In this article, we’ve travelled to Sweden to hear Johan Lindau, of furniture brand Blå Station, tell us how the easy chair Jackson came to be. 

Swedish furniture brand Blå Station was founded in 1986 by designer Börge Lindau in a former sewing machine factory in the coastal town of Åhus. The company’s CEO Johan Lindau started out as a draughtsman to his father Börge. Johan has a playful approach to new product development, as epitomised by the Jackson chair.

Johan is fascinated by the small comfortable armchairs that he comes across on his overseas travels. “They all have different personalities,” he says.

His habit is to photograph each chair that takes his fancy, with his wife Malin - who gives a theatrical sigh as she knows what's coming - obligingly playing along. “I ask her to sit in each armchair reading a magazine (to get a sense of proportion), and then I photograph her from all angles.” 

These reference images were a key part of the brief he gave designers Stefan Borselius and Thomas Bernstrand – who are regular Blå Station contributors, having already created dozens of products for Johan like the BOB seating series.

Borselius and Bernstrand were tasked with creating a “large, comfortable armchair in as small clothes as possible, which architects and interior designers can playfully adapt and give different identities”, Johan explains.

Their answer was Jackson, a rounded easy chair on shallow feet. Adaptation comes in the form of armrests and feet in brass, matt chrome, black oxidised steel or powder coated steel in a range of colours; and wood handles for the armrests in ash, oak and walnut, in stained or oiled finish.

Johan talks of Jackson having ‘male’ and ‘female’ versions – with or without armrests respectively. He explains this notion of playing with gender stereotypes through clothes and accessories: “The ‘female’ chair can have a black matte suit with high-gloss red shoes, and her ‘husband’ can have a blue suit with black shoes and a black belt.”

Alternatively, Jackson can be specified as “50 colourful ‘individuals’ in different colour combinations”. A great example is the hospital for children and young adults in Bergen, Norway, where many bright colours in various combinations were specified, to a playful effect.