Tom Dixon (industrial designer)

Tom Dixon (born 21 May 1959 in Sfax, Tunisia) is a self-educated British designer. He is the creative director of the eponymous brand "Tom Dixon", specialising in lighting, furniture, and household accessories. Dixon's collections are shown at events such as the Milan Furniture Fair and the London Design Festival. Dixon also spent 10 years as head of design at Habitat. Through Design Research Studio, he has designed restaurants, clubs and hotels.

His works are in the collections of museums worldwide, including London's Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. In 2001 he was appointed to the OBE for services to British Design.

Career
Prior to becoming a designer, Dixon was the bass guitarist for the band Funkapolitan, "who toured with Rita and Ziggy Marley, the Clash and Simple Minds", and appeared on Top of the Pops. In 1981 the band supported The Clash on their US Tour.

A series of motorbike accidents and a broken arm led Dixon to experiment with welding and designing welded products. Dixon became increasingly well-known in the mid-1980s and was described as "the talented untrained designer with a line in welded salvage furniture". In 1994, Dixon established his own shop, 'Space'. It became a creative think-tank for Dixon and other young designers such as Michael Young, Thomas Heatherwick, and Michael Anastassiades, who worked with Dixon during this period.

By the late 1980s, he was collaborating with Italian design impresario Giulio Cappellini, whose company manufactures and distributes designs such as Dixon's S-Chair. In 1996, Dixon launched a new product line, Eurolounge and became well-known for Jack, a polyethylene "sitting, stacking, lighting thing". In 1993 he was part of "In the Swim. Eine Ausstellung kreativen Designs der British European Design Group", organized by Helmut Diez in Bremerhaven, Germany. The show was described in Der Spiegel as the "greatest exhibition of British furniture design of the 20th century".

Dixon became head of design at Habitat in 1998 and later became Creative Director. He credits Habitat with enabling him to learn the business side of design. He publicly represented a collective team responsible for rejuvenating the Habitat brand. Dixon left Habitat in 2008.

In 2002 Dixon established his personal brand, "Tom Dixon", basing the company in Kings Cross, London. In 2004 Dixon worked with Proventus, a Swedish private investment company, to create Design Research, a holding company for design and product development. Tom Dixon brand collections of lighting and furniture have been launched regularly at the Milan Furniture Fair and at the London Design Festival. In 2012 the company launched its first accessories range at Maison et Objet, Paris. The company's products are sold internationally in 65 countries.

In 2007 Dixon expanded his West London Studio by creating the Design Research Studio for interior and architectural design. Design Research Studio has designed high-end restaurants such as Jamie Oliver’s London restaurant, Barbecoa and Restaurant at The Royal Academy in London. It also created the private members' club Shoreditch House in East London for the Soho House group. In 2014, Design Research Studio completed their first hotel project, redesigning Sea Containers House for the Morgans Hotel Group. In 2016, Dixon and Revolution Precrafted developed a design for a prefabricated house, aptly named HOME.

In 2017, the first Tom Dixon textile collection was launched, named Super Texture, featuring three sets of cushions. Two of the three cushions were commissioned from British textile artist Josephine Ortega – Paint and Abstract. Her sets were urban-inspired, with bright colors and varying textures. A third set, Geo, used hand and machine embroidery to create the impression of layered rocks and sediment.

Dixon's work is included in collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the National Museums Liverpool in the UK; the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, M+ in Hong Kong; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and New York's Museum of Modern Art in the US.

Awards
In 2001 Dixon was appointed an OBE for services to British Design.

He holds Honorary Doctorates from Birmingham City University (2004) and University of the Arts London (2007).

Publications

 * The Interior World of Tom Dixon (2008) Octopus Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-84091-519-8, ISBN 978-1-84091-519-8
 * Dixonary (2013) Violette Editions. ISBN 978-1-900828-42-0