Niels Gammelgaard graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1970 but founded his own design studio in Copenhagen already in 1969. From 1975 until 2005, Gammelgaard worked with IKEA, becoming one of the companies most successful designers.
In 1978 he founded Pelikan Design Studio together with Lars Mathiesen, from where they designed furniture for among others Fritz Hansen and Bent Krogh. The Café outdoor range (1983) and Decision sofa series (1986), the Luna chair (1988) and the Napoleon chair (1990) are some of Pelikan's most prolific works.
For IKEA Gammelgaard has designed well-known pieces such as the Folke chair (1973), the foldable chair Ted (1976), the lacquered steel lounge chair Järpen (1980) the sofa and table Moment (1983), the bookshelf Guide (1985), the storage system Box (1994) and the collection Stockholm PS in 2005.
In 1988 the Design Studio Copenhagen was founded by Gammelgaard and IKEA design director Lars Engman. Among the young designers that the studio employed can be mentioned Ehlén Johansson, Mia Lagerman and Anna von Schewen. From 1984-87 Gammelgaard was part-owner of Penta Design, designing the electronic service work stations for Danish Post Offices. In 1996 he designed the interiors for the Copenhagen City Trains by DBS. From 2005 he has mainly worked with manufacturers in Australia, China, and Vietnam.
From the 1970’s Gammelgaard has received several awards such as Excellent Swedish Design awards eight times, the Red Dot Award three times, the Danish Design Council Annual Award in 1998 and The Danish Design Classics Prize 2008 and -09.
