Scandinavian Design

Often enough, when Danish design is being discussed, the so-called Golden Age of the 1950s and ’60s is used as a benchmark to criticise contemporary efforts to design new furniture and products – with the predictable conclusion that, despite their efforts, the younger generations will never reach the heights of the grand old masters. While that may well be an easy position to defend (after all, stubbornness will get you a long way), it is not necessarily a very fruitful position from which to discuss what is actually affecting contemporary developments in Danish design.

Focusing on other factors, however, may in fact help us to see both historical and contemporary events from a different perspective. Context matters, and instead of looking at the artistic articulations in themselves, discussing design developments in relation to the development of Scandinavia’s post-war welfare systems together with the rise of the modern consumer may perhaps shed new light on the past, and thus also offer new understandings of the present. Looking across Øresund from Copenhagen towards Stockholm and across the Alps to Milan helps to understand the influence of commercial aspects on design developments in a highly globalised and commoditised world.

Welfare and consumption

Viewed from the outside, Danish and Swedish design (and, to some extent, Norwegian, Icelandic and Finnish design – depending on the context) often falls under the common denominator ‘Scandinavian’. It’s a reference that carries with it connotations of democracy and social equality understood in terms of the welfare state. While these values are often and easily applied to furniture designs from the region (picture JFK in Wegner’s PP503 – dubbed ‘The Chair’), this understanding is somewhat misleading.

The welfare state never commissioned particular designs as such. Rather, Scandinavian design as we know it emerged out of a distinct understanding of the power of everyday culture to leverage the common man’s emancipation (which was in fact rather repressive), coupled with the Keynesian welfare state’s efforts to promote private consumption after the Second World War. A joint effort between manufacturers and architects took advantage of the new market conditions, and from a Danish perspective, understanding the role of cabinetmakers as commissioners and manufacturers is just as important as comprehending the artistic ambitions of architects, so as to get the full picture of the rise of modern Danish design.

Distribution

In both Denmark and Sweden, efforts were made to distribute the modern furniture ideal to the masses through cooperatives. While often celebrated as the birthplace of many of Børge Mogensen’s classics, FDB Furniture in Denmark was actually a rather short-lived success and never succeeded in making its sleek design common household items. The furniture struck a chord with the culturally aware middle class, though, and instead became somewhat of a class denominator.

Mass consumption challenged the understanding of furniture quality, and the cabinetmaker’s production became an expensive and exclusive affair to engage in as new modes of production gained a dominant position in the market. In Denmark, designers still pursued the artistic ideals of the era of craftsmanship, while manufacturers stuck to the classics and increasingly focused on the more lucrative contract market; the result being an inexpedient division between design and manufacturing.

In Sweden, IKEA offered a new understanding of what characterised good furniture design: simple, cheap and flat-packed, carefully aimed at different market segments. As Swedish furniture had never had a golden age like its Danish counterpart, no one could blame Swedish designers for not living up to the ideal, while in the 1980s and ’90s, each new generation of Danish designers had to endure the burden of not being able to live up to previous generations. The basic conditions for furniture production and consumption had changed, but the ideals to measure them against had not.

Copenhagen – Stockholm – Milan

From the very beginning, exhibitions played a large role in disseminating the ideal of Scandinavian design. A travelling exhibition to the US in the 1950s played a major role in the export that helped to grow the cabinetmaker’s business – partially building on the image of a certain modern and democratic Scandinavian touch.

Accordingly, the exhibitions organised in Copenhagen by the Danish Cabinetmakers’ Guild became the main forum for developments and discussions of new ideas and designs. Whereas these kinds of exhibitions were rather small in scale and had a focused purpose, during the 1980s and ’90s, the Copenhagen Furniture Fair grew into an annual, all-encompassing event covering everything from sturdy couch environments in upholstered imitation leather to ‘objects for the ideal home’ to avant-garde experiments in furniture and design, organised and backed by the vast majority of manufacturers within the field.

Many other fairs also prospered and became commercial events in themselves – with fierce competition to attract the best-paying exhibitors and audience. The Salone in Milan grew into what Hella Jongerius has described as ‘a monster’ leaving the rest of Europe’s fairs to compete within the region or specialise within certain areas of furniture and design. After all, companies like Vitra need only launch their new designs once.

While Stockholm succeeded in joining forces around the development of the Stockholm Furniture Fair, in Denmark, the professional environment around furniture and design manufacturing increasingly saw little value in the Copenhagen Furniture Fair and so retreated to their own showrooms and individual events at international fairs. Being a part of a particular Danish environment meant less than the competition between companies on both a national and international level. The best furniture and design was no longer defined by having been designed or manufactured in Denmark, but by being able to compete internationally, and the companies acted accordingly.

New alliances

While these developments as described are specific to the furniture and design environments, they can also be seen in the light of more general centre-periphery discussions as one of the consequences of globalisation. In the midst of all this, as Copenhagen lost its attraction as the Scandinavian design capital, at the dawn of the new century, an array of new developments marked a resurrection of Danish design.

While several attempts have been made to reinvigorate the Copenhagen Furniture Fair as a major event, it is in the smaller and singular events that innovation is happening, and each year brings new exhibitions, events and platforms to support and showcase contemporary design. Some are independent, some are one-offs, and some have substantial economic and organisational support and are in it for the long haul.

The governmental institution Danish Crafts worked successfully for a decade to create a new platform for Danish arts, crafts and design through its Crafts Collection and the recurrent Mindcraft exhibition in Milan. Curated by and exhibiting the most talented craftspeople and designers of a new generation, Mindcraft has shown the way forward for the fertile meeting between artistic expression and commercial opportunities.

This year’s curators, GamFratesi, are but one example of young designers who simultaneously represent a contemporary avant-garde, pay homage to the Scandinavian tradition and succeed in having their designs manufactured, marketed and distributed by professional actors in the business. Some of these – like Kvadrat – have been in the market for decades, while others – like Normann Copenhagen, HAY and Muuto – saw the light of day during the first decade of the new century. All based in Denmark, they have each found new ways of acting in the international design market through new alliances and understandings between the artistic and commercial aspects of the business, benefiting from, but not limited by, a long tradition of Scandinavian design.

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References:

Lucy Creagh, Helena Kåberg and Barbara Miller Lane (eds.) Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts

Thomas Dickson: Danish Design

Per H. Hansen: Da danske møbler blev moderne

Helena Mattsson and Sven-Olov Wallenstein (eds.) Swedish Modernism: Architecture, Consumption and the Welfare State