Stoddard distributes carpets — everything from runners and custom rugs in different shapes to wall-to-wall carpets — to the public scene. The heart of the business is their own studio, located in Stockholm, where all carpets are created. For Stockholm Design Week, on super short notice, the two Swedish companies decided to challenge themselves on how fast they could work.
— During the pandemic, we’ve all had to re-evaluate our geographical area and also find new ways to gather inspiration, tells Straight Design Studio’s Viktor Erlandsson. Local tourism has become increasingly common and many of us have opened our eyes to our local landscape. How the landscape differs across the country in both structure and colour is fascinating. This is exactly what we want to reflect in the elements we take into our home or office. By having this in our mind the concept was decided to be inspired by our Swedish landscape.
The materials used are left over pieces, stored from Stoddard’s daily production.
— Over the years, they’ve built up a large collection of bits and pieces. The brief was to use this to create rugs for the home environment. The qualities are manufactured by German company Object Carpet, also a family business that have been working with Stoddard for over 40 years. They work a lot with sustainability, including with Econyl yarn which is 100% recycled and 100% recyclable, and have also just developed a new unique environmentally friendly backing. All their qualities are free from latex, PVC, and bitumen, says Erlandsson.
Unsurprisingly, he describes the time limit as the biggest challenge.
— We had to fit both the design process and the production in those five days. We were limited in colour and quality and further limited ourselves to only straight and round shapes. The shapes were limited due to the simplification of the creation and the colours due to the fact that it was the leftover pieces that we used. Because of this, we were able to make the work extremely efficient. And we also had the opportunity to work with super-skilled craftsmen.
What became the result?
— Four carpets, inspired by the four Swedish cardinal directions — Nord, Syd, Öst, and Väst — and, as mentioned, the many different textures and colours of our country. Further, we are very proud to create the carpets locally in Stockholm.
