Tekla Evelina Severin
Step into the world of self-confessed colour-addict and multi-disciplinary designer Tekla Evelina Severin.
Words: Matthew Burgos | Photography: Tekla Evelina Severin & Toniton
‘I work uniquely in each and every project. Instead of working with classic guidelines for color combinations, I like to work with something unexpected,’ says Tekla Evelina Severin. Photo: Toniton
‘I have a holistic view about colors and design. I believe it is always about the wholeness of the space and product,’ says Tekla Evelina Severin. Photo: Tekla Evelina Severin
Tekla Evelina Severin sees the world through rainbow coloured glasses.
Everything the interior architect, furniture designer, set designer and photographer touches, turns into wonderful vivid colour.
Whether it’s to design a product for a collaboration, or to photograph architecture for a commission, Severin’s work highlights the importance of colour in design, not merely as decoration, but as an important element in a project.
‘I dare call myself as a colourist since colours have always been my focus, whether I work on a product or set design, art direction, photography, and so on,’ she says.
Sitting in her studio in Stockholm, the designer starts the creative process with merely a mood. From here she starts collecting image references and building word clouds to help conceive her ideas into fruition, she then sketches in 3D and plays with colour samples.
‘For the curation of the colour schemes, I work in a calculated context from start to finish. I evaluate the surroundings, what sits next to them, the visuals of the indoors and outdoors, and where the light hits.’
“I’d say a colourist is someone skilled in colour theories or experiences, and who uses colour in a way that makes the colours play the main role as the subject itself instead of a motif.”
Tekla Evelina Severin self portrait, at home. Photo: Tekla Evelina Severin
A colourful corner in Tekla Evelina Severin’s home. Photo: Tekla Evelina Severin
Scrolling through Severin’s Instagram account, it’s easy to get swept away in a sea of incredible colour schemes. We see images of Severin at home sitting on a sofa, in her pistachio green bedroom or walking through her bold kitchen. These are self portraits which blur the lines between her and the space, so that she becomes one with the design.
As the artistic director of Toniton, a furniture and fixture store, Severin and her team have developed Toniton Colours, a colour scheme that offers six different palettes including blue, creme, peach, grey, green, and yellow.
Bold colour is echoed in the designer’s photographs, the colour combination of bubblegum and mellow pink, sea and baby blue, and terracotta red of La Muralla Roja in Calpe, Spain, her commission for the Swedish architecture magazine Tidskriften RUM, echoes Severin’s personality.
Being a trained interior architect has heightened Severin’s three-dimensional awareness when it comes to how colour functions in design and photography. We can’t get enough of everything she touches!
Teklan Edition X Montana Free. Photo: Tekla Evelina Severin
Tekla Evelina Severin’s bedroom space featuring Alex Proba blanket. Photo: Tekla Evelina Severin
Tekla Evelina Severin at home featuring Alex Proba blanket. Photo: Tekla Evelina Severin
Teklan Edition X Montana Free. Photo: Toniton
“For the curation of the color schemes, I work in a calculated context from start to finish, evaluating the surroundings, what sits next to them, the visuals of the indoors and outdoors, and where the light hits.”
