Stockholm-based designer Gustaf Westman has quickly become one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Scandinavian design – a favourite in homes of everyone from Nara Smith to Trisha Paytas.

Since founding his eponymous studio in 2020, Westman has carved out a signature aesthetic defined by curvaceous silhouettes, bold colour palettes, and a playful sensibility that resists the traditional restraint often associated with Nordic minimalism.

His work – spanning furniture, ceramics, and glassware – embraces chunkiness and sculptural form, favouring rounded, continuous lines that seem to breathe a new vitality into everyday objects. And now, in his first-ever collaboration with another brand, Westman partners with IKEA to reimagine holiday tablescaping through a 12-piece collection that fuses heritage with irreverence.

To coincide with the collection's release, we spoke with Westman to discuss his inspiration, favourite pieces and design ethos.

I would love to know a little bit about this IKEA collection. It's your first ever collaboration with another company. So what made this partnership feel like the right fit for that?

I think, to start with, I mean, I'm Swedish – and I grew up in Sweden – and IKEA is a big part of the Scandinavian aesthetic. It's just such a classic brand, and it's a dream to do this with them. So, it wasn't really hard for me to say yes to that, honestly. I think IKEA is the only company I would work with to make products like this and sell. It was like an easy decision for me.

Very patriotic!

Yeah! And I also feel like they have always been very focused on design and quality, and together with this approach they make nice designs affordable too. And I think that's a very nice thing.

Absolutely! And one of the objects we've already had a sneak peek at is that meatball plate, which is such a fun and specific detail. It's kind of like the baguette holder you did for your Paris pop-up. Can you tell me about how the idea for a meatball plate came about?

Honestly, the meatball plate was one of the last additions we made to the collaboration – probably the last one I worked on. I wanted to do something with the meatballs during the whole process, but my ideas were maybe a bit too complicated. So in the end, I was like, 'Okay, let's just make a plate that is only for the meatballs', so they get a throne, sort of. That way they'll get their own space on the table, and I liked the idea of the object, I guess.

I love that.

The design of the meatball plate is going to come back in the collaboration. There's a candle holder that has the same design too. So, it obviously comes in there as well.

Is that your favourite piece in this collection? Or do you have a favourite piece that feels close to your heart right now?

I go back and forth between the bigger plate and the vase. I would say those are my favourite types of things.

Why is that?

The vase I really think is fun – and I think it's very different from what you would usually see at IKEA. It's like a spiral and a vase, and they only work together. They're kind of useless by themselves, but when they work together, they create this vase. It also bounces when you put down the flowers, which is kind of fun.

This collection is about re-imagining holiday traditions, and you've got this really interesting colour palette that's not very traditional – like these bubblegum pinks and baby blues. Was there anything that inspired the palette this time around?

It's such a big corporation, IKEA, so they they have a big palette of colours we can work with this year, or something like that, to make the whole process simple. So, some of the colours are going to come back in other products that aren't mine, because that's how they work. I think how I decided what was going to be a part of the Christmas collection was that I went for the green and the red to kind of flirt a little bit with tradition – since those are more seasonal colours – but then chose the blue and the pink to represent my usual work. I thought that became a nice combination.

Yes, your own design language is quite playful and bold. Typically, Scandinavian design is seen as very minimal and neutral. But, do you think that playfulness is undervalued in design there?

I think the humour is part of it. But I think that's maybe not such a Scandinavian way of thinking. I also think my objects in themselves can be kind of simple. They're always one colour, one material, one shape. They're very easy to understand. And that kind of philosophy is a very Scandinavian way of thinking. So I think it's a bit of both.

"I also think my objects in themselves can be kind of simple. They're always one colour, one material, one shape. They're very easy to understand. And that kind of philosophy is a very Scandinavian way of thinking."

And is there anywhere that you like to pull inspiration from day to day?

It marinates subconsciously. But sometimes I'm very inspired by a lot of random things I'll see on the street. You know, like, that creative brain just works. But there are days where I'm not creative and nothing works. So, it's not like I can go and find inspiration somewhere. I

Is there anything that you really loved recently that you've seen?

I saw a very interesting baby trolley when I was sitting at the bar. It functioned really interestingly and I would love to make it like a bow, that you can close that looks like that. So, I'm sketching on that right now.

We'll get a Gustaf Westman baby collection!

Yeah! [Laughs.]

You've also mentioned previously that you would love to collaborate in the fashion world a little bit more in the future. Are there any brands that are really catching your eye at the moment?

I mean, there's probably some classic ones that I really like. I mean, as again, I'm Swedish, I would love to work with Acne Studios. That would be cool.

You originally studied architecture at university. What made you change direction into the world of design?

I think studying architecture, you like, play God. You can do whatever you want, but I also feel like I wasn't. I compared myself to my friends who were super interested in architecture, super interested in the technology part of it or the building techniques and I mean, I wasn't really there. I wasn't interested. It was more like a thing that I came up with myself, that maybe I am more interested in shapes, and trying to understand shape. I just figured that that part of of architecture is not really my thing, but I think I could do a sculptural build, or building more specific projects in the future. That would be really cool.

"I think studying architecture, you like, play God. You can do whatever you want, but I also feel like I wasn't. I compared myself to my friends who were super interested in architecture, super interested in the technology part of it or the building techniques and I mean, I wasn't really there. I wasn't interested."

What's the interior design of your own home like? Is it as colourful and bold as your studio work?

I mean, yeah, probably. I live in a place that's super small, but I have a lot of my own stuff in my home. So it's become very colourful very quickly.

That's a big compliment to your work that you also want it in your home as well, you know.

Yeah, that's true!

Do you ever like to listen to music or podcasts when you create things?

Yes! I have a very, very bad attention span, so I have to listen to stuff because, if I'm sketching and not listening, I start to think about other things. What I listen to depends on what I do. If I know what I'm going to do, I can listen to a podcast. But if I'm freely sketching, I would listen to music and it needs to be songs that I already know. I can't discover new music, and it's usually random hits. Nothing that will make me feel something.

Feature images: via Instagram and courtesy Gustaf Westman.