Tom Ahlström and Hans Ehrich

A&E Design was founded by Tom Ahlström and Hans Ehrich in 1968, since when it has designed a large number of ergonomic everyday items for clients in Sweden and abroad. For instance, 67 million examples of the Jordan 1230 dishwashing brush have been sold. The red Turn-O-Matic M80 queue ticket dispenser is a familiar sight at supermarket counters. The Stockholm folding stool is now used in museums around the world, including Nationalmuseum’s galleries and associated collections. To mark A&E design’s 50th anniversary in autumn 2018, Nationalmuseum staged an exhibition based on the donated models and prototypes. The A&E Design archive has been donated to Nationalmuseum. The archive contains material relating to the industrial design firm’s activities over the past half-century – everything from concept sketches to final drawings and product models. (source: www.nationalmuseum.se). This donation is also the story of a design company portraying herself, that’s why we chose to share here some portraits of the two founders of A&E.