Top 10 Danish Furniture Designers You Need to Know

Top 10 Danish Furniture Designers You Need to Know

With the Bauhaus school in Germany a strong influence, Danish designers have been leaders in design, with emphasis in the fields of furniture and lighting.

Looking into and employing new industrial technologies, they combined this inspiration with minimalist design. This style became so influential that it is recognized as a design movement in itself, entitled Danish Design with a subgroup known as Danish Modern. Danish Modern focused more on the aesthetics of modern design while using expert technique and material familiarity of highly skilled craftsmen such as cabinet makers. Designers and producers, alike, became synonymous with ergonomics, innovation and very high quality designs that are as revered today as they were when first offered.

Here are our picks for the top 10 Danish Designers you need to know:

 

Finn Juhl

 

A Danish architect, interior, and industrial designer, one of the leading figures in the Danish Design movement was Finn Juhl. Debuting in 1937, Juhl collaborated with cabinetmaker Niels Vodder. Finn Juhl exhibited at the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibition, which emphasized artisanal work over new mass production methods and initially produced his furniture in small numbers. Although not initially well received, today Finn Juhl furniture is both desired and highly collectable. His famous Pelican Chair, first produced in 1940, was described as ‘aesthetics in the worst possible sense of the word.’ Today, Finn Juhl’s furniture are seen in private and public spaces, as well as museums throughout the world

 

 

Børge Mogensen

 

Functional is the word which best describes Børge Mogensen’s design. The majority of his furniture was designed with industrial production in mind. Initially training as a cabinetmaker in 1934, Børge Mogensen studied furniture design at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts from 1936-37. Mogensen next underwent training as an architect from 1938-42 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ School of Architecture, and is arguably an incredibly important figure in Danish Design. While studying architecture, he also worked at various Copenhagen-based design studios, most notably with Kaare Klint. Mogensen’s designs clearly showed his training as a craftsman, and sought to bridge the gap between traditional and modernist furniture. By using classic design in combination with good craftsmanship, his furniture was appealing to both parties.

 

 

Poul Kjærholm

 

Poul Kjærholm, like so many of his contemporaries, began his career in design as a cabinetmaker’s apprentice, working under Gronbech in 1948. He then went on to the Danish School of Arts and Crafts, Copenhagen in 1952. Throughout the mid-1950s, Kjærholm began to develop his distinctive style, which won him the prestigious ‘Lunning Award’ for his PK22 chair. Unusually opting for steel as his primary material (most of his contemporaries chose wood), Kjærholm would combine it with other materials such as leather, cane, marble, and wood. His 1965 PK24 Chaise Longue shows the culmination of his design style; also referred to as the Hammock Chair, it combined simple flowing lines with steel and woven cane.

 

Hans Wegner

 

A world-renowned furniture designer, as the son of a cobbler, Hans Wegner grew up surrounded by fine craftsmanship. Beginning his career early, he was a child apprentice to master cabinetmaker H. F. Stahlberg, where he discovered his affinity towards wood. After completing his education Wegner went on to work closely with cabinet makers from the city’s Carpenters’ Guild, using it as an opportunity to experiment. He later began to work with Erik Møller and Flemming Lassen on the Århus City Hall, and subsequently worked with Arne Jacobsen before eventually starting his own company. Wegner’s approach to design combined the old with the new; he would strip traditional chairs down to the barest of design elements in order to show them in the purest form of construction.

 

 

Arne Jacobsen

 

Perhaps one of the most well-known of the Danish Designers, Arne Jacobsen had a long and varied career and made important contributions to architectural Functionalism. Showing considerable talent from an early age, Jacobsen initially wished to be a painter; it was his father that steered him towards architecture as a career. This proved to be very promising, with Jacobsen winning an award, while still a student in 1925 at the Paris Exposition Internationale de Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes for a chair design. His career, however, was interrupted by the war; Jacobsen was Jewish and thus had to flee to Sweden until the end of the war. Upon his return, he slowly but surely managed to build up his design practice again, eventually going on to produce such design classics as the Egg and Swan chairs, as well as working on large architectural commissions around the world.

 

Poul Henningsen

 

Often referred to as PH in his native Denmark, Poul Hennignsen was a Danish author, architect, designer and critic, but is today most well remembered for his lighting design. One of the leading figures of Denmark’s cultural scene during the interwar period, Henningsen’s literary career was illustrious to say the least. He initially sought training as an architect, but never graduated from the course as he pursued his interests in inventing and painting. In particular, Henningsen is known for designing lights, referred to as PH-Lamps. These were redesigned into various incarnations, the most well-known of which is the PH Artichoke lamp. The lamps explored ways of breaking up light to create interesting luminary effects.

 

Verner Panton

 

Born in 1926, Verner Panton is one of the younger Danish Designers active during the mid-century period. Famous for his furniture and interior design, Panton created innovative and futuristic designs, often experimenting with new materials such as plastics. This allowed him to create fluid forms in bright colors that were hugely popular in the 1960s, and have remained to be so to this day. Working at the architectural practice of Arne Jacobsen for the first two years of his career, Panton very quickly set up his own design and architectural office, where he created innovative architectural proposals, such as a collapsible house in 1955. In 1960 Panton designed and manufactured the Stacking chair, or S chair, the first single form injection-moulded plastic chair. His most famous and mass-produced design, the S chair is still in production today, available from companies such as Vitra.

 

Kaare Klint

 

Arguably the father of modern Danish furniture design, Kaare Klint was a Danish architect and furniture designer whose style was epitomized by excellent craftsmanship, careful selection of materials, and a clean-lined approach to design. Completing his first piece of furniture in 1914 for the Faaborg Museum, he later went on to create furniture and fittings for a number of other museums, and from 1921 to 1926, he was responsible for converting the Frederiks Hospital into the Danish Museum of Art & Design. In 1924 he founded the Furniture School at the Royal Academy, which strongly influenced subsequent Danish designers such as Børge Mogensen and Poul Kjærholm. Always carefully considering every aspect of his designs, he researched everything from materials to the human body so as to ensure that his objects were functional and comfortable.

 

Grete Jalk

 

Recognized as an important Danish modernist designer—working at a time when women were a rarity in the design world—Grete Juel Jalk was born in Copenhagen in 1920. She trained in cabinetmaking at Copenhagen's Design School for Women between 1940 and 1942; she went on to complete her education at the Danish Royal Academy under highly influential designer Kaare Klint. In 1946, she won first prize at the annual Cabinetmaker's Guild Competition; five years later, she received wide acclaim for her designs exhibited at the 1951 Milan Triennale.

Beyond her design work, Jalk edited the design magazine Mobilia (1956-62 and 1968-74), as well as the encyclopaedic, four-volume book, Forty Years of Danish Furniture Design (1987). In 1974, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned Grete Jalk to curate a traveling exhibition on Danish design. Her foldable exhibition space was a huge success in 25 regions. She contributed immeasurably to the international reputation of Danish design, and her work can be found in private and public collections around the world.

 

Nanna Ditzel

  

Nanna Ditzel was one of the most versatile and creative designers that Denmark produced in the 20th century.

Born in Copenhagen, she trained as a cabinetmaker at the Royal Academy's furniture school — overseen by the great craftsman of the day, Kaare Klint — and graduated in 1943. Ditzel’s early work adhered to the classic Danish modernist tenets of simplicity, comfort and quality, and her armchairs, with their softly curved backrests are much in the spirit of Hans Wegner

She studied at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen with painter Victor IsbrandOrla Mølgaard-NielsenPeter Hvidt. Her works include cabinet-making, jewellerytablewareand textiles. She also created jewellery designs for Georg Jensen and furniture for Frederica
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