Fabian, Swedish plastic classic
A stroke of genius gave birth to Fabian, a plastic bed lamp that has sold 4 million copies, and thus can be found in many Swedish homes. The brain behind popular Fabian was Håkan Fransson, who began as a designer at Fagerhult in 1967, where he remained for five years. His assignment was to create a bed lamp on a rail as wide as the bed itself. That way the person reading in bed could pull the lamp over into a suitable position. Meanwhile plastic had just made its grand industrial entrance, and a producer suggested Fagerhult make the lamp in plastic, as he believed in the material. A low price combined with a neat package made for a perfect launching-pad to success. Epa, a chain of discount store, was involved from the very beginning and put in an order of thousands of Fabian lamps. The lamp filled a number of demands: function, price, packaging and a growing variety of colors. The lack of screws meant Fabian could be mounted in 11 seconds. And the name? It was the idea of three employees at Fagerhult who simply took the company’s nickname Fab (from Fagerhult AB) and added the “ian.”