Home Danish design
10.28.24

Sighted

At This Wood-Clad Seaside Retreat, Iconic Scandinavian Lights Pair Perfectly With California Modernism

The Danish company Louis Poulsen is home to some of the world's most instantly recognizable lighting, designed by the greats. While all distinctively Scandinavian — there’s a certain precision and integrity combined with a playful inventiveness that’s somehow simultaneously cool and warm — these lights also work particularly well in the context of a West Coast golden-hour glow, the interplay of sun and soft shadows. Louis Poulsen's sculptural yet clean aesthetic naturally dovetails with the indoor-outdoor architecture of California modernism — both of which have been captured in a new interiors shoot styled and photographed by Lumens.
More
12.05.23

Up and Coming

Frederik Fialin on His New Tubular Metal Collection: “We All Like to be Comfortable, But Other Things Are Often More Important to Me”

Danish designer Frederik Fialin understands the idea that you have to know the rules before you can break them. He’s certain something is working not only when it’s functional and beautiful, but when it makes him laugh. It’s a way of taking the work seriously, without taking yourself too seriously, and it may have something to do with how Fialin got started, with a classic cabinetry apprenticeship. “I didn’t particularly enjoy it at the time, but now I see why everything has to be done in a certain way. I consider this, now, to be possibly the greatest foundation of my professional life that I could ever have asked for — especially because I can use, remix, and warp this never-ending chase for perfection that dominates the environment. There’s reason in the madness.”
More
04.28.23

Sighted

The Outdoor Collections Making Us Long For Warmer Weather

It’s almost time, in most of the northern hemisphere at least, to spend as much of the day outside as possible. (This is, we understand, both a statement of fact and a piece of wish fulfillment.) And while we have typically struggled to find effortlessly great outdoor furniture, the new outdoor dining and lounging collections from Danish design company Skagerak — which joined another Danish furniture mainstay, Fritz Hansen, to officially become Skagerak by Fritz Hansen last year — is a serious contender. Their new Pelagus series, named after the Greek word for sea, evokes a deeply relaxing, maritime atmosphere. But with their clean Scandinavian lines and unfussy simplicity, these tables, chairs, and sunbeds could fit in just about anywhere.
More
12.09.22

Sighted

Ferm Living’s New Collection Subverts the Typical Scandinavian Simplicity With a Subtle Dose of Cool

In Ferm Living's newest collection, organic shapes meet cooler textures and materials, and the typical Scandinavian simplicity is subverted by the subtlest dose of cool, so that wine glasses become brown ceramic goblets and coat racks look like mid-century sculpture. Everything has a little bit of personality, which is what we advocate for in our new book, and what helps render something a "personal treasure" rather than a utilitarian staple.
More
05.26.22

Interiors

In Wang & Söderstrom’s First Shop Interior, Color Reigns and 3D-Printed Blobs Act as “Jewelry” For the Space

A central player in the explosive rise of Denmark’s boutique fashion scene, Stine Goya's clothes have become more directional in recent seasons, as has its visual identity. Creative duo Wang & Söderström were recently brought on to help translate that new energy into the label’s physical spaces, with two stores whose color-blocked interiors and 3D printed accents echo the brand's palette — and add a dose of serious fun.
More
10.20.21

Excerpt: Exhibition

A New Exhibition Defines the Next Generation of Danish Design

The purpose of Ukurant Perspectives was to showcase a new generation of designers who are pushing the conversation forward through practices that “revalue discarded materials, create innovative composites and explore the limits of craft to redefine its importance.” Seventeen mostly Denmark-based designers were featured, all of whom pursued wildly different approaches to object and furniture design.
More
09.02.21

Excerpt: Exhibition

For His New Collab With Kvadrat, Artist Danh Vo Wrapped an Entire House in a Rediscovered Nanna Ditzel Textile

Kvadrat’s newest fabric release, Sisu, doesn’t look particularly remarkable in photos at first glance. A thick wool woven in 16 different two-color pairings, it closely resembles its cousin, Hallingdal, the best-selling textile designed in the 1960s by Danish icon Nanna Ditzel. But when we learned the full story behind its discovery and development — in collaboration with the artist Danh Vo — it was so interesting we didn’t even know where to begin telling it.
More
03.19.21

Excerpt: Exhibition

For Its Second Fully Virtual Outing, This Danish Design Exhibition Gets Personal

Mindcraft's interactive website includes individual designer pages, video interviews with the 10 Danish designers and studios, an AR component, and a 3D experience. Of course, as with any exhibition like this, the bells and whistles don't add up to much unless the quality of the work is there to support it, and in this case, thankfully, that is true. But while the AR component is interesting, it's the videos that provide both context and emotional heft.
More
03.15.21

Sighted

Kristina Krogh’s Plaster Reliefs Are Like Zen Gardens For Your Walls

It seems there’s no ending plaster’s reign as material of the moment and, honestly, we’re not mad about it — especially after coming across Danish artist and designer Kristina Krogh’s wall-hung reliefs. Made of wavy lines of plaster mounted on wood and colored in a soft gradient with acrylic paint, each of the pieces in her latest series — which come in a variety of shapes from amorphous discs to more conventional rectangles — is an original work.
More
05.12.20

Sighted

A New Collection of Steel and Stone Chairs That Combine Minimalism With Personality

The work of Danish interior and product designer Lisette Rutzou is characterized by a funny sleight of hand — at first you think you're looking at something really classical and elemental, and then you realize she's snuck in a whole other aesthetic language, more vibey and directional than you initially understood. Her newest collection of chairs and benches, Ego, has that same feeling.
More