There are companies that work with a strong identity on design and functionality. And there are companies that work with a strong identity on design and functionality – in a fun way. Yes, I know, it is a strong expression that commits. But Gunnel Svensson’s Bsweden is such a company. There is a way to work that is characterized and driven by an extremely strong personal commitment. An uncompromising devotion that permeates everything, from design process, product development and manufacturing to delivery of finished product to end customer. Gunnel Svensson – with a solid education in industrial design in the design capital, Milan – is raised in the family who started Svensson’s furniture, now Svenssons in Lammhult. There she worked for more than 20 years with both product design and exhibitions before she started her own: The lighting company. Already a couple of years after the start she was rewarded with “The British Furniture Industry Award” for her self-drawn lamp series Ghost. [Riffel_blockquote custom_class = “cus”] The company name of 17 letters, also in Swedish, was completely impossible to pronounce or even try to say in one country where English is native language, which prompted a quick change of name. In the moment it became Bsweden. [/ Riffel_blockquote] Everything started in the early 1990s in scenic woodland, literally in the middle of Småland. A settlement so extremely characterized by craft-based entrepreneurial spirit in the form of small and medium-sized industries that self-employment almost gets seen as a mere impossibility. Here, on an ancient farm, Gunnel settled down with his family and his horses. She went loose on the farm’s gigantic former bull stall, with room for more than 100 bulls, with a pressure washer as a weapon. Geothermal heat was installed and since then the stable Bsweden’s hub, purely practical – but also its heart. Here in the stable she works with three strong, powerful and highly professional women. Together, there will not even be four full-time jobs. How is it at all possible? In addition to them, the King Poodle Sigge and the cat Smilla are everywhere present. Here, the shape of the individual lamps is developed from sketch to concrete drawings as well as product development, assembly, function tests and all logistics with packing and distribution worldwide. The bull stall is – in order to make a figurative comparison – almost similar to the drawn plot plant in SVT at 15 every Christmas Eve. And that in a very, very positive sense. For this, everything is done except the actual production of the lamps’ various components which are supplied by small industries and glassworks in the immediate area. One of the few exceptions is opal glass, but only for the reason that it is no longer manufactured in Sweden. Everything is “localized” because Bsweden will be able to maintain full control, shorten production times and thereby also become more rapid footing. Something that of course also has a price. However, it is a completely conscious choice not to place subcontracting in remote countries just to keep costs down. Gunnel also notes, without bitterness, that part of Bsweden’s lamps will be a little expensive for that very reason. One example is the flat lamp Silhouette in plexiglass which is manufactured just according to the principles that Bsweden wants. Nothing is left to chance when the different parts are cut out and glued together, which is extremely time consuming. But then a perfect detail finish with exact surfaces and angles is also achieved. It will be a solid product. – We really can’t afford anything, but thrive on this, says Gunnel. What is it that makes a small design-oriented lamp manufacturing company in the middle of “dark” Småland has become something of a spearhead in terms of making good Swedish design one bigger audience? What now good design is for something? Gunnel defines the concept with a definite: “It should withstand the wear of the eye.” – So Källemo’s legendary Sven Lundh said. And I agree with him! She explains that Bsweden does not invest in safe cards, but often in something that in many people’s eyes is completely wrong. – For example, Kumulus from the year 2000 when everything would be so sparse. The model was maximalist and not at all compatible with the common concept of “good design”. But it says a lot about Bsweden! Bsweden works with a number of Sweden’s foremost designers. Three of them are silver smiths, which for Gunnel is tantamount to being particularly good at form. A new lamp in the Bsweden collection may originate from Gunnel itself, be a request from her to a freelance designer, or as in the case of the latest lamp Valborg – a large, heavy lamp in mouth-blown glass with an outer contour of a fictitious crystal chandelier – when the glass artist and designer Anna Berglund himself brought the initiative. Gunnel says: – Of course we want to grow and become better at what we do. But I like the bunch we are and the place we are at. The ability to be responsive – to see and take care of everything. I say: Defeated! / Svante Öquist