Tom Dixon (industrial designer)
Tom Dixon is a well-known British industrial designer, one of the few without formal design training. He began designing furniture in his early 20s when injured after a motorcycle accident, using his welding skills to create a variety of objects including the S-Bend chair. The S-bend chair was discovered later by Italian furniture maker Cappellini, who paid Tom 3% of the manufacturing costs of the chair.
Since then, Tom has produced many products, the most notable of which are the Mirrorball light and Soft System couch, under both his own name and various other manufacturers. He's also known for giving away hundreds of chairs to the British public from Trafalgar Square in 2005, and for his appearances on the covers of various design magazines including Oxygen.
He currently is the head of design at Finnish company Artek and also engages in many design-focused speaking events around the globe.
Tom is a large proponent of sustainable design, and does not believe students need degrees to succeed as designers, bur rather to simply make something unique and desirable.