DESIGN FOR LIFE
THE ROLE OF THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER IS OFTEN OVERLOOKED SO WE SPOKE TO ONE OF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS FOR AN INSIDE GLIMPSE INTO HOW TO STYLE A BIKE ...
We sit down with Torgny Fjeldskaar, the designer behind some of the world’s best-loved bikes
THE REAL MAGIC ABOUT URBAN CYCLING IS THAT YOU CAN TURN WHAT FOR MANY PEOPLE IS JUST A NECESSARY EVIL – COMMUTING – INTO A HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY
We first came across Torgny Fjeldskaar’s work at the world’s biggest bike show, Eurobike, back in the early 2000s at one of Cannondale’s mega-stands, which was showcasing a cutting-edge concept bike. The radical geometryshifting machine on display was a bike that could morph from flat-out time-trail machine into a more upright comfortable one. It was space-age stu . We set out to meet the team behind this amazing flight of fancy and through one of our Cannondale contacts were introduced to Norwegian industrial designer Torgny: a quiet, softly spoken, focused man.
After explaining his initial thinking when designing the bike he then delved deeper into the influences in his designs – which ranges from cars, to aircraft and even chairs.
After many years following Torgny’s inspiring Instagram feed (@torgny_f), which showcases his incredible designs and hand-drawn artwork, we decided to catch up with Torgny to find out more on the industrial designer’s role in bike design and discuss how the industry has changed over the decades...
How did you get started in the world of designing bikes and was this the vehicle you always wanted to focus on?
“I got my first bike at the age of five and it’s been my main mode of transport ever since. For many years I was a paperboy so I got used to riding in all sorts of Norwegian weather early on. You basically get as wet as in the UK but quite a bit colder! At the age of 10 I got my first road bike, and as a teenager I got into the-then big, new trend of mountain biking and later on some gravel touring (except we didn’t know it was called gravel at the time). I always loved the design simplicity of bicycles and conversely the changes that mountain bikes brought.
“Bicycles are such a big part of my life that it wasn’t until the age of 33 I bought my first car, a vintage BMW 323i from 1980. As much as I love cars, in my opinion, they make little sense as a daily means of transport in urban areas.
“I studied mechanical engineering in Trondheim, Norway and then I did a masters in transport vehicle design in Barcelona for two years. My first job after graduating was in automotive design at Mazda’s European Design Centre in Frankfurt, a place I really enjoyed working and I learned a lot from helpful colleagues.
“Next stop was Cannondale bicycles, a company I hugely admired as a teenager when I first got into mountain biking. Cannondale o ered me the chance to lead the industrial design (ID) e orts on its urban bikes, which was unchartered territory for the company and was aimed primarily at the European market. After a year or so I was promoted to Director of ID: the entire bike line. At 28 I knew this had clearly come a bit too early in my career, but at the same time it’s an opportunity you can’t turn down! I stayed at Cannondale for almost six years, I got to work on lots of cool projects with some truly great people and then I decided to move on as I was keen on learning new things and developing as a designer.
“Then I fulfilled another childhood dream and got a job at BMW in Munich in the exterior design team for production cars. Working with so many talented colleagues was both humbling and incredibly inspiring and I really had to raise my game on many levels. It was so cool to go to work and soak in new knowledge every day! Little by little I found my feet and got more responsibility, but after a while in the position of Creative Director of Detail Design for the compact vehicles I ended up having so many meetings I had little time for design and I was far away from the product that I decided to move on and go back to my first love: bicycle design.
“The next opportunity came about shortly after at BMC Switzerland, where I had the unique opportunity to build an in-house design team from scratch,