Gillis Lundgren studied at Malmö Technical Institute before he in 1952 began working for Ingvar Kamprad’s IKEA as the fourth employee. Lundgren’s first commission for the company was to design their first catalogue and the following year he was appointed advertising manager.
Together with Kamprad, Lundgren led the work on the product developing, first in marketing but later also on furniture design. Lundgren’s work focused on adjusting the products to create an as economic and uncomplicated serial production as possible. Together with the designer Erik Wørtz Lundgren was the man behind the idea of flat packages and the first mountable IKEA-furniture were launched in 1954.
As a designer Lundgren created over 400 furnitures and other products. Of his most known pieces one can mention the chair Ögla (eng. Loop) from 1960 that was inspired by Thonet design, and the iconic bookshelf Billy from 1979. Both has been in production since they were launched, but Lundgren also designed more time-bound pieces such as the combined divan and armchair Tajt (eng. Tight) from 1973. In 2012 Lundgren was awarded the Tenzing-prize for great achievements and four years later he passed away at the age of 83.
