Gillis Lundgren, who designed some of Ikea's most iconic products and was one of the furniture giant's first employees, has died at the age of 86.
Lundgren, who passed away on 25 February 2016, was born in Sweden in 1929. He studied at the Malmö Institute of Technology, and joined Swedish furniture company Ikea in 1953 as its fourth employee.
Although he was initially hired to manage the Ikea Catalogue, Lundgren moved on to design some of the company's most famous products ? including the Billy bookcase.
The design is now 37 years old and comes in many size variations, with options for glass doors and a selection of finishes.
Lundgren designed one of Ikea's most famous products: the Billy bookcase
Ikea makes 15 Billy bookcases a minute, and had sold more than 41 million units by Billy's 30th anniversary in 2009 ? which, if you laid them all out in a line, would be over 70,000 kilometres long. "I drew the first sketches on a napkin," said Lundgren at the time. "That was often the way we worked. Ideas are perishable and you have to capture the moment as soon as it arrives."

Related story: Ikea's "Chuck out your chintz" ads changed British taste, says the man who wrote the slogan

Kajsa Johansson, an Ikea spokesperson, confirmed his death to the Washington Post, describing him as "a man full of ideas that he quickly turned into practical products," but gave no other details.
A statement sent to Dezeen from Ikea ...