Elflugan was born in 1993 at a coffee shop just outside of Stockholm.

Today, almost 25 years ago, Marie Lundgren-Carlgren’s and Kina Strandberg’s Elflugan has become a design classic in many Swedish homes.

Elflugan is the result of the designers’ desire to create a more modern version of the Swedish traditional ”adventsljusstake”, a specific type of lamp Swedes uses a Christmas decoration. The designers’ first sketch was made on a napkin in 1993. Excited about their idea, Marie Lundgren-Carlgren & Kina Strandberg hurried to the nearest hardware shop and bought everything they needed to build their first prototype. From this moment on it hasn’t been an easy path – but it’s definitely been an interesting an exciting one. And still, over 20 years later, Elflugan is a design classic in many Swedish homes.

Marie Lundgren-Carlgren

Marie is originally from Jönköping and was a graphic designer when she and Kina started working together. Kina grew up in Hudiksvall and worked as an economist within advertising. They shared an interest for interior design and were looking for a project they could work with together. They were familiar with the line of business they were trying to break into and were well aware of the difficulty in introducing a new product & design to the market – and get enough pay for it. Step 1 was making a list of wanted or/and needed products. Step 2 was ranging these product depending on how “ugly” their design was. The winner on that list was the Swedish “adventsljusstake”.

When Marie and Kina started thinking about what their lamp should look like, they agreed on a ”stylish” lamp with lots of light bulbs that should be placed on a ”plate” in contrary of the traditional ”adventsljusstake” which light bulbs are placed more in a bow.

Elflugan was first shown to the public in 1997 at the Formex fair in Stockholm. Marie and Kina had hired a place with an exciting exhibitor. It didn’t take long until a group of people from the well known store Svenskt Tenn came by and they ended up buying the first 10 copies of Elflugan. At the time, Marie and Kina didn’t know who hade bought their first copies, but their colleague from the exhibitor’s stand was sure this was the beginning of something big. During the fair Elflugan wasn’t patented and they called ”Svensk Form” to ask for advice.

The 19th of November that year, Elfugan was registered in ”Svensk Form’s” list of art and design. The demand of Elflugan was overwhelming and the designers now had to turn to Gnosjö Konstsmide AB – a well established company with larger production capacity. In the summer of 1998 a production- and royalty contract was signed.

The first year Elflugan sold in 10 000 copies and had a long queue of people waiting their hands on their own Elflugan. Up until today, Elflugan has sold in over 100 000 copies in Sweden.

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