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Interview with Freddie Palmgren |
Home > Designer Interviews > Freddie Palmgren |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Freddie Palmgren (FP) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Freddie Palmgren by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
FP: During my many trips abroad, wrist watch stores have always been an obvious target. There I got inspired, discussed news, tried and sometimes invested in a new watch. Unfortunately, all too often I ended up compromising on something, I was never really satisfied. When I got invited to the private viewing rooms at the more exclusive brands, it was the price that was the obstacle. In shady shops in Asia, I was shown well-made bootlegs, but who wants to wear something that is not authentic?It was from these experiences that the idea of SÖNER was born. I wanted to design a watch that sets a new standard in the market segment, a wrist watch for men that i did not need to compromise on. Therefore, almost ten years ago I started to sketch on an elegant, minimalist, rectangular watch for men.The goal was a men's watch out of the ordinary, with exclusive design, robust technology and high precision. Materials and technical solutions were chosen to secure a long and trouble free use. A watch that could be passed on to coming generations - Therefore my first model was named Legacy. A reminder of all that is passed down to future generations – Like my sons Widar and William.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
FP: SÖNER BY SWEDEN (SÖNER) was founded by Freddie Palmgren on the Swedish west coast and is named after his two sons Widar and William. SÖNER is a watch brand for men who appreciate elegant and rectangular men's watches of high quality.Some called me crazy during my chase for the perfect men's´ watch. I saw it as a passionated relationship to stylish men´s watches.
FS: What is "design" for you?
FP: For me, design is something special designed to make a statement and aesthetic admiration.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
FP: Rectangular and masculine wrist watches for men.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
FP: The design is everything for us.There are several things that we consider when designing our watches. For example, that the design is both masculine, rectangular yet stylish. It's also important that the watch physically feels on your arm. We don't want our watches to be thin, feminine and that you don't feel the weight on your arm. The strap is a key function as well. We stand out by embossing our emblem on the strap, we also fold the genuine leather strap to make the strap water resistant.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
FP: Much of my inspiration comes from my children who sparks the creative side in me. I get inspired from the everyday life. However, I'm careful not to look too much at other watch designs. I believe it would limit my creativity and affect an open mind in creating something unique. Instead I look at everything else but watches to find inspiration.
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
FP: Easy, commitment and endurance.
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
FP: It took ten years from the first idea of designing a men’s watch until I had a finished watch for sale. I think it's extremely important to let a design slowly develop. If you push and enforce the process of designing something the result will be thereafter. Thanks to our patience, we were able to let our watch design develop over time. The risk is otherwise that we would have designed something dull. Now we have managed to create something unique that perhaps not everyone likes but they have an opinion on. Many of today's established watch brands are so afraid to lose customers that they don’t dare to stand out too much in their designs. A good example of this is the trend to produce unisex models, watches that are neither for men nor women. We clearly want to manifest that we only target men, because that’s what we are and that is who we think we understand.
FS: Who are some of your clients?
FP: Our client and customers are all men (no matter age) that are looking for something different, something that challenges the over hundred years long world domination of round watches. Many of our customers are also women seeking for something masculine yet stylish for their men.In the begging the marketing experts told us to do a customer profiling to be able to target the correct customers. But nothing could be more wrong. After wasting a lot of time and energy on marketing plans it all turned out to be a total waste of money. As a matter a fact, just a couple of weeks after we had started to sell our watches online we saw that all the "experts" had been wrong the hole time. We don’t have a specific customer profile. As a matter a fact, our customers range from 18 to 81 years old. Well there is something that all of our customers have in common, they all like rectangular watches with a masculine and slick style.
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
FP: We are working on designing new variations of the dial and some new leather straps in different colors and patterns.
FS: How can people contact you?
FP: The easiest way to get in contact with us is via our webpage: www.sonerbysweden.com.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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