Borås

Presenting the winners of Ung Svensk Form 2026!

Swedish Style Returns to Tokyo for 25th Anniversary Celebration

Executive furniture series by Jenny Nordberg

Excellent Swedish Design 2025 Winners Announced After 23-Year Hiatus

Svensk Form celebrates 180 years – reintroduces Excellent Swedish Design

Des&Do! @ Paris Design Week 2024

Young Swedish Form 2023 – Meet the design stars of the future @ Malmö museum

Swedish Design Movements @ Stockholm Furniture Fair

CraftBOWL in Minneapolis 2018

PechaKucha Night during Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair

Inspiration eller stöld?

Årets Formbärare 2013 – SPM

A broad showing of Swedish design and fashion in London, 2013

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Made in Sweden – hyllar svensktillverkade produkter