“When a brand has more than 150 years of history, almost everything you could suggest has, in some form, already been done,” says Els Van Hoorebeeck, recently appointed creative director at Danish design company Fritz Hansen. “It’s not about reinventing the wheel; it’s about knowing where that wheel has been before deciding where it rolls next.”
Van Hoorebeeck is part of a cohort bringing about a quiet shift in Denmark’s legendary but historically male-dominated design sector. A raft of recent appointments — at brands including Fredericia, Gubi and Georg Jensen — is exploring how Danish design can remain rooted in its history of traditional craftsmanship, while also innovating with products and a brand identity that can excite a new generation of customers.
Founded in 1872 and celebrated for design icons such as Arne Jacobsen’s swivelling 1958 Egg chair and Hans Wegner’s elegant carved 1944 China chair, Fritz Hansen carries a weighty legacy. Belgian-born Van Hoorebeeck, formerly creative director at Copenhagen design house &Tradition for five years, is not daunted. “Change is something you have to nurture,” she says. “Then slowly you will start seeing it.”
“I think the brand had become quite distanced in its language, a bit cold and maybe a tad too masculine,” says Van Hoorebeeck. “Design is about emotion. So we’re focusing on bringing back tactility in the way we communicate about the brand.”
While last year’s big launch was the bent veneer PK23 lounge chair, produced from 1954 sketches by Poul Kjærholm, this year Van Hoorebeeck is showcasing a new collaboration with London-based Cypriot designer Michael Anastassiades. His solid wood After chair and table are made in a matt, pale ash finish that allows the grain to show through, or stained a deep burgundy with a rich, wine-red marble top.
Named “After” in reference to the purity of form favoured by historic designers such as Kaare Klint and Pjærholm, Anastassiades offers a more modern design language via simplified constructions. The gentle curves and complex tones and textures represent this tactile approach that Hoorebeeck is keen to nurture.
Also new this year is Cecilie Manz’s Solae portable lamp, part of a trend among younger audiences for portable lighting and more adaptable design. Manz is known for her pared-back shapes, as can be seen in her softly curved Monolit chair; the lamp can be dimmed in three modes to evoke sunlight.
Earlier this year, at Gubi, Marie Kristine Schmidt — previously at Bang & Olufsen — was promoted from chief brand officer to CEO and will be involved in shaping the brand’s creative direction. Gubi was founded in 1967 but holds licences for classic designs including Gio Ponti’s 1933 wall mirror and Gabriella Crespi’s Bohemian 72 sofas and lounge chairs, designed in 1972.
“My predecessor Jacob Gubi [son of the founders] laid the foundations for an extremely strong product collection that tells untold stories, but for me it’s about connecting the dots,” Schmidt says, “figuring out what’s happening [beyond the brand] and how we tap into those conversations.”
To that end, Gubi has created an elegant reimagining of Paavo Tynell-designed 1930s lamps, with a slim rattan-wrapped or polished brass stem, due to be launched at Copenhagen’s 3daysofdesign fair (June 18-20). Produced with Parisian textile house Garro Éditions, they feature linen shades printed with pen-and-ink sketches of prancing horses by Henry Moore. It also relaunched Pierre Paulin’s futuristic 1960s F300 chair and companion side table T877, but with an unusual promotional campaign — slick and stylish portraits of people with the collection, collated into a glossy, fashion-magazine style publication.
“It is an example of us seeking to do something more emotional,” says Schmidt. “To focus on something human-centred, how the chair can move around the home. We’ve shot it playfully, flexibly, with people sitting in it in various ways. We’re looking to recontextualise some of these historic pieces into something that’s relevant today.”
There’s also a new collaboration with hip Danish architect Linda Korndal’s Toko Among Friends studio, a modular shelving system able to expand both laterally and vertically, in black brass or polished stainless steel, due to be launched later in the year. “It’s the conversation between the reissue pieces and the vision of the future that makes it all exciting,” says Schmidt.
At family-owned Fredericia, founded in 1911, Danish designer Maria Bruun’s appointment last October as head of design coincides with that of Rasmus Graversen as CEO — the third generation of the family to run the business. It signals a refresh; Bruun’s focus is introducing new names into a portfolio of high-profile archive pieces that include the 1958 Spanish chair by Børge Mogensen and Nanna Ditzel’s 1993 Trinidad chair.
“The dialogue with Rasmus has been: as long as we care for the legacy of craft and the modernist designers, we are free to play with new expressions,” says Bruun. At 3daysofdesign, Bruun has created a display titled Intersections, featuring a “Solution Lab” showing the company’s material innovations and sustainable design processes. The Pato chair is an experimental piece made from PaperShell, a biogenic (created by living organisms) material formed from paper. And, prompted by the rise in homeworking, “we’re entertaining the idea of holistic living,” says Bruun, “where home collides with work and social spheres.”
She adds: “I was brought in to be bold — both when it comes to spatial presentation but also with collaborations with new designers, and the way we look at heritage. My role is to plant seeds and to protect craft.”
It’s not just these brands going through a dynamic change. The 120-year-old silversmith Georg Jensen is taking a new tack with fashion designer Paula Gerbase as its creative director. Gerbase is making moves to shift its slightly fusty brand image; at Milan Design Week in April, the brand created a pop-up ice cream parlour to show its new collection of spoons. At BoConcept, supermodel and photographer Helena Christensen was named global artistic director earlier this year — at first glance an unexpected move, but, again, it seems to add weight to the powerful refocus across an industry in motion.
3daysofdesign, June 18-20; 3daysofdesign.dk
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