*Design Is People*
He traces his path from a potter grandfather’s DIY inventiveness and a skateboarding childhood in rural Skåne to cabinet-making school in Grebbestad, furniture design at Beckmans, and the Royal College of Art in London, where gallery culture shaped his thinking.
Back in Stockholm he created Örnsbergsauktionen, part group show, auction and party, which helped kickstart a collectible design scene by building the context he felt was missing. We discuss interiors like Omnipollo’s brewery in a former church, using colour as a three-dimensional material to highlight architecture and construction, and his modular Joy Objects system in aluminium and acrylic, designed from his own vision of a holistic product and brand language.
In Copenhagen Fredrik Paulsen talks about Other Circle as a family-like meeting point and why, for him, the main function of design is people, life and the context around objects. He also shares a one-off collaboration with Emma Clarke, combining Joy Objects aluminium frames with her experimental wood, urushi lacquer and washi-based seats and backs.
There is no doubt Fredrik’s appetite for bringing people together guides him in whatever he lays his hands on.
For our ongoing podcast series, made in collaboration with SUPERVOX, we talk to creatives about their practice. All episodes are recorded at other circle in 2026.
Episode 005 is hosted by Richard Feigin.
Richard FeiginHost