Björn Dahlström worked during the mid 1970’s with animations and graphics for television and film productions when he in 1978 took on the role as an art director and graphic designer at the advertising agency Marknadsinitiativ, (later Garbergs) working mainly in printed design.
In 1982 Dahlström founded his own design studio concentrated mainly on graphic design for Swedish clients like Ericsson, Scania and Atlas Copco. Aa a product designer Dahlström got his first recognition with a series of wooden toys for Swedish manufacturer Playsam in 1985. Nine years later he presented his first lounge chair BD 1 that later came into production by CBI in Stockholm.
The chair, that’s often called the comma due to its shape, Dahlström launched at the Salone del Mobile in Milan where it got a lot of attention and received the Excellent Swedish Design Award and the Furniture of the year award by the magazine Sköna Hem. The BD 1 chair was later developed into a larger furniture series, manufactured by CBI.
Another of Dahlströms best known furniture is the lounge chair Superstructure designed for CBI in 2003. The 96 cm wide carver chair is based on a circle and an L-shape that together holds up a big number of sticks. Superstructre became a part of the furnishings at the Swedish embassy in Canberra, Australia and is a part of the collections at the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Furniture Studies.
Björn Dahlström has designed furniture for NC Nordic Care (Björn and Curt chairs in 2004 and the armchair Sture in 2012), Dux (Supersport armchair in 2008) and for Nola (the Kaskad chair in 2011 and Solliden in 2020). He has also designed various products such as bicycles, carpets and kitchen utilities.
In 1999 Dahlström was appointed professor in furniture design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, a position he held until 2001. He has also been a lecturer at Beckmans College of Design.
Björn Dahlström has participated in exhibitions all around the world and is represented in museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam. From 1991 to 2000 Dahlström received the Excellent Swedish Design Award 16 times and in 2011 he got the Red Dot Design Award for his chair Kaskad. In 2001 Dahlström was awarded the prestigious Torsten and Vanja Söderberg Prize by the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg.
In 2015 Dahlström founded the company Articles, marketing his and his partner Anna von Schewen´s furniture designs.
