Everyone who knows design knows Tom Dixon. But he is full of surprises, as Indesign found out during Saturday in Design this year.

During July’s Pecha Kucha event in Sydney, held as part of Saturday in Design, Tom Dixon got up in front of a crowd of nearly 700 people and, instead of presenting a slide show as the format suggests, got out his guitar and to a backdrop of Kylie Minogue pics, played her song, ‘Can’t get you out of my head’.

The previous evening at Launch Pad (Indesign Group’s emerging designer exhibition) he shocked the crowd by telling them to stop complaining about being in Australia and get on with being designers.

Both of these moments are key in understanding Tom Dixon, the man, the designer. Despite being the most famous British designer working today, he doesn’t like to be reminded of the fact. “You do get sick of the sound of your own voice,” he explains. “It’s not like I’m Leonardo di Caprio.”

Much of the Tom Dixon attitude stems from his early days as a punk rocker – he was in a band until a motorcycle accident stopped him playing guitar for a while. Welding skills learned while fixing his motorcycles led to the creation of metal furniture and objects which were sold piece by piece and exhibited around London. Cappellini picked him up – and the rest is history.

To read more on this project, see the latest issue of Indesign Magazine, in newsagents from 22 November.

tomdixon.net