Opal Pendant Light

“If there are rules to design, I don’t know what they are,” says self-taught British designer Tom Dixon. “I just have ideas and I want to see what happens if I put them out there.” Tom’s errant first stab at creativity was playing bass in a 1980s disco group. Then a stint honing his welding skills in a auto body repair shop eventually led to his design breakthrough for Cappellini with the iconic S Chair. With products in more than 60 countries today, his contemporary lighting, furniture, tabletop and barware ranges and accessories have been “put out there” to wide acclaim.

Based in Portobello, London, the Tom Dixon brand launches new collections of lighting and furniture biannually in Milan and London. “What’s interesting about the modern world [is that] you don’t need to attract large amounts of people globally to be a successful designer,” Tom says. “You can be quite focused and do specific work and people will come to you if they’re attracted to it.”