TL: Can you share your favorite childhood story with a camera, or first memory of really using a camera?
My dad had a fancy Canon F1 that I was very interested in. He let me play with it and I shot fake nose blunts and kick-flip attempts, and really enjoyed it.

TL: How does being Swedish influence your work?
Being Swedish gives you the opportunity to concentrate on work from the beginning of October to late March. It’s dark outside, and many people disappear in this melancholic winter bubble. So during this long, dark and cold anti-social period it’s good to stay busy and focused on what you are interested in. I think this period makes at least me creative. There are not many other things that draw your attention. (That recently changed since I became the father of 2 boys).

TL: Your Ikea cookbook is a favorite of ours, how did you conceive that? What was your process like?
Thank you! Happy and honored people still remember it and refer to it. It was a very fun project to be involved in. This was the first collaboration with my wife Evelina. Together with Forsman & Bodenfors, we spent 3 weeks giving birth to the cook-book. Evelina is the composition master and deserves as much and probably more credit than I do. She did these super cute cut out drawings that we played around with trying out compositions. It was a great collaboration, and it still is.

TL: What’s different about Swedish art and design?
It’s hard to be objective when you are in the middle of it. The classic answer I guess is minimalism and functionality. I partly agree.

TL: If you could have coffee with anyone, who would it be?
Oh, tough question. My dad I think. He passed away when I was eighteen.

TL: What says “classic Swedish” to you?
Feeling guilty staying indoors when the sun is shining. // Meatballs (It’s not just a tourist thing) // Going to your families country house and having a barbecue everyday throughout July. // Thailand for Christmas.

TL: Are the places you like to go as meticulously organized and refined as your work tends to be sometimes or do you ever seek being surrounded by total chaos?
I am constantly surrounded by chaos. It’s not easy to be an organized perfectionist when having 2 baby boys. Sometimes in dark moments I wish our apartment would burn down and we would lose all our things. It almost happened 2 years ago. The apartment on top of ours was completely burnt down.

I do like to keep my office clean and neat. My assistant called me anal when I asked her to put her coat on the coat hanger instead of hanging it over her chair.

TL: If you weren’t living in Sweden where would you live?
Most likely London. But in a different life, I would like to live where the air was clean, the climate was perfect for growing things, and where you could have your morning coffee outside in the garden in your night shirt. All year round.