When you date a new guy, how do you find out about his exes?

Deep into its soul, Denmark is a design nation. Danish design became a concept known worldwide in the 1950’s and 1960’s and reflects the essence of Danish culture and self-perception: User friendliness and an open democratic approach to life

Initially Danish design was a child of its time: frugal post-war years with a shortage of materials and the ensuing demand for durability, and a vital tradition for high-quality craftsmanship. Often, the sublime products arose through close collaborations between craftsmen and manufacturers and in the coming years, a range of outstanding designers created world-class designs and became what we today has come to recognise as world-famous design icons: Are Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, Karre Klint, Mogens Koch, Borge Mogensen, Verner Panton, Jorn Utzon, Hans J Wegner and many others.

Danish design came to adding new dimensions to the general perception of design worldwide. The Danish design approach emphasised an organic functionalism that was far removed from the hard, geometrical shapes of international functionalism. A key element was the genuine interest in the user, the design and the surroundings. The characteristics that developed were user-friendliness, respect for the materials and an ambition of simplification and of achieving a certain honest and simple beauty.

DANISH DESIGN IN THE 21ST CENTURY
In the 21st century, the Danish design tradition lives on as inspiration to a new generation of designers. Over the second half of the 20th century Danish design has developed, and today the expression is broader than the familiar stylistic icons from the 1950’s and 1960’s. Danish design now is not as homogenous a concept as it was in the 1950’s and 1960’s, but it is still characterised by a common perspective and approach that is evident in recognisable expressions and quality standards.

Today’s critical, individualistic consumers and the general awareness of environmentally sustainable development are reshaping the conditions for Danish design and challenging design and manufacturers to seek new paths. This is true for product design, graphic design, the electronic media etc. Designers are also increasingly engaging in resolving complex issues where the product is not given from the outset, but arises in an ongoing process that involves users and other target groups.

Designers are challenging technological conventions, putting the emphasis on user-experiences and thinking in holistic terms, both concerning economics and ethical values. The Danish education programmes in design are also changing and have developed in several stages: from a focus on styling to a view of design as an integrated component in product development to a current view of design a key component of the problem statement.

Today a new generation of young and talented Danish designers is well established. One of the designers is Louise Campbell, who work is playful and experimental, and she is increasingly gaining a reputation for gently twisting not only everyday objects and situations, but also materials and manufacturing processes in new directions. The combination of Scandinavian rationalism and femininity gives her works an unusual edge. One example is ‘The Prince Chair’ from 2002, which combines a very personal expression with extremely high tech manufacturing methods. Another is the chair ‘Bless You’, the result of a search – at the same time both light-hearted and serious – used for material in new combinations, juxtaposing high and low, she moves from the inspiration of a soiled handkerchief to an experiment that created a functioning construction of a chair.

Professor Penny Sparke, Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Music, Kingston University, London explains: “Nowhere is Denmark’s design heritage more respected than in the contemporary world of furniture design. A number of small designer-led businesses are working in a way, which self-consciously extends that tradition while simultaneously taking it into new territory and acknowledging the new conditions of 21st century life.

Kasper Salto, for example, believes that it is by expressing the essence of one’s time through design that timelessness is achieved. With his ‘ice’ chair, first produced by Fritz Hansen in 2002, he has approached contemporary technology and materials in the same way that the earlier designers worked with that they had available to them.

Salto has also created lighting for the company ‘Light Year’, one of several revitalised or newly-formed Danish companies which have a clear design strategy, which see the number of commercial advantages of using design as a ‘value’, and who have approached a number of young designers to create pieces of them. Their approach is to give their designers a blank page and to develop a close working relationship with them.

Cecilie Manz, another young designer with her own small company who has been extremely successful in recent years, also works with ‘Light Year’. For them she has created ‘Caravaggio’ – a very simple hanging light – and ‘Mondrian’, a desk light the form of which is so simple and minimal that it almost doesn’t exist. Her highly minimalist approach is also reflected in her design for a wooden ladder, which, through the modification of two of its rungs, is also a seat. This is Danish Modern with a twist. Her elegant glass items created for Holmegaard, have a timelessness which acknowledges the past but which belongs, nonetheless, to the present.

The continuation of the Danish tradition is, without a doubt, most evident in the area of furniture design. A continued interest in simple form, a respect for materials, especially wood, high quality and craftsmanship, a commitment to research and the continued improvement of existing forms, a belief in the power of design to improve the quality of life, and the co-existence of experimentation with manufacture pervades this area.

Not all contemporary Danish furniture design fits this model, however, Christian Flindt has come to furniture design through architecture rather than craft which gives him a different ‘take’ on his discipline approaching furniture from a spatial and sculptural, as well as a material, perspective. His approach is influenced by his international experiences and he has not been schooled in the wooden furniture tradition.  Instead he has focused on plastic and works conceptually giving his furniture pieces such evocative names as ‘Black Orchid’.

THE DANISH DESIGN CENTRE – A PRESENTATION
The Design Centre has its headquarters on Hans Christian Andersens Boulevard in the middle of Copenhagen in a new building, designed by professor, architect Henning Larsen. The building houses offices, exhibition halls, a professional conference centre, a shop and a cafe, all run by the Danish Design Centre. The Design Centre was established in 1978 and moved to its new headquarters in 2000.

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik is the patron of the Danish Design Centre.

The Design Centre’s assignment is based on the Danish government’s design policy of promoting innovation and growth in Denmark and strengthening the international competitiveness of Danish businesses. The Centre is an independent institution under the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs. In addition, the Danish Design Centre handles a number of specific promotional tasks for the Danish Ministry of Culture.

Mr Christian Scherfig has been Managing Director of the Danish Design Centre since 2005.

The Design Centre’s strategy for 2006-2009 focuses on:
-    Increasing the knowledge about design and the economic effects of design in Danish industry
-    Professionalising the Danish design companies and buyers of design through development of competencies.
-    Branding Danish design nationally and internationally
-    Creating synergy between exhibitions, conferences and design promotion at the Danish Design Centre.

The Design Centre operates as a project-orientated organisation where the activities mutually support each other in the effort to highlight the business potentials of design. The Design Centre is organised into five teams –
-    Design Promotion
-    Communication & Media
-    Exhibitions
-    Back Office & Partner Relations
-    Conference Centre, Shop & Cafe

The ultimate purpose of the Design Centre is to promote and encourage the use of design in Danish industry – especially in the small and medium-sized companies – and to provide design knowledge to design suppliers and buyers alike. The promotions are carried out through a number of activities, among them:
-    Conferences and Workshops
-    Lectures and Presentations
-    Exhibitions
-    Studies and Analyses
-    The magazine Designmatters and www.ddc.dk
-    Master Cases

Each year the Danish Design Centre shows a total of approximately 15 exhibitions, ranging from Danish to international design, and from established names to young experimental designers. The exhibitions aim to provide information and spark debate and help define the Danish Design Centre’s profile to the business sector and the general public. Annually the Danish Design Centre has approx. 85,000 visitors.

In addition to the promotional activities aimed at the Danish industry the Design Centre runs a professional conference centre which hosts a wide range of events from large-scale trade conference and seminars to dinners, luncheons and parties.

Through workshops, conferences, newsletters, exhibitions, networking, the design magazine Designmatters and the design portal www.ddc.dk, the Danish Design Centre promotes the great potential of design to the target groups of Danish companies, designers and the general public.

The Danish Design Centre puts a high priority on regional and international collaboration and networks.

In 2005-2008 the Danish Design Centre will work together with Danish Crafts and the Danish Architecture Centre to promote new Danish design, architecture and crafts internationally. The collaboration is initiated by the Danish Ministry of Culture and the international branding effort will focus on design promoting in China and New York, establishment of an international web portal and newsletter, travel scholarships and counselling/professionalising of the Danish designers, architects and craftsmen.

The Danish Design Centre arranges various conferences and seminars a year addressing the Danish design business and industries in how to work together with design in order to create innovation, growth and value.

To communicate design message the Danish Design Centre use a number of tools such as: exhibitions, seminars, workshops, networking, magazines, newsletters and the website DDC.dk. Through exhibitions and PR activities we help brand Danish design internationally as well as nationally, and challenge attitudes and perceptions concerning design in the general public.

Every year, The Danish Design Prize is awarded to excellent and innovative Danish designs of the year. For Danish companies the award an important approval of the work with design. The aim of The Danish Design Prize is not only to show design as innovation and vision but also to highlight that design is business – that the field of design is undergoing remarkable development and that design can make a difference when they are designed from a user-centred point of view.