Tom is recruited into Habitat - then owned by IKEA the biggest furnishing company in the world - first as Head of Design then quickly promoted to Creative Director.
A period of commissioning design from young designers, upcoming stars and living legends follows - from the Bouroullec Brothers to Achille Castiglioni, from Verner Panton to Ingvar Kamprad.
“My experiences have ranged from trying to survive the precarious economics of small production or rapid growth to working on the monstrous scale of the biggest international companies –such as Habitat, then owned by IKEA – where I learned through osmosis from many expert colleagues about global retail, sourcing and production.”