Design from Finland mark

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Brand design agency Werklig,  based in Helsinki, have produced a new mark for Finnish design. It was commissioned by the Association for Finnish Work who grant permission to use the official mark to companies who “invest in design and understand the value of it as part of their business strategy.” 

The clean, strong blue of the background and the simple white graphics echo the Finnish flag and the containing circle, like that of the Iittala logo, works at various scales - either as part of a larger label or as a small, stand-alone stamp or tag on items like drinking glasses or tableware.

 

Looking at the Werklig site they have undertaken some interesting projects since they formed in 2008 including the design of a new font for Altai glassware; a travelling exhibition to showcase the work of Pekka and signs and information panels for the Design Museum in Helsinki.

When I saw that work in the museum I appreciated how the combination of strong plain colours and straightforward, stripped-down graphics works well with the architecture, including historic features such as architraves and cornices and so on, without competing or dominating. In fact the large information panels enhance the spaces and gives the architectural features a stronger rhythm. The architectural fittings of the interior merit retention because they are part of the original building but are actually rather plain: the building dates from 1895 and it was a school until taken over by the Association of Applied Arts so it is not surprising that the architecture is robust but not elaborate. The nearby building of the Museum of Finnish Architecture dated 1899 is much more sophisticated in terms of major fittings such as an elaborate staircase and in the treatment of the sequence of spaces.

The photographs of graphic work in the Museum of Design have been taken from the Werklig web site.

 

Carl Hansen

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An early photograph of the factory in Odense. Copyright Carl Hansen.

 

Carl Hansen & Son, the furniture manufacturer, was founded in Odense in 1908. They are probably best known for the CH24 chair, better known as the Wishbone Chair, designed for them by Hans Wegner in 1949, launched in 1950 and in continuous production ever since.

The company has a well-deserved reputation for traditional craftsmanship combined with an outstanding sense of design. Over the last few years they have not just consolidated their commercial position but have opened major flagship stores to raise their profile. 

In December 2011 they acquired Rud Rasmussen, the joinery company, founded in Copenhagen in 1869 and famous for making the modular shelving system that was designed by Mogens Koch in 1928.

In October 2011, Carl Hansen opened a new showroom in New York, on Hudson Street in Lower Manhattan; then exactly a year ago, on 16th March 2013, they opened a new flagship store in Copenhagen at Bredgade 21, and at the beginning of this month, in March 2014, they opened a new flagship store in Tokyo.

Bredgade in Copenhagen is the most important street in the city for art galleries and antique shops, starting at the west end with the furniture dealer Klassik and running on to the Danish Design Museum at the east end. The Carl Hansen store is set out over two floors with extensive displays of all their major pieces of furniture and of course shelving from the Rud Rasmussen collection.

In the 1980s a new logo was designed for Carl Hansen by Bernt Petersen with a blue square and a white letter C but recently, to mark the centenary of the birth of Hans Wegner, and to mark their collaboration with the designer from 1949, Carl Hansen have reverted to the logo designed for the company by Wegner in 1950 with a red circle and the letters CHS in white.

Carl Hansen has an extensive web site, including very useful information about how to care for and maintain their furniture and they have just published the first edition of an online design magazine.

Logo by Wegner

Logo by Bernt Petersen

The Bredgade store

a matter of definitions ….

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The Oxford Dictionary shows that the meaning of the words design, manufacture and trade were clearly established in England by the late 16th or the early 17th century and that their primary meanings have remained constant for more than four hundred years.

That the words design and manufacture are French in origin but trade is from Middle English is probably also significant .… but it would be wrong to suggest that in this country we knew how to buy and sell long before we made beautiful and well designed objects. It wasn’t the Huguenots who taught us to make things on a commercial scale but they did contribute significantly to a growing sense of style and quality in commercial production for everyday use ... rather than just for individual, expensive and very special pieces made by skilled craftsmen.

Is it significant that the word design is used by all the Nordic countries but each has a different word for manufacture? …. at fremstille, å produsere, alt tillverka and valmistaa working from south west to north east across the region. I don't know.

What I do know is if you raise the subject of design in conversation in England most people - men and women - would be able to name quite a few fashion designers. For contemporary English architects some might remember the names of Richard Rogers and Norman Foster or, since the Olympics and the building of the Olympic Pool, Zaha Hadid. Probably no others. If pushed to name a graphic designer or a furniture designer and certainly if asked to name a contemporary ceramic or glass designer most would be stumped unless they worked in the design world … generally people know about the work of Jonathan Ive but I would be surprised if many could name other industrial designers.

It is curious that in England clothing design or shoe design are regularly discussed. I don’t exaggerate. Even in the pub or at a football match you see ordinary people who clearly know their Paul Smith from their Miuccia Prada, and only a fool would confuse Nike and Adidas. Yes I know those are manufacturers and not designers but you can only distinguish one trainer from another from looking at and understanding the design. 

And those same people would almost-certainly tell you that they don’t have the interest or the knowledge or the technical vocabulary to discuss modern architecture or furniture design.

When push comes to shove, there is a general feeling in England that good design is slightly precious, slightly elitist and definitely expensive - for people with too much money and too much time on their hands.

Clearly I’m not suggesting that England does not produce great designers or great architects - the designs of Matthew Hilton and Jasper Morrison or John Pawson and David Chipperfield are a match for anything produced in Scandinavia - but their work is probably appreciated and recognised more abroad than here. We also have manufacturing companies like David Mellor based completely around products of the best possible design but not a household name, and not on the scale of a company like Iittala, and we have world-class design stores such as Conran that showcase the best design from around the world or stores with a well-established design pedigree such as Heals. 

So at the top level, English design is fantastic but why do I feel, when I travel around in Denmark or Norway or Sweden or Finland, that at a general level there is a wider appreciation of good design and its value and importance in day-to-day life?

Maybe, it’s about slightly different priorities in life .… investment in homes and possessions there rather than in fashion and cars here .… investment in owning expensive bricks and mortar here rather than worrying about what’s inside there. 

Maybe it’s to do with what is or is not taught in schools about design. Maybe it is that more broadly socialist countries actually demand higher levels of design in public spaces and public buildings and that fosters a demand for good design for personal possessions. 

Maybe it is due to agglomeration. I’ve just been watching two programmes on BBC2 here about why London has attracted investment to the detriment, some argue, of the rest of the country. The writer and presenter, the economist Evan Davis, explained this as the process of agglomeration. Success attracts money and skilled people and skilled people attract new companies that see those people as potential and easy recruits because they are already trained, and growing expertise and success attract more investment. And so it is escalates.

Does appreciation of good design in a country attract more designers and manufacturers who produce more things that are well designed because they see there is a market for good design? People who appreciate good design buy more good design. And so, on a roll, good design is more widely seen as essential and not something that might or might not be important? Scandinavia agglomerates good design? Ugly phrase - interesting idea!

keeping up with design online

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Most mornings start on the computer looking through some 20 or so web sites on architecture, design, fashion and graphics that are bookmarked in the browser. This is my way to keep up with news and developments and the way to find out about exhibitions, new design stores that have opened and new products. Inevitably, I also follow any interesting links and so, over the years, the list has changed with some new sites bookmarked and some sites dropped when they tail off or close down.

Of course the sites vary enormously in format and scope from those with a large team of writers and a clear editorial policy that makes them essentially professional digital magazines …. today archdaily had posted 15 new entries since I looked yesterday morning. Other sites post fewer but much longer articles so they are rather more like a design journal … last week the article by Chappell Ellinson on the Design Observer site under the title You’ll Never Guess the Amazing Ways Online Design Writing and Criticism Has Changed was particularly well written and thought provoking …. not least because it struck me as ironic that the title alone was longer than complete entries by many bloggers. Some sites like Remodelista tackle the buyers end and model themselves on magazines like House and Garden. Others like CreativeReview see product design and graphic design on a par with so-called fine art. Some sites tackle the practical application of good design and the consequent gains … they are, if you like, more political in their broader view of design: today CoDesign had a short article on infographics that show that the root of the conflict in Ukraine may be economic disparity rather than political differences. 

For obvious reasons Emma Fexeus is on my bookmark list: she posts some striking images; she has hands-on experience and the viewpoint of a professional insider but has a clear straightforward style of writing to engage a general reader. However, brevity and a light style of writing doesn’t mean light or superficial content because her observations can and do raise some crucial issues that really deserve to be more widely discussed. Last week was typical. 

In her first post, in the early part of last week, Emma wrote about The Asplund Stockholm Store. She was writing about a meeting of a group of design bloggers and their visit to the store where there was a discussion with three of the team of designers from Asplund. The post is short but crammed with interesting points and good links but above all I was drawn to the observation that “the entire Asplund Collection is produced in Sweden.” Significant and now sufficiently unusual to prompt the remark from Emma.

This set me thinking again about the whole sequence of design, manufacture and sales, and how it is organised and about how much this differs from company to company. Recently I wrote here about Artek and their parent company Vitra and the recent decision to acquire the manufacturer Korhonen Oy to keep production of furniture for Artek in Finland. Design House Stockholm, as a design agency, are at the opposite end of the spectrum, commissioning not just production from a wide number of companies but also designs from a number of independent designers …. and those designers can be anywhere in the world and either working free-lance or working within a design group or design studio. For Artek their design heritage and physical proximity create a coherent design policy: Design House Stockholm use selection and direction to create their clearly recognisable style but also to maintain their specific and Scandinavian aesthetic. Between Artek and Design House are companies like Marimekko who have their own design studio and with textile production in their own print works on the same site as the studio in Helsinki but fashion and ceramics and so on are outsourced for manufacture elsewhere. And of course there are proactive manufacturers like Carl Hansen who commission design.

Clearly there are no right or wrong ways … the location of production can be determined by the history of the company, the specific nature of the product or the reality of the economic situation.

But do customer understand the different approaches and the consequences? The difference between maintaining an in-house design studio or commissioning design and the differences between controlling manufacture in-house, or contracting out manufacture either locally or now more often to factories on the other side of the world? 

Even at the retail end there are huge differences. Carl Hansen, saw the merit of opening a prominent new flagship store on Bredgade in Copenhagen in March last year and, now on a roll, opened a major store, a second flagship, in Tokyo at the beginning of this month. Both Marimekko and Artek have their own brand stores as well as selling through independent retailers. In Sweden, in contrast, Norrgavel under Läs Nirvan Richter and G.A.D formed by Kristian Eriksson are both companies that are very much the products of men with a clear view of what their companies will make and will sell through their own shops or on line. Major department stores may have an arrangement with franchises where, within each subdivision of the retail floor, it is really left to the separate company to select what they sell. Last year Design House Stockholm moved out of their store in Stockholm to focus on their area within a nearby department store. Or there are stores like Nyt i bo in Copenhagen or even, on a larger scale, Illums Bolighus in Copenhagen and Stockholm that are ostensibly more like a traditional furniture store but are carefully curated. 

Do customers understand these different approaches to design, manufacture and retail and does it effect what they buy and why? 

A second article that Emma posted towards the end of last week was shorter but actually raised the same general questions. For me it was, in some ways, more controversial. It was a post about Basics from H&M Home. I hope Emma does not mind if I quote the post in full.

“I am very into basic, anonymous design in my own home. I like surrounding myself with timeless things that no one can point out and say where they are from or how much they cost. Flashy things that just shout "designer piece" or "super expensive" aren't my thing, even if I appreciate good design. But I believe that good design can be found anywhere and in any price range. To me, good design is sustainable, both in terms of materials and appearance. My eyes never grow tired of simple lines, and natural materials always age with grace. That is why I like these pictures from H&M Home, showing parts of their Basic range; products that are always in the collections. Timeless pieces in linen, metal, glass and cotton.”

This honest, open and straightforward paragraph actually raises a huge number of important questions. For a start I am fascinated that someone who works professionally within the design world declares a preference for “anonymous design” but I can guess some reasons why. For a start, is there here real satisfaction from tracking down something different or unusual?

Should all designers from the newest and youngest to the most established and most famous be better known and be identified and acknowledged on their work? A much wider appreciation of signature pieces … not just for craftsmen or chefs. For a start, I really like the way that Marimekko fabrics have the name of the designer and the year of the design printed on the selvedge. 

Conversely, there are some horrendous and badly designed products out there in so-called design stores where it really would be good to name and shame.

Do people only buy classic pieces by well-established designers to spotlight their own wealth? Well certainly for some that is true. Does the name of an established designer help someone decide to buy one thing rather than another because they are unsure of their own taste and want to have help in choosing the right thing? Possibly. 

Certainly mediocre design persists because many people feel that they don't have the time or the money to seek out something better.

Emma has both the broad professional knowledge of design and designers of an insider and confidence in her own taste. How wide spread, at a more general level in Sweden, is that interest in design?  Does even a little knowledge of design and the design process give the consumer more confidence in their choice? Definitely.

Does good design necessarily mean more Kroner on the price tag? In some cases yes but not always. Is good design something that gets added to a product as a second and optional stage of the process? Really it shouldn’t be like that for the simple reason that everything that is manufactured has to be designed … that’s implicit in the process .… and it can cost as much to design an object badly as it costs to design it well .… on the assumption that a design “name” does not command the wages of a footballer. 

Surely bad design can cost a company more in the short term if unattractive objects do not sell in sufficient numbers simply because they are unattractive? Bad design can certainly cost the customer more in the long term if the item does not work as well or doesn’t last as long as a well-designed and well-made alternative even if the initial outlay is more expensive. 

Sustainability is more and more important for obvious reasons but I would broaden this out from implying generally just materials - at the moment some manufacturers are concerned about using sustainable timber, not depleting natural resources, not wasting power in manufacturing or fuel for transport of materials or products - but there is also a real need to retain and support (sustain and not waste) local and regional manufacturing and craft skills. 

In terms of style and taste, I agree completely with Emma that simple lines and natural materials are incredibly important but of course those too are rarely just chance qualities but the consequence of the right design decisions being made by manufacturers and their designers. And that applies through the whole manufacturing and retail sequence. That business of making the right or the wrong design decisions. It’s not just buyers who make bad design decisions. How often have you found something that was beautifully designed but wondered what an earth possessed them to make it in that particular colour or rejected something that was beautifully designed but badly made or even initially dismissed a product only to realise that it was because the packaging was badly designed or because the adverts were awful?

design classic: Eva Trio saucepans by Ole Palsby

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I‘ve used Eva Trio pans for about 15 years, bought at different times from either Illums Bolighus in Copenhagen or from an amazing kitchenware shop in Long Melford in Suffolk that looked like an old Edwardian ironmongers and was piled high with everything any cook could possibly want - even if they didn’t actually know that they needed it until they walked in and saw it. They sold cookware sourced from all over Europe and beyond - a sort of small, more human and more densely packed English cousin of Williams Sonoma.

Anyway! I digress.

Recently I decided I needed another saucepan lid. Not because you can never have enough lids but because somehow I have never got around to buying the right lid for the steamer insert and I’ve got tired of using the frying pan balanced on the top because that was the only thing I have that is the right size. It means the steamer is really only used as a drainer.

Here it might help to explain that Eva Trio saucepans and lids are sold separately so that anyone sensible should be able to work out how many lids they really need - how often is every pan on the stove covered at the same time? - and you can chose either a plain flat stainless-steel lid or a glass lid for those jobs where you need to seal in the steam but also need to keep an eye on what is happening.

Anyway (I digress again) …. as there was no trip to Copenhagen planned and the Suffolk shop seems, unfortunately, to have stopped trading I traipsed around London in what turned out to be a fruitless search. 

At one of the largest cookware shops, getting more and more tired and frustrated, I actually asked someone why they did not stock Eva Trio pans. 

Apparently, I was told, “there is little demand”. 

I always think that this is an odd excuse and, of course, self fulfilling .… how can you sell many of anything if you don’t stock it?

English families, I was informed, fall into one of three types …. most buy sets of cheap pans from a department store; some go for expensive pans if they are endorsed by a TV chef or, for real food snobs, the very heaviest and most expensive French pans are the “must-haves.” This was not only a very large kitchenware shop but also a very expensive kitchenware shop so you can probably guess which sort of pan for which sort of customer they stocked.

Not stocking Eva Trio saucepans is a pity because they are practical, sensible, simple and easy to store and easy to maintain and, above all, again being practical, there are a number of options in terms of finish and material: the different sizes and shapes come in stainless steel or in copper, with an aluminium core, or as white ceramic-coated pans or there is the matt-black anodised Dura line. This is not something to do with customers not being able to make up their minds and buying one of each but so that they can chose pans that are the appropriate material for the way they cook - saucepans that are related in terms of design but different in terms of heating characteristics - with copper using a lower slower heat through the base and steel pans with an aluminium core distributing a quick even heat in a different way. 

Oh yes … and they look good. 

As far as I can see, the only place where they fall short is if you are one of those people who like to multitask because these pans are too light to build biceps as you toss crepes.

Eva Trio saucepans were designed by Ole Palsby and have been in production since 1977 but their simple minimalist design means that, unless you know the design history, it would be very difficult to date them. This really is timeless design. 

Palsby was self taught, starting his working life in business, of the accountant sort, before turning his skills to product design when he was in his early thirties. As well as other kitchenwares for Eva he designed glassware for Rosendahl; a famous spherical vacuum jug for the German company Alfi and a very simple and very beautiful glass carafe with a silver stopper for Georg Jensen. 

In his book on Dansk Design, Thomas Dickson wrote that work by Palsby is “clean, sensible and unsentimental.” 

I stumbled slightly over the choice of the word unsentimental as I read the comment but then realised that actually it is a very good use of the word. Many products for kitchens seem to take their starting point from kitchenwares of a hundred or even two hundred years ago. Nostalgia or a sense of design evolution is great but it is sentimental …. presumably a fancy wrought-iron trivet, for instance, is meant to make you feel not only comforted and reassured but that you are the new Auguste Escoffier or the new Mrs Beeton.

Palsby went back to basics when he designed the range of saucepans for Eva .… he took a step back and started again .… looking not only at specific functions and at aspects of production but he rethought practical things like the form of the thicker base and how it works visually and practically with the thinner metal of the vertical sides - he gave the base plate a neat bevel - and he thought carefully about how the lids would be used and how the pans and lids could be stored. 

The handles are metal rather than plastic so, if you really want, any combination of pan and lid can go into the oven. The handles of casserole and roasting trays are simple metal loops. The saucepan handles are long, made with steel rods bent to an elegant extended U shape with the two ends bent downwards and riveted firmly to the vertical sides of the pan. The handles are long enough to not only keep cool enough to hold but long enough to keep your fingers well away from the hot sides of the pan and away from the flames of a gas hob. Too many saucepans seem to have handles that are too short. 

The saucepans have vertical sides with a simple small flange at the top to take the lid and lids and pans seal well keeping in not only steam but flavour because you can use less water when boiling.

There are relatively standard-looking saucepans in the range but also much taller versions for pasta or for larger quantities and much shallower pans that are great for smaller quantities or to sauté. Many other saucepan sets do a three bears trick with the same design just scaled up or scaled down, except for lid knops which are kept the same size and usually look ridiculous on small pans: the Eva Trio pans come in a more limited range of diameters but a greater range of heights which seems much more sensible and elegant.

The lids themselves are flat and have the same long looped handle but in a thinner gauge of steel rod and they can be stacked in what looks like a toast rack or they can be hung neatly from a line of butcher’s hooks above the stove.

On the glass lids there are the same handles and a steel rim that has the same profile or lip as the solid lids but the oven-proof glass is held in by a circular loop of steel rod matching the handle. 

Because the steel lids are flat and don’t have a central knop, you can stack a pan on top of another pan that is cooking on the hob to keep the contents of the upper one warm but not cooking which is particularly useful if you get your timing wrong or even better as a way of freeing up a hot plate when you suddenly get to that point in the recipe where it says something like “then warm the sauce slowly” and you realise that every hot plate is already in use. If you are a sensible and experienced cook then you probably do a quick double-check of the ingredients list when you start, just as a matter of routine, but when did you ever see a recipe that had a symbol for how many hob plates you will have on the go and how many ladles and stirring spoons you are going to get through?

confession

…. just in case you have read an earlier post, I also have an Iittala roasting pan and a stainless-steel Iittala casserole which are much heavier .… not because I want to work on my biceps but because, when I bake or roast or casserole food, I tend to follow recipes where the pan starts on the hob, sealing meat or softening onions or whatever, but is then moved to the oven for a long slow cook at a lowish temperature. You can do that with the Eva Trio pans as well but the Iittala pan seems to me to be more like a ceramic casserole or rather, the best of both Worlds, like a ceramic casserole but one you can use on the hot plate. Maybe that says more about me than about the pans! 

update

Recently, on a trip to London, I found a selection of Eva Trio cookware at the David Mellor shop on Sloane Square.

Eva Trio

the Lunning Prize

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Frederick Lunning, born in Grenå in Denmark in 1881, was apprenticed to the book seller Andreas Dolleris in Vejle before establishing himself as an independent seller of books and art in Odense on the Island of Funen where he sold silver work from Georg Jensen in Copenhagen. 

In 1919 Lunning moved to Copenhagen to work directly for Georg Jensen and became the head of their Copenhagen shop at Bredgade 21. 

Bredgade in Copenhagen early in the 20th century

In the early 1920s, with the onset of the Great Depression and the financial uncertainty of that period, the sale of silver work in Copenhagen declined, leaving Georg Jensen with large stocks in the shop and Lunning was sent to the United States with the hope of establishing a new market there for Danish design.

Initially Lunning set up displays in the lobbies of the best hotels, including the Waldorf Astoria, and clearly this achieved some success for in 1923 he opened a shop on 53rd Street in New York to sell work from Georg Jensen in the United States. The store moved to Fifth Avenue in 1935 and expanded to sell work from Royal Copenhagen and other Danish designers including wooden pieces by Kaj Bojesen. 

It was hardly surprising that both trade with Denmark, shipping the silver ware and other pieces, and manufacturing itself in Copenhagen were disrupted by the War so Lunning, apparently without consulting the Danish company, started to market silverware in a Jensen “style” but designed and made in America under the label Georg Jensen Inc. USA. 

This caused some concern immediately after the War and actually led to a law suit that was settled in 1949. 

A new approach was brought to the New York store with the appointment of a new Danish manager, Kai Dessau, who turned the focus of the store back to selling just Scandinavian design and he toured Scandinavia to find new designers and new companies to promote although the store continued as the American agents for Georg Jensen. 

In part meeting with the young new generation of designers and seeing just what they were now producing was the inspiration for the Prize and it was initiated in December 1951 on the 70th birthday of Frederick Lunning. 

There were to be two recipients of the prize each year to be chosen by a committee of eight with two members each from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, one of whom was appointed by Lunning and the other selected by the national society of art and design in each of the countries.

The award was given to "support talented and original Nordic craftsmen and industrial designers - preferably young persons - for whom a carefully planned and lengthy period of study abroad stands to be of great or decisive importance for their artistic development and practical performance.” The prize was $400 but each winner was also given the opportunity to exhibit their work in the New York store where the prize was presented.

The first winners in 1951 were Hans Wegner, the Danish furniture designer, and Tapio Wirkkala, the sculptor and designer from Finland and from then until 1970 the list of designers who were awarded the Lunning Prize was to be a roll call of many of the very best designers from this the classic period of Scandinavian design.

Frederick Lunning died less than a year after the prize in his name was established but he was succeeded by his son. Just Lunning, born in 1910, had studied at Harvard where he read law but he continued both the Lunning Prize and, in increasingly important ways, gave his support for the promotion of Scandinavian design in the States …. for the New York World Fair of 1964-65 he was the director of the Danish pavilion and he co-founded the Danish-American Trade Council being its first president. 

The Danish pavilion at the World Fair in New York 1964-65

Following the death of Just Lunning in 1965 the store in New York and the prize continued until 1970 - shortly after Georg Jensen Inc USA was sold to the Rothschild group. Presumably the new owners were not prepared to finance the prize.

The story of the Lunning Prize illustrates the need for commercial insight for the successful marketing of good design to customers abroad; emphasises the relevance of good design for both manufacturing and for trade and shows a clear role for the state, through design councils or design institutions, to encourage and support young designers.

winners of the Lunning Prize

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1951    Hans J. Wegner (Denmark) and Tapio Wirkkala (Finland)

1952    Carl-Axel Acking (Sweden) and Grete Prytz Kittelsen (Norway)

1953    Tias Eckhoff (Norway) and Henning Koppel (Denmark)

1954    Ingeborg Lundin (Sweden) and Jens Harald Quistgaard (Denmark)

1955    Ingrid Dessau (Sweden) and Kaj Franck (Finland)

1956    Jørgen and Nanna Ditzel (Denmark) and Timo Sarpaneva (Finland)

1957    Hermann Bongard (Norway) and Erik Höglund (Sweden)

1958    Poul Kjærholm (Denmark) and Signe Persson-Melin (Sweden)

1959    Arne Jon Jutrem (Norway) and Antti Nurmesniemi (Finland)

1960    Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe (Sweden) and Vibeke Klint (Denmark)

1961    Bertel Gardberg (Finland) and Erik Pløen (Norway)

1962    Hertha Hillfon (Sweden) and Kristian Solmer Vedel (Denmark)

1963    Karin Björquist (Sweden) and Börje Rajalin (Finland)

1964    Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi (Finland) and Bent Gabrielsen (Denmark)

1965    Eli-Marie Johnsen (Norway) and Hans Krondahl (Sweden)

1966    Gunnar Cyrén (Sweden) and Yrjö Kukkapuro (Finland)

1967    Erik Magnussen (Denmark) and Kirsti Skintveit (Norway)

1968    Björn Weckström (Finland) and Ann and Göran Wärff (Sweden)

1969    Helga and Bent Exner (Denmark) and Bo Lindekrantz and Börge Lindau (Sweden)

1970    Kim Naver (Denmark) and Oiva Toikka (Finland)

 

reference:

The Lunning Prize, Catalogue, National Museum of Stockholm, 1986 edited by Helena Dahlbäck-Lutteman

Bookbinders Design of Stockholm

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This is good design tightly focused on the historic crafts of bookbinding and typography.

The company trace their history back to 1927 when Martin Åhnberg bought his first bookbinding machine. Åhnbergs Bokbinderei was founded in 1965 and the concept for Bookbinders Design in 2001. 

Their range includes cloth-bound diaries and note books as well as binders and folders and desk paraphernalia including letter trays, boxes, sometimes called spill holders, for pens and index card boxes.

What is striking of course is the amazing and huge range of colours chosen with real panache.

Bookbinders Design is based in Holländargatan in Stockholm. There are several stores in Stockholm - these photographs were taken at their relatively new store at 1 Sankt Paulsgatan in Södermalm - and there is a store in Göteborg as well as outlets in Paris, Berlin and Trondheim.