Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2000)

Personal Profiler

First Family of Design

The Tillberg name is synonymous with luxurious cruise ship design, often sending as the masterminds in the creation of images and themes that will capture the essence of the each vessel's itinerary and passenger base. MR/EN spoke with two generations of the Tillbergs — founder Robert — and son Tomas — to discuss their philosophies, ideas and creations for a business that is expediently working to meet the cruise industry's newbuild boom.— By Regina P. Ciardiello, associate editor

From the time he was a young man attending college in Sweden, Tomas

Tillberg longed for the day that he could join his father, Robert Tillberg, at work designing and dreaming up new ideas for the cruise ship industry. Tomas remembers wanting to accompany his father on his daily routine — whether it was a meeting at a European shipyard with engineers or at his father's home base at his design firm in Viken, Sweden — Tomas wanted to be a part of the industry that has helped to establish Till- berg Design into the "family" of cruise ship designers/engineers. As much as the younger Tillberg wanted to free his creative mind within the world of cruise ship designing, at that time, little did he know that one day he would go on to head the U.S. branch of his father's com- pany during one of the most ground- breaking moments in the cruise industry — the construction of the first cruise ships in the U.S. in 40 years.

Tillberg Design has earned the title as one of the two firms working to design the two newbuilds that have been ordered for American Classic Voyages' (AMCV) new United States Lines. The two vessels, which are currently being built by Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding in

Pascagoula. Miss, will be homeported in

Honolulu, Hawaii for weekly cruises throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Origi- nally supposed to have been constructed by NASSCO, AMCV chose Litton

Ingalls to build the two ships, whose first steel was just recently cut. Since the

Norwegian firm of Yran and Storbraaten had already been tapped by Ingalls to perform the architectural design of the vessel pair, the firm was signed on with

Tillberg as a joint effort since AMCV had a strong belief that the Tillbergs could effectively capture the sense of a surreal Hawaiian atmosphere — and why not, when after all, the Tillberg team swears by two basic criteria before designing a ship — itinerary and passen- ger.

In fact, Tomas added that AMCV invited the Tillberg architects that were assigned to the project to step onboard

AMCV-owned (American Hawaii's)

S.S. Independence to grab hold of the

Hawaiian essence (the vessel currently operates cruises to the Hawaiian Islands for the line). "Project America (U.S. Lines) is specifically geared toward

Tomas Tillberg heads the firm's Florida office.

Hawaii/American patriotism," Tomas said. "We try not to do a pastiche or rather, looking glass feel, we want to capture the real thing — rather than just providing a take on it."

Just what is Hawaiian design and how is the Tillberg team going to provide the "real thing?" According to both Tomas and Robert, there's a certain heritage that

Hawaii possesses — it's different from the Caribbean, not just by its landscape, but the fact that it boasts natural won- ders as rain forests and volcanoes. In addition, unlike the Caribbean, the weather patterns are different allowing the option for the design of an outdoor eating area on the ship.

As lead designer on the project, Tomas is modest to credit one specific person who assisted the firm in "capturing the m . mm ransn "o^AJjii %M t»V K gnj*• * *"•*• • sRbe^ ** JS«« 5

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SHALLOW DRAFT ROPAX CATAMARAN DESIGNS 35-125 METRES 15-22 KNOTS. UNBEATABLE ECONOMY

TEL AUSTRALIA (61) 755295777 FAX (61) 755295177

EMAIL [email protected]

Robert Tillberg — the founding father of

Tillberg Design. 8

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