Sigvard Bernadotte

Sigvard Bernadotte was a Swedish prince, the second son of King Gustav VI Adolf, he lost his title when he married a commoner. As a young man he wanted to become an actor but his father and grandfather didn't approve so he studied art history at Sweden's Uppsala University. He attended the School of Decorative Arts in Stockholm and became committed to designing stylish and beautiful things that were functional, rather than beautiful ornamental things with no purpose.

At the age of 23, he began to design for the Georg Jensen Silversmithy. His designs were a departure from what was thought of as the Jensen style. He introduced clean disciplined forms common in modern Swedish taste to the Danish Silver tradition. His elegant and distinguished designs show a preference for geometrical shapes enhanced with lineal patterns. For Georg Jensen he designed the timelessly elegant Bernadotte silverware pattern as well as many hollowware designs and also some jewelry.

After leaving the Georg Jensen Silversmithy, Bernadotte created industrial designs and in 1950 he formed a partnership with the architect Acton Bjorn, Bernadotte & Bjorn Industridesign. The firm designed many different products ranging from calculators to office refrigerators. In 1964, an offshoot of the firm, Bernadotte Design with Sigvard Bernadotte at its head was created and it became the largest design consulting firm in Northern Europe.

Bernadotte experimented in all areas of design including designing sets for Hollywood movies.

Bernadotte was a major figure in the field of Scandinavian industrial design and a leader in the Society of Swedish Industrial Designers and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.