A new Danish designed children’s cutlery, ToddlerTable Cutlery, was named as the winner of the Formland Design Award – Autumn 2009 on Friday morning. Two Copenhagen-based companies, Fabrikators and ToddlerCompany, have designed the winning product and during the opening of the Formland Fair at MCH Messecenter Herning they were awarded DKK 100,000 as a marketing contribution and an award statuette as the visible proof of the Scandinavian award.

ToddlerTable Cutlery is designed by Josefine Bentzen. The designer has placed emphasis on creating cutlery that supports the children’s development of motor skills. The cutlery was designed on the basis of the special way children grasp things. The Scandinavian Award Committee who are responsible for the choice of winner gave the following reasons:

“This is the child’s own cutlery. The design is good with a handle that fills the whole hand. The design, combined with an anti-slide material on the handle, means that the child has a good grip on the cutlery, which can quickly help to make eating themselves a good experience. The colours are spot on and the expression is unique. The cutlery is playful, practical and very attractive – it looks good on a well-laid table. And it is also made of environmentally friendly material. A new, obvious idea for a christening present.

The recommended retail price for ToddlerTable Cutlery is DKK 299. The children’s cutlery can be seen at stand C2710 at the Formland Fair.

The other nominees for the Formland Design Award were EGO with a bamboo collection, Eva Denmark with Eva Trio kitchenware, PK Design – Design House Stockholm with the Arrow hook and Hornvarefabrikken with the Anines vases. A total of 70 products were submitted for judging at the Formland Design Award – Autumn 2009.

Functional kitchen tool in a retro design

Eva Denmark A / S has developed a new series of kitchen tools in stylish and multifunctional designs. The tools can be used for cooking and serving, as they are produced in durable and low-impact materials. The series is nominated for Formland Design Award – Autumn 2009.

The series of kitchen tools have a delicious and harmonious form. The different tools are good because of the silicone rubber, bearing the stainless steel – and they are light together. The style is retro from the 50s where it was the norm to use as little material as possible. The same goes for this series, developed nice and simple, says price the Committee in its nomination.

Todd Brachet has designed the series of 16 tools for Eva Denmark A / S. The materials used are stainless steel and black silicone rubber, bearing different, so individual material properties are maximized. There is emphasis on providing the tools with a good grip, protecting hands from heat, and making them gentle for use in pots and pans. The series includes with and without silicone coating, skimmer, pizza cutter, salad servers and scraper. The indicative retail price goes from DKK 149.75 to DKK 199.75.

Horn bowls in a smart design

The West Jutland firm Horn goods factory’s vases Anine are nominated for the Formland Design Award – Autumn 2009. Based on kohorn, designer Sara Bech Bruun created a modern design product for the house. Horn goods factory is the only remaining company in Denmark producing handicrafts in kohorn.

The designer has managed to create beauty out of something so simple and natural as a kohorn. We have already seen the material in other functions, from powder horns for drinking cups to the current design. The vases are beautiful and modern with a perfect finish of the form in which the sharp line at the bottom is the icing on the cake, says the nomination committee.

Anine is designed by Sara Bruun Buch, who in October 2008 over the Horn of goods factory, and has since led the production of new design directions with respect for the old crafts. The concept behind Anine is dragging nature into the room with a touch of modernity. The result is decorative objects and vases, and the recommended retail price is from $ 499 to $ 699

About Formland Design Award:
Formland Design Award goes each half to the season’s most striking novelties in design, handicrafts and interior. The winner is chosen from among submissions from Form Lands exhibitors. The independent pricing committee’s emphasis is on innovation, functionality, design and price. The winner receives a prize statuette and a marketing contribution of 100,000 USD. Formland Design Award has been awarded since 1987.

The Scandinavian pricing committee consisted this time of the furniture designer and architect Birgitte Appelong, director of the Swedish, moderator Lotta Ahlvar, graphic designer John Boye and creative chief Jørn Moesgaard.

The winner of Formland Design Award – Autumn 2009 will be published on Friday 14 August at the official opening of Formland in MCH Fairs Herning. It has posted 70 products Formland Design Award. Read more about Formland Design Award at www.formland.com.

Formland Autumn 2009 will take place from 14 to 17 August 2009 in Fairs MCH Herning. It involves over 600 companies, which is at the same level as the latest exhibition in the spring. Formland celebrates its 25th anniversary of the fair days.

The inspiration behind Hang is retro forms that make Hang a classic design object that fits most homes. It is timeless and the epitome of design traditions that we are proud of in Denmark.

When we speak of Danish design, we speak often about function, aesthetics and form. Precisely these properties make Hang a good example. Hang is very simple and has a more functional than decorative expression. I think that is liberating, because if the lamp can wear it alone, it is complete. It is not postulated. It is what it is, explains Rikke Hagen.

Hang is produced using traditional methods of production of a metal printing on Amager. It’s glossy exterior and matt interior comes in black and white and in two sizes.

New Danish Modern is a new line from Normann Copenhagen, which has roots in the Danish design tradition where quality and attention to detail is a priority. The line is designed by Denmark’s best designers and is exclusively produced in Denmark with care for the design idea and crafts design. The concept is based on furniture art, so the line will be available in smaller productions.

Besides Rikke Hagen is currently supporting these Danish designers with the New Danish Modern: Ole Jensen, Jesper K. Thomsen, Søren Ulrik Petersen, Claydies, Peter Johansen & Thomas Bentzen and others.

By getting all of our products crocheted in North China, we are helping to give women jobs in the lower income group of China. Most choose to crochet from home so they are close to family, but they can also go to the factory and meet other women who sit and crochet our products, says the company’s owners, Annemarie Franck and Charlotte Fischer.

The organic crocheted collection will be presented in Formland Autumn 2009 in Fairs MCH Herning. Among the latest products are a series of hair accessories for little and big girls, mobiles to cradle or baby changing rooms, and new variants of the popular musical boxes and babyrangler. All crocheted news is dominated by the familiar animals from the farm and jungle of the beautiful colors.

New designs in plantation tree are also part of the autumn collection. This time in the form of measuring sticks for the children’s room, painted with an environmentally friendly lacquer panel, in order to write the name and date of the chalk as the child grows. The graphic format elephant also from peg rows, characterizes these measuring sticks in black or red.

A changing game series in the tree is also among the latest additions. Thoughtful design with an emphasis on development, play and learning, are behind the 4 puzzles with fun animal designs.

All Franck & Fischer products are designed in Denmark and produced in the East. All our toys are CE approved, and our colors and print are Eco-Tex Standard 100 – Certified. We do our best to ensure that each Franck & Fischer design is produced in a good and responsible way, “says Annemarie Franck and Charlotte Fischer.

The beads are unique and made nowhere else in the world – and they are not factory produced. Pearl Producers are generally among the poorest groups in Ghana. Pernille Bülow Jewelry works with single mothers who are the most vulnerable group.

But through Pernille Bülow Jewelry women’s handicrafts are now coming out to the western world, and women learn to target their products for the Western market. This means that they can actually live by their work, send their children to school and more than just dream about even building their own house. It must be something about the unique interaction between aesthetics and function that is summarized in the concept of PURE as it is chosen as the booth theme for Formland Autumn 2009, when the jewelry is presented.

Pernille Bülow’s unique, handmade, Danish-designed and fair trade-produced jewelry is the way to succeed in a new era. We now make greater and greater demands for both past products and also their future prospects. It is part of the development cooperation that Pernille Bülow Jewelry teaches them about the western distribution mechanisms, requirements, etc. and teaches them how to conduct themselves in this new potential market.

At the stand you can meet Rachel (No. 36), one of Pernille Bülow Jewelry’s four permanent employees who have been involved from the start. She is an experienced pearl producer, does quality checks, is a bomb of energy and humor, a mother of five adult children – and quite fantastic.

You can also meet Agnes, the company’s administrator. She has only been employed for six years but is already irreplaceable. A wise, sweet and lovely girl.

Pernille Bülow writes: I have always been honest about jewelry production. Fair trade for me should not be charity but business. Otherwise, I do not think it wise and durable enough. Through our cooperation we equip women to stand on their own feet and run their own small businesses.

It is the most amazing motivation to see these women grow in their work, develop, and be proud of their uniqueness, it is obviously a huge bonus. And without it I would never have reached as far as we have now. It is hard work with the unthinkable, many detours to get a fair trade co-operation like this to succeed. I have to visit Ghana two to four times a year to teach them new designs and quality, etc. The close cooperation is a necessity. A fair trade project cannot be dealt with consultation from time to time. One is simply obliged to be part of the project itself.

We must also remember that collaboration is a win-win situation. The women earn more money, while I have been given access to some unique beads that are simply not made elsewhere.

April 2009

Georg Jensen Takes Danish Design to the Next Level

Scandinavian luxury lifestyle brand Georg Jensen has appointed designer Todd Bracher Creative Director of the brand and head of a new creative force consisting of the Georg Jensen internal design team, the Georg Jensen designer network and Copenhagen based design consultants OeO. 

April 30, 2009 – Today Georg Jensen announced that Todd Bracher will take the reins at Georg Jensen as Creative Director, responsible for the full range of Georg Jensen products from jewellery and watches to flatware and hollowware. Todd Bracher will take up his new position on May 1st.  Together with Georg Jensen’s in-house product development team and Georg Jensen’s unique designer network, Bracher and OeO will energize and align the future design and brand vision. 

As part of the new strategy Todd Bracher will be working together with his long-time partner Thomas Lykke and Anne-Marie Buemann from OeO, a Danish based, and strategy-driven design company with vast experience from the design industry. The new set-up allows Georg Jensen to unite the best of today’s Danish and international design competencies with a strong strategic and commercial approach to new product introductions.  

“I am thrilled and honoured to be joining Georg Jensen. To be part of this brand and to help sculpt its vision has been a long-term dream for me. Georg Jensen has a specific language and intelligence, it communicates on so many levels.  The possibilities are endless and we intend to explore them”, Todd Bracher says. 

The appointment of Todd Bracher is part of the strategy that CEO Ulrik Garde Due introduced when he joined the company from British top fashion label Burberry last year. A strategy, which is turning the traditional Danish Silversmith into a Scandinavian luxury lifestyle brand with an integrated product range. 

“Todd Bracher was an obvious choice for the position as Creative Director. He is perfectly aware of the brand’s many qualities and appreciates the craftsmanship and the unique sense of style. Yet, he has a young and fresh approach to continue the creative developments. I am convinced he will be able to take Georg Jensen to the next level”, Ulrik Garde Due says. 

Since 1904 Georg Jensen has succeeded in attracting and working with some of the most talented designers around the globe. One of these talented designers is Todd Bracher who has designed for Georg Jensen since 2004 and will now be in charge of identifying and supporting the next generation of design stars, joining such legendary artists as Georg Jensen, Arne Jacobsen and Henning Koppel. 

When, back in 1999, Todd moved to Denmark to study in Copenhagen at the Danish Design School he soon became fascinated by the Danish design tradition and shortly after launched his own beautiful sculptural furniture and home accessories for Danish and international companies such as Fritz Hansen and Zanotta. 

“The works of Georg Jensen himself, Henning Koppel and Arne Jacobsen have shaped who I am as a designer and are the very reason why I eventually moved to Denmark to look ‘behind the scenes’ at the source of these works. I discovered that the forms of the Georg Jensen collection capture the generosity and elegance that is built into the Danes and their way of life”, says Todd, who, at Georg Jensen, will be defining the brand’s future design philosophy.  

“Design is much more than creating forms and shapes. It is about the heart and mind that has produced it. For us to maintain brand coherence we must define what the heart must feel and the mind think and the rest will follow”, Todd Bracher says. 

Critics might argue that asking a foreigner to take the Georg Jensen design language into the future is not the obvious thing to do. That it would take a native Dane to understand the true essence of Georg Jensen – the tradition, the story and the role the Silversmithy has played in creating the term Danish Design. 

“The heritage is huge and the responsibility is vast. Part of Todd’s training was here in Copenhagen, which mixed with his international experience allows us to get an external point of view of Danish design with an internal understanding. For me it is bringing in the right person who in his soul understands where Georg Jensen is coming from and who has the skills, the courage and the ability to bring Georg Jensen and Danish design into the next century. To me Todd Bracher is that person,” Ulrik Garde Due states. 

Ulrik Garde Due, CEO  Todd Bracher, Creative Director

Everyone is becoming more environmentally conscious and we all know the problem of buying groceries and packing them into too many plastic bags each week. Not one, but two of course in order to secure they do not rupture and due to a lack of a working, innovative alternative.

One of Steltons most successful designers, Klaus Rath, has thought about this problem and came up with a solution that is fashionable, secure and functional at the same time, saving us all the use of and money needed for plastic bags along the way.

Shopnic – the new shopping / picnic basket

Klaus Rath has done it again. The young designer behind the bestselling Stelton bread bag has developed an all new shopping-/ picnic basket called ”Shopnic”. It carries a weight of 10 kg and takes about 15 l. Shopnic can, when not in use, be folded to a minimum of 7 cm in height, which is practical to fit below the child’s buggy or inside your car’s trunk, making space for larger items.

Compared to traditional solutions, Shopnic is supplied with a spring, making it possible to be unfolded like a magician’s hat – a practical idea, when you have already one hand holding e.g. your groceries or your child’s buggy. Shopnic has the perfect size both for shopping and the weekend’s picnic, why it is named Shopnic.

Shopnic comes in black/sand, sand/pistachio and red/pink colour schemes – fashionable colours which suit every style.

Both, the inside & outside covers may be washed in the washing machine by 30°C, making stains from spilled milk, juice and other liquids inside the basket a thing of the past.

The flexible bath tub, The Flexi Bath, is the result of a source of irritation in the bathroom. Friday, Stinne Fruelund, owner of Play for Life ApS, and Designer Niels Peter Estrup, A Real Cool World, won the Formland Design Award for the product.

– For me it was an issue that our baby bath tub took up too much space – in what was a small bathroom too. So I started thinking that perhaps it could be folded to make it easy to store. After three years we now have the end result – and even a design award in our hands, says Designer Niels Peter Estrup, A Real Cool World, who continues:

– It has been essential for us that the product is environmentally sound, sustainable and produced locally under the right conditions. The cost of producing the bath tub was the same regardless of whether production took place in Denmark or in China so the natural choice was a Danish factory.

Great interest in Asia

The factory in North Jutland that produces the Flexi Bath, can produce 700,000 bath tubs annually. The children’s bath tub is particularly suitable for everyone who lives in small apartments with even smaller bathrooms. Already now, the signs are that the product could be an international sales success.

– We are experiencing a large amount of interest from Asia; especially from Japan, where the children’s bath tub is very much in demand. The Asian product launch takes place in April. Then the markets in Norway and Finland will follow and then the rest of Europe, says Niels Peter Estrup, A Real Cool World.

Heat sensitive drain plug

Initially however, the Danes will be the first to benefit from the children’s bath tub. The Flexi Bath will be commercially available from the beginning of March and is sold by the Copenhagen-based company Play for Life ApS. Here, expectations are high after winning the Formland Design Award:

– The Formland Design Award provides us good support for the launch of The Flexi Bath in Denmark, where our target is to sell 10,000 examples during the first year, says Stinne Fruelund, owner of Play for Life ApS.

The Formland Design Award was presented at the opening of Formland Spring 2009. The award includes a marketing contribution of DKK 100,000. The Flexi Bath is introduced in seven different colours. Besides being foldable in the middle, the children’s bath tub comes with a heat sensitive drain plug that changes colour when the water temperature exceeds 36 degrees. The recommended retail price for the Flexi Bath is DKK 269.00.

Many renowned artists have collaborated with Royal Copenhagen over the years, building up a fascinating collection of unique art pieces along the way. Nine pieces are offered for sale, made by Carl-Henning Pedersen, Jens Birkemose and Ivan Weiss, at prices from DKK 1,000 to DKK 60,000 for a lovely slip-decorated vase by Carl Henning Pedersen. From Ivan Weiss’s hand there are two hand-thrown bowls with ox-blood glaze fired in a coal-fuelled kiln, and a barium-glazed bowl that highlights the fine blue colour. Jens Birkemose’s work is known for the characteristic “dripping” glaze and the colour transitions, which are clearly shown on the two bowls and the large vase. The colourful decorations on the pieces by the CoBrA painter, Carl-Henning Pedersen, reflect his imaginative approach to his art. Carl-Henning Pedersen’s pieces are all slip–decorated ceramics.

More works by exciting artists will be added regularly to the selection.