Peter Opsvik (1939-2024) in memory

Peter Opsvik, designer, artist, and creator of two world-renowned chair products, the HÅG Capisco and the Tripp Trapp children’s chair, passed away on 29 September 2024 at the age of 85. With this sad news, we have lost an important pioneer in functional industrial design from Norway, and we at Flokk wish to honour his memory.

Peter and his team at Peter Opsvik AS have been a central and close partner for us at HÅG and later at Flokk since 1974. Peter has been a great inspiration and contributor to the movement philosophy in our chairs, which HÅG as a company, and later as the largest brand in Flokk, has based its business philosophy on.

At Flokk, in sales, design/product development, and production at Røros, many of us have greatly enjoyed working closely with Peter and his team over the years and are grateful for his contributions. Among dealers and users worldwide, many daily speak of, use, and enjoy chairs from Peter’s designs.

Peter Opsvik was educated at the Bergen School of Art and Design (now KHIO). Since 1970, he worked as a freelance industrial designer with his own studio in Pilestredet, Oslo, which is now led by his son, Tor Opsvik.

Peter Opsvik’s work has always involved challenging and overcoming our stereotypical sitting habits with his unconventional seating solutions. His works demonstrate how the norms of sitting properly and sitting still can be broken. The best sitting position is, after a while, always the next one.

Opsvik’s designs promote dynamic sitting, movement, and variation in posture for increased comfort and productivity. Peter’s lasting commitment to reinventing the office experience continues to shape the future of dynamic and sustainable work environments. His book “Rethinking Sitting,” published in 2009, provides valuable insights into this thinking.

In 1983, HÅG, with managing director Torgeir Mjør Grimsrud, established Studio HÅG in collaboration with Peter Opsvik, Svein Gusrud, and Svein Asbjørnsen and Jan Lade from Møre Designteam. The collaboration between Studio HÅG and the designers resulted in a number of innovative models.

In 1986, HÅG was named Design Company of the Year by the Norwegian Design Council for their positive work for good design. Over a period of 50 years, Peter designed a wide range of chair series for HÅG/Flokk: HÅG Anova (1978), HÅG Capisco (1984), HÅG Capisco Puls (2011), HÅG Credo (HÅG H04, HÅG H05), and later HÅG Creed and HÅG Conventio/Conventio Wing. Many of these series have received prestigious design awards (Red Dot, IF product design, Norwegian Design Excellence) and have become major commercial international successes. Some of these chair designs were so futuristic and ahead of their time that they were used in the famous science fiction series Star Trek, including the HÅG Capisco, iconic in its category with both fans and significant sales worldwide.

Peter Opsvik himself received the Anders Jahre Cultural Prize and the Nordic Design Prize, and was awarded the Torsten & Wanja Söderberg Design Prize in Sweden for his pioneering work in furniture design with movement and variation, as well as the Peter Jacob Prize from the Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway in 2012.

Peter’s versatility and artistic talent included a significant jazz musical engagement, and he was a member of the Christiania Jazz Band from 1972 and the band Christiania 12 from 1993.

He also worked as an artist and had several installations and exhibitions of works and products worldwide, including in London, MoMA/New York, Milan, Munich, and Japan. Peter was a playful and creative person, and we remember our good friend and partner with great gratitude over the years.