Gillis Lundgren

Lundgren was born on 26 August 1929. He studied painting in Lund and learned technical drawing at Malmo Institute of Technology before joining the Gumaelius advertising agency in Malmo. At 23, he began consulting for a small mail-order company in Almhult run by Ingvar Kamprad. His first tasks were designing the IKEA logo, illustrating catalog covers, and photographing products. In 1954, he was hired full-time as advertising manager, and before long his role expanded into furniture design.

His output was extraordinary. Over his career at IKEA, Lundgren designed more than 400 products. His early work in the 1950s included the AGGET armchair, the BASTAD rug, and the REGAL shelving unit. The TORE drawer unit, launched in the 1960 catalog, became his personal favorite and one of IKEA's biggest commercial successes of the era. In the 1970s, he created the Sirius swivel armchair, a fiberglass and chrome design that appeared on the cover of the 1974/75 IKEA catalog and has since become a sought-after collector's piece.

But his most enduring contribution came in the late 1970s, when he sketched a bookcase on the back of a napkin. The brief had come from IKEA advertising manager Billy Liljedahl, who wanted "a proper bookcase just for books." Lundgren's design, named BILLY after Liljedahl, went into production in 1979. Over 140 million units have been manufactured since then, making it one of the most produced pieces of furniture in history. The BILLY bookcase became so ubiquitous that The Economist used it as an informal index for comparing purchasing power across countries.

The table that started the flat-pack concept was originally called LOVET, because its veneered top resembled a tree leaf. IKEA later reissued it under the name LOVBACKEN, and it remains in the catalog today as a tribute to that pivotal moment. Lundgren's insight was simple but profound: if furniture could be disassembled and packed flat, it could be shipped cheaply, stored efficiently, and sold at lower prices.

Lundgren spent his career based in Almhult, the small Smaland town where IKEA grew from a farmstead business into a global company. He died on 25 February 2016 at the age of 86.

On the Nordic auction market, Lundgren's designs appear with regularity, particularly his seating. Of 123 items in the Auctionist database, chairs and armchairs account for the vast majority, with 92 listings. His Sirius swivel armchairs from the 1970s are the most valued pieces, with a pair selling for 15,222 SEK. The Scriva desk in teak from 1960 reached 15,000 SEK, and his Tema bookshelves have fetched 8,937 SEK. His work appears across Swedish houses including Karlstad Hammaro, Sodersens Uppsala, Stadsauktion Sundsvall, and Helsingborgs Auktionskammare.