In looking at the strong position of Danish design right now it is not just about the huge amount of talent coming out of the design schools here but it is about young designers, with drive and determination, setting up new companies to produce their works and it is about new designers and makers without formal design education but with self confidence and a real belief in what they can and will design.

But the foundation ... the base for all this great design ... is in the appreciation of high product quality and a surviving underpinning of craftsmanship.

Yesterday I met Søren Ulrich and his two apprentices from Plaincrafts here in Copenhagen.

Current furniture design and production is certainly not just about tradition, and certainly not about living off a past design history, but nor is it just about a blinkered view of what now and the future should be like. It is important to bring the skills and achievements of the last century through to make them not just a starting point but a relevant base for what is done next, learning from the achievements of previous generations but looking at their work critically. In that, the apprenticeship system has an important role.