TOM DIXON

Tom Dixon was born in Tunisia in 1959 and moved to the UK when he was four. Often described as a maverick in the design world, he arrived at the field through an unconventional route, having lived out his formative years as an art school technician, a party organizer, and a bassist for the band Funkapolitan.
 
Learning oxy-acetylene welding from a friend with a car-body repair shop, at the age of twenty-five Dixon started to weld furniture and sculpture (often using found materials) initially as a hobby, but rapidly gaining an international audience and clientele through exhibitions in Germany, Japan, and France.
 
By the late-1980s, Dixon had sold works to Italian furniture company Cappellini, including the iconic S Chair, examples of which are currently held in various museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. Drawing inspiration from the idea of “creative recycling” and experimenting with unusual materials, he had also designed objects and interiors for Jean Paul Gaultier, Romeo Gigli, Comme des Garcons and Vivienne Westwood.
 
He worked as Creative Director at Habitat, the European furnishings group created by Terence Conran from 1998-2008.
 
In 2001, Dixon was awarded an OBE for his service to British design. In 2002, he founded his eponymous label Tom Dixon in London to launch his design of furniture, lighting, and accessories. This was followed by his Design Research Studio in 2007, dedicated to designing interiors, installations and architectural displays. Dixon’s works are in the permanent collections of museums across the globe, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre George Pompidou, Paris.