50 years young

Tillberg Design of Sweden on maintaining creativity
50 years young

By Rebecca Gibson |


Top-class design and a feast of firsts light the way along Tillberg Design of Sweden’s (TD) 50 years of delivering innovation to newbuild and refit cruise projects.

From its initial founding by the late Robert Tillberg in 1964 to the company’s ownership change in 2006, there have been many milestone moments. The partnership trio of chairman and art director Fredrik Johansson, senior interior designer Karin Falk and managing director Michal Jackiewicz has nurtured TD to its half-century anniversary.

But what does this big birthday mean to the three owner-partners who have each been a pivotal part of TD for the past 15 to 20 years? “Our company has been an integral part of the development of the modern cruise industry as a whole for the past 50 years, meaning that we have a totally unique knowledge base from which we can develop new and ground-breaking ideas,” says Johansson. “A few historical examples are the London Company’s Sea Venture, delivered in 1969, contained a number of ground-breaking inventions – the very first atrium on a ship, a novel raindrop ventilation system and an entire dining room without a single pillar – all designed by Robert Tillberg and the team. In collaboration with Nippon Yusen Kaisha – Crystal Cruises’ parent company – in 1988, we developed the first stern-to-bow, six-star cruise ship, Crystal Harmony. The first afloat, three-storey dining room for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd was designed by us as were a major part of the interiors on Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2, at the time the first ocean liner built in more than 30 years. A more recent project is the Spice H2O club on Norwegian Cruise Line’s (NCL) Norwegian Breakaway. The adults-only area includes an enormous dance floor, Jacuzzis, a wading pool, waterfall feature and bar.”

Johansson adds: “This history makes up our design DNA and it is the reason we love pushing the envelope to continually improve things, an approach that we apply to the notable and revolutionary projects we are working on today.”

Jackiewicz continues: “Seeing the takeover of the company in 2006 as a big and vital step in our development is a more recent highlight for me. After eight years of hard and determined teamwork, we have managed to put TD on the map amongst the top-end design companies.”

Falk agrees. “Our unique history and heritage will always be present in our work – it’s a solid platform for the future and the amazing projects we work with. The accumulated competence and experience we have built up and maintained during these years continues to be one of our most important assets and is part of everything we do.”

It is one thing to be able to produce innovative interior design. Sustaining a fresh approach project after project for five decades, as TD has, is quite another... 

This article appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2014 edition of International Cruise & Ferry Review. To read the full article, you can subscribe to the magazine in printed or digital formats.

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