A London design brand and studio, founded in 2002 by designer Tom Dixon, making lighting, furniture and accessories from a former record-company building at Portobello Dock.
Tom Dixon is a London design company that sells lighting, furniture, household accessories and, since 2017, textiles. Its website describes itself as a home for extraordinary objects and says its pendant lights are "innovatively designed in our London studio". Its rugs, glassware and cushions are made by skilled artisans in different countries. The company launches new collections at the Milan Furniture Fair and the London Design Festival, and Wikipedia says its products are sold in 65 countries. A related arm, Design Research Studio, has worked on interiors including restaurants and hotels.
Tom Dixon was born in Tunisia in 1959 and describes himself as self-taught. He was first a bass guitarist in a funk band called Funkapolitan. After motorbike accidents ended that, he learned to weld, which he credits with starting his design career. In the 1980s and 1990s he ran a studio called Creative Salvage, opened a gallery and shop, and launched Eurolounge. He joined Habitat in 1998, became creative director and left in 2008. He founded the Tom Dixon brand in 2002 while still at Habitat. He was awarded a CBE in 2025. The company site gives no formal mission statement, but Tom Dixon says he is interested in entrepreneurship and the communication of ideas, and a local news profile quotes him crediting an original idea and a different attitude.
The company is based in west London. In 2008 Tom Dixon moved into the former Virgin Records building at Portobello Dock, beside the canal, and the brand has been closely linked with it since. He called it the perfect place and said the area used to be the most creative part of London and that he was bringing that back. The company also has shops, and Wikipedia mentions a SoHo shop in New York, so not all of its sites are in the UK. We did not find a confirmed list of its UK shops.
On people and culture, the pages we read do not name the studio team or describe working life, so we have not guessed. What they do show is a company that runs on making: its approach grew out of the punk-era idea of doing things yourself, and its products are shaped by materials and processes. The design and the shop, delivery and customer-experience teams listed on the website all sit in one business. Its work is held in collections at the V&A, MoMA and Centre Pompidou, according to Wikipedia.
A company like this employs product and lighting designers, prototype makers, engineers, buyers, merchandisers, photographers, marketing and social media staff, shop teams and customer-service teams. If you like making things, or enjoy seeing a design go from sketch to shop shelf, it is a good example of the whole chain. Check its website for what it is currently looking for.
Website: www.tomdixon.net
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