Ruud Ekstrand studied at the NKI School of industrial design when he in 1968 designed the Formula-series for Dux Studio Collection together with Christer Norman. The range consisted of a lounge chair (known as the toad), sofa, chairs, tables and a floor lamp which all were launched at the furniture fairs in Stockholm, Cologne and Chicago.
The Toad lounge chair was made of a lacquered steel tube stand with seat of corduroy. The Formula series for Dux was followed by the Cosmos collection in 1972 consisting of an armchair, a chair and tea trolley.
In 1969 Ekstrand founded his own design studio from where he has collaborated with manufacturers such as Avarte, Iform, Skandiform, Abstracta and Lammhults. In 1986 Ekstrand received the Forsnäs prize for the armchair KS 130 for Iform and from 1987 to 1998 he was awarded the Excellent Swedish Design Award. For the sofa Piccolo (IForm) Ekstrand was given the Architects Sweden's Guldstolen Prize in 1992.
Ekstrand also created the furniture fabric Flex with special technical qualities. Ekstrand has been exhibited at several museums in Sweden and abroad such as International Design Center in New York 1987 and Form Design Center in Malmö 2005.
