By Tom Dixon
Published By Rizzoli International Publications, 2009

Pages 988
Price $ 85.00

The title “The Interior World of Tom Dixon” sounds like a classic monograph. But if you think Dixon’s work will be explained to you in this book, you’re wrong. Instead, and this can also be read in the title, the volume devotes itself more to glimpsing into the way the British designer ticks. More than 600 photos and illustrations make it clear what inspires him: nature, architecture, art, hand-craft, foreign cultures and other designers such as Jerszey Seymour and Front. Dixon preceded the six thematically organized chapters with very personal written texts.

Tom Dixon: Interior Worlds, a book devoted to the work and creative process of one of the world’s most renowned and respected British designers. Interior Worlds explores Dixon’s personal approach to design which began twenty years ago when he first started designing furniture. The book sets out to explain the theories and methods of working that make up
the fabric of Dixon’s career as one of the world’s most widely respected designers. Juxtaposed with his designs, Interior Worlds of Tom Dixon collects images of objects and other sources that have inspired his work, offering an insight into Dixon’s design process. The book also delves into materials and processes, and design history, as well as looking into the future of product design.

Dixon writes, “In an increasingly complex and chaotic visual and functional landscape, I hope I can share some of the excitement that I have the luxury of observing in these exhilarating, terrifying and explosively visual times. We all have instant access to bewildering quantities of images, but it is through processing and making links between different fields that I am able to think of something new. In this sense, this book is more of a scrapbook, the influences inside me.”

In defining the essence of ‘design’, Dixon breaks the book down into six chapters: Materialism (The microfactory), Constructivism (Seeking the future of materials), Expressionism (Obsessive self-expression), Primitivism (2nd cycle), Reductionism (The bare minimum), and Futurism (New frontiers). Each chapter interweaves personal essays with art, sleek design concepts, iconic buildings and industrial landscapes, all of which contextualize the purpose, structure, and vision behind the book. With over 650 color illustrations, sketches, concept renderings, and photographs, Tom Dixon: Interior Worlds is a fascinating compendium of what inspires one of the world’s leading figures in product design.

Tom Dixon, rose to prominence in the mid 1980's as "the talented untrained designer with a line in welded salvage furniture". By the late 1980's, he was working for Cappellini for whom he designed the Iconic ‘S’ chair and by the 1990's, he was practically a household name. Dixon founded TOM DIXON, a design and manufacturing company of lighting and furniture with David Begg in 2002, and was Creative Director of Habitat until 2008, after a decade as head of design. Throughout his career Dixon has held many exhibitions of his work, and his designs have been acquired by numerous museum collections. Establishing his own design company in 2002 gave Dixon a platform for iconic designs such as ‘Mirror Ball, Rubber Band chair, and Beat light. In addition to the TOM DIXON brand, Dixon now acts as the Creative Director of Artek the iconic, modernist company created in 1935 which has recently designed the interiors of Shoreditch House for the Soho House Group, and other iconic spaces such the Design Embassy at the London ICA. Tom Dixon launches new collections annually at the Milan International Furniture Fair, and distributes his products in over fifty countries. Tom Dixon was awarded an OBE for services to British Design in 2000.