The Value of Iconic Design: A Conversation with Bo Hellberg of String Furniture
by Alex Moshakis
In 1949 the Swedish architect Nisse Strinning designed a flexible shelving system that became wildly popular across Europe. Named String, the system was emblematic of a golden era in Scandinavian furniture design: it was both forward-looking and materially clever. Based in Malmö, String, under different ownership, continues to be an internationally adored brand. We spoke to String's chief marketing officer, Bo Hellberg, about the system's perennial appeal, recent additions to its range, and how the furniture's function has changed over time.
Can you begin by giving me the background to String?
String was established by Nisse Strinning and his wife, Kajsa. It started with a competition launched by Bonnier in 1949 – a big publishing company in Sweden that wanted to sell more books. This was a time of democratisation in western Europe, post-second world war. New manufacturing processes became available, new materials, and the Bauhaus movement was influencing design. The Swedish middle class realised they didn't want the traditional furniture they'd been buying for the past 100 years – they wanted things that were new and modern. People were buying cars and new kitchen appliances, educating themselves and buying more books. Bonnier realised they needed more space to put them. So they launched a competition to design a bookshelf that was modern and flexible – that could grow – and specifically targeted this middle class consumer.
String Furniture founder, Nisse Strinning
And Strinning submitted String to the competition?
Yes. He came up with a system that was flexible, that could expand along with the number of books you bought. It was super lightweight, flat-packed (which was quite new at the time), modern, robust and strong but also light, with a really clever use of materials. It was called, at the time, Bonnier Folk Library. Strinning was actually an architect and engineer by trade, not a designer. He was very much into function and materiality – trained in the Bauhaus idea that form follows function. But there was still beauty in the symmetry he used in his designs.
"He came up with a system that was flexible — that could expand along with the number of books you bought... It was modern. It was robust and strong but also light. And it had a really clever use of materials."
What was the reaction?
Well, his wife dismissed the first designs. She wondered why he was taking time to enter a competition to design a bookshelf. But he had made a prototype and put it up on a wall, and everybody who walked past it stopped and commented on it. It was then that he knew he had something.
I read that String was the best-selling Scandinavian product in Germany at one time…
When you talk to Germans of a certain age, even people from mainland Europe, they remember it. It was everywhere in the 1960s – that was a peak. Strinning kept expanding the range: there were desks, small beauty cabinets, drinks cabinets, drawers. It was even used in the UN Building in New York – it's still there, which is very cool. But in the 1970s it started fizzling out. I think IKEA had something to do with it. People moved String out of their homes and into their summer cottages. That's where it all ended up.
The company was relaunched in 2004. Can you tell me how that came about?
String was produced through the 70s and into the 00s, at which point the distributors were on the verge of bankruptcy due to bad management. Peter Erlandsson and business partner Pär Josefsson got wind of the fact the rights to produce String were about to be auctioned off, and they jumped on the opportunity. They went to meet Nisse immediately; they got on well and decided to attempt to bring the brand back to its former glory. When they relaunched as String Furniture, people reacted. They saw it was vintage but that somehow it was also new, and it seemed to fit with the zeitgeist. The system was relaunched in white, which changed its guise slightly, and it took off. The brand is now sold in 42 countries.
Why do you think people buy String products?
I think there has always been this belief that people bought String for function. That's not entirely true – it's not seen as just a product. Our customers are often big String fans. They share and talk about their systems, and how they use them, online.
There's a fondness for the brand itself?
There's a real love. And it's cross-generational. String has become a piece of furniture that acts like an identity piece. It helps customers show themselves off, the things that are important in their lives. It is furniture as an extension of your personality.
"String has become a piece of furniture that acts like an identity piece. It helps customers show themselves off, the things that are important in their lives."
String shelves, photographed at the Monocle shop, London
Is the String philosophy primarily to do with flexibility?
No, I don't think so. I categorise String in the same way I would categorise an Arne Jacobsen chair. You don't buy a Jacobsen chair just because it's something comfortable to sit in. You buy it because it is an iconic piece that reveals something about yourself – it shows to others you have a certain fondness for design. Flexibility is important, yes. When you buy a String system you are buying something that will stay with you for your lifetime. If you move house, it will move with you. You can set it up in different ways. You will never need to recycle it. You can pass it on to your children. You can add things to it.
"When you buy a String system you are buying something that will stay with you for your lifetime. If you move house, it will move with you. You can set it up in different ways. You will never need to recycle it. You can pass it on to your children."
Tell me about the manufacturing process…
When I first started, I didn't know how String products were made. The steel is made from secondhand car parts recycled from Norway – it wasn't virgin steel. And the factory that melts the steel has their own wind farm and uses 100% fossil-free energy.
Our shelves are made in a factory in Småland, Sweden – a part of the country renowned for its manufacturing skills, and the manufacturing of furniture in particular. The shelf lacquer is water-based, so no pollutants are released. They use fossil-free energy, generate hydro power from a river, use off-cuts in the burner to create energy. Nothing is wasted.
LSA Boris tumblers on String shelves
"We talk mainly about value and design. But the way our products are manufactured is very impressive... Often I'm like, 'This is really good, why don't we talk about this?'"
There is still a large seasonal focus in the design world. But you don't subscribe to that idea…
The way a lot of brands work is to come up with new ideas every year, expanding constantly, with everything manufactured abroad and shipped across the world. That's not how we do it. 98% of our product is purchased from Swedish suppliers. The shortest relationship we've had with any of our suppliers is nine years; most of them 15 years or more. There's a lot of trust. And we can physically visit our factories.
A couple of years ago we asked an independent consultant to look over our processes, and they found that the factories we work with are way ahead of the game in terms of energy sourcing, materials, and emissions. And our furniture is flat-packed, so the volume of product we can shift is amazing while using less CO₂. Other companies fit one chest of drawers on a pallet. We can use the same pallet to supply ten homes. There's lots of cleverness here that has been part of our system for years and years, and which we often take for granted.
"There's lots of cleverness here that has been part of our system for years and years and years, and which we often take for granted."
Is the social responsibility the brand subscribes to a Swedish thing? Or does it come from the owners?
I think it's a bit of both. The original founders, Pär and Peter, have a sense of social responsibility. People are treated well. It's not a huge company. There is trust and partnership here.
What's in store for the brand?
The product won't be changing in form dramatically – it will be the same forever, though we plan to introduce new additions. The amazing thing about Nisse Strinning is that he had so many ideas. He was a prolific innovator. So we have an archive of designs. Some objects that were in production in the 1960s but slipped out – we have reintroduced those: a certain cabinet, a different kind of desk. But there are new ideas, too – objects he never got around to manufacturing. The archive is like a gold mine.
String Furniture founder Nisse Strinning was a prolific innovator
"The amazing thing about Nisse Strinning is that he had so many ideas... The archive is like a gold mine."
The other thing we're looking at is materials. We plan to honour the legacy of doing things that are smart in manufacturing, and making things that are strong and durable. And finally: colours. We introduced a beige collection five years ago, which has done well. It's a slow, considered process. We'll always be careful.
Interview by Alex Moshakis
Photography of String shelves on location at Monocle by Euan Baker
stringfurniture.com
