HG Designs
Tom Dixon
Meet the Maker
From disco journeyman to virtuoso of design, Tom Dixon discovered design in the 1980s after a motorcycle accident left him unable to continue his original career as a bass player in the Brit band Funkapolitan. He started making furniture by welding scrap metal and the rest is history. The O.B.E. recipient — whose works can be found in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the MOMA and the Centre Georges Pompidou — has said that he designs for longevity, given his obsession with what he calls "honest" materials.
An untrained designer, Dixon rose to prominence in the 1980s with a line of welded salvage furniture. During a stint at the Italian design house Cappellini, he created the S-chair, a sculptural seat that today sits in New York's Museum of Modern Art.
In 1993 he participated in the what has been called the "greatest exhibition of British furniture design of the 20th Century" before being appointed as head of design for Habitat, later becoming its Creative Director. Dixon was the public face of a team responsible for rejuvenating the brand.
In 2012, Dixon launched his accessories range at Maison et Objet, Paris, where we fell in love with his rich metal objects made from brass, copper and steel. Dixon says he wants his designs to be “anti-fashion,” a statement loade with irony given his present-day status as one of the design world's most fashionable and forward-thinking trailblazers.
