Page 59: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2000)

The eloquently designed Crystal Plaza entranceway onboard Crystal's Symphony.

Passing the Torch

Like his father, Tomas completed his formal education in Stockholm, but chose to venture off more towards paint- ing, sculpting and art history, rather than furniture construction — at one time, he shared that he even desired to make his living as a painter.

Upon graduating from Stockholm's

Academy of Arts, Tomas ventured to the travel and tourism business, beginning his career at a Swedish engineering company setting up contracts for reno- vations of luxury hotels throughout

Europe. While it wasn't what he had ini- tially desired, which was designing ships with his father, the position allowed Tomas to gain experience on both sides of the operation— even if it was for land-based entities, rather than the floating hotels known as cruise ships. "I have thorough experience on both sides of the business (creating and run- ning)," Tomas said. This allows me to understand the business from an artist's perspective, and from a contracting per- spective when dealing with yard engi- neers."

It was approximately five-and-a-half years ago, that Tomas' dream of being able to collaborate with his father became a reality, when it was decided by both Robert and the firm's managing director, Lennart Ekstedt, that a U.S. presence was imminent to allow Till- berg Design to fully embrace their new

U.S. shipbuilding projects such as the new "floating trade show" ship being constructed for Sea America. The ves- sel, which is scheduled for a 2003 deliv- ery, will be able to accommodate 1,800 passengers, who are traveling for both business and pleasure purposes. The company has completed the majority of the vessel's basic designs, which were delivered to the builder, Litton Ingalls, on August 11. Headed by Tomas, with

Jean-Louis Stutzmann as project man- ager, the Sea America design team was comprised of a mixture of American and

European designers based in the Fort

Lauderdale office. The vessel's theme, which according to Tomas rests on the firm's passenger/itinerary basis, is geared toward a professional, who enjoys mixing business with pleasure.

New Companies Seeking Themes

Tillberg Design has fastidiously made a name for itself within the internation- ally based cruise companies that have taken the market by storm in the last six years. New companies such as Crystal

Cruises and Star Cruises — wanted to create a product that was fresh — and they wanted Tillberg Design to help them formulate an image that would grab potential passengers' interest.

The 1990's also marked the beginning of the Crystal Cruise Lines project. The vessel pair Harmony and Symphony, which were constructed at Mitsubishi

Heavy Industries (MHI), and Kvaerner

Masa-Turku, respectively for Crystal's owner — Japanese Shipping Company

Nippon Yusun Kaisha (NYK) — allowed the Tillberg team to get its feet wet for an additional project that would await them — an exclusive contract with Malaysian-based Star Cruises for the design of all newbuilds. Since the line wanted to market itself as touting non-Caribbean and European itineraries to the up-and-coming Asian customer base — rather than the traditional

Caribbean or European excursions typi- cally geared toward the American or

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