Stephan Gip began studying at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design and the department for interior architecture and furniture design in Stockholm 1956. In 1961 he graduated with a collection that among others consisted of a bunkbed with ribbed wall bars to which one could attach shelfs, and that could also be used as a play area. Later the same year, he founded his own design studio.
During his time at Konstfack, Gip had gotten in contact with the company Skrivrit specialized in furniture for day care and pre-schools. They commissioned Gip, who himself had small children, to create a collection of children furniture. To design the collection, Gip got in contact with the docent Stina Sandels at the department of educational sciences at Stockholm University. Together Gip and Sandels researched the body measures of children in ages 2-6 and constructed furniture for their different shapes and sizes that also could match the hard demands of durability. The result was the BA-series that Skrivrit launched in 1962 that was very well received both by the media and day cares and pre-schools all around the country. Gip later became the company Skrivit’s head of design.
In 1962 Stephan Gip designed the children highchair Robust 120 which first was manufactured by Skrivrit, but later by Gip´s own brand named Robust. The chair made with a robust wooden construction with colored balls on the frame, and leather strap for security, soon became a classic both in private homes and in public spaces. When McDonalds opened their first restaurant in Stockholm, they chose Robust as their baby seat.
During the late 1960’s Gip began designing more radical pop-furniture, such as the red, octagonal bunk bed Psäng and the hexagonal armchair Pstol for Perstorp in 1967. During the autumn of the same year, Gip launched Blow Up (or Blås Upp as they were called in Swedish), Sweden’s first inflatable furniture, produced by Hagaplast in white, blue, yellow, red, and a floral pattern designed by the artist and film director Carl-Johan De Geer. Blow Up made an instant success, not least because of their low cost, and were first shown at the Teenage Fair in Gothenburg in November 1967. Gip’s inflatable furniture was also sold internationally, by the British chain Habitat, mostly as pool furniture. During the late 1960’s, Gip worked with producers Mo & Domsjö designing furniture made of the cardboard material Tretex.
At the end of the 1970’s Gip moved from Stockholm to the west coast town of Torekov where has focused on designing single-family houses. He is represented at the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts, the Modern Museum and the Museum of Furniture Studies, all in Stockholm.
