Collector 87 MASTERING MINIMALISMYou design lamps, furniture,
and jewellery. Objects are your
universe. How can objects change
our world?
I have an ambivalent relation-
ship with objects. On the one hand,
I gather too many of them. On the
other, I would like to get rid of stuff
and I’m really trying to minimalise.
So, it’s really a problematic issue for
me. But in the scenario that there
was a flood, or a crisis, I think about
what I’d need to survive, and a lot of
stuff is not important. In that scenar-
io, you’d probably need a spoon to
eat with, and a blanket to sleep with.
These things will always be essential.
Today we have invented a lot of ob-
jects we don’t need and are actually
a bit silly.
When I think about what I de-
sign, I take great care in choosing
what is relevant to me, what I can
relate to. Otherwise I feel I’m sup-
porting a ridiculous flood of stuff we
don’t actually need.Do you have an underlying phi-
losophy when designing objects?
I’m always working from the same
starting point, and this starting point
is more or less always functionality.
When I design something, I see it as
an improvement or a better solution
to a problem; my design should have
character and quality that will give it
a long life. I often say that it should
be something my kids would like to
inherit in the broad sense. It should
look as something they would like to
keep in 20, 30, or 50 years from now.
When thinking about the function-
ality of an object, the object should
do the work it is supposed to do, and
not just look nice or trendy right
now. I guess these parameters are my
basic principles.As a child, did you think you’d
become an industrial designer?Let’s say you design a chair. Yes,
over time it may turn into an icon,
like the Danish masterpieces we
have from the 1940s, 1950s, and
1960s. But when the chair was born,
it was a piece of design for ‘purpose’,
or you could call it functionality.
Occasionally, I might produce some-
thing that over time could be seen
as ‘classic’, but it’s not something I
conceived at the time. I conceived it
as a design object.You often call yourself an
old-fashioned designer. Why is that?
In the early days of my career,
I was probably the last generation
that didn’t learn to use a computer
to draw. I skipped these lessons be-
cause it didn’t make sense to look
at a blank computer screen and
press ten buttons in order to make a
straight line. So I just said, “OK, this
is for someone else.” I’d have designs
in production - having delivered a
nice drawing on paper - but then
suddenly something shifted, and ev-
erybody suddenly needed a digital
file. So, this is when I started hiring
assistants. I thought “OK, it’s not go-
ing to be me spending hours in front
of a computer.” Using my hands and
building a mockup was far more effi-
cient and a much greater pleasure. I
could reach the same point in a fast-
er and much nicer way.
When I get new assistants or in-
terns, I spend a lot of time explaining
to them how to make a cardboard
model rather than starting by draw-
ing on a computer. Many young de-
signers see my point and say, “This
is actually great. We can discuss the
model much easier this way”. We can
all stand around the model instead of
standing around a computer watch-
ing it fade out. You can see all the
details, you can turn it around, walk
around it, put it next to a table. It’s
very immediate.Both my parents are ceramicists.
In my childhood I was more inter-
ested in being an artist, but I’ve
always been curious about objects,
such as finding out how an object
is made and turning everything up-
side down.Do you regard industrial design
as art?
I’m not an artist, I’m a designer- and designers work with industry.
You cannot take industry or com-
merce out of the equation because
then it doesn’t make sense. It’s inter-
esting when designers treat design
like an art piece and, to some extent - if people are really talented and
have this artistic sensibility - they
may be able to pull it off, but in most
cases I would say that industrial de-
signers should stick to solving prob-
lems and do design. I guess I’m a bit
more traditional in that sense.
Collector 87 MASTERING MINIMALISMYou design lamps, furniture,
and jewellery. Objects are your
universe. How can objects change
our world?
I have an ambivalent relation-
ship with objects. On the one hand,
I gather too many of them. On the
other, I would like to get rid of stuff
and I’m really trying to minimalise.
So, it’s really a problematic issue for
me. But in the scenario that there
was a flood, or a crisis, I think about
what I’d need to survive, and a lot of
stuff is not important. In that scenar-
io, you’d probably need a spoon to
eat with, and a blanket to sleep with.
These things will always be essential.
Today we have invented a lot of ob-
jects we don’t need and are actually
a bit silly.
When I think about what I de-
sign, I take great care in choosing
what is relevant to me, what I can
relate to. Otherwise I feel I’m sup-
porting a ridiculous flood of stuff we
don’t actually need.
Do you have an underlying phi-
losophy when designing objects?
I’m always working from the same
starting point, and this starting point
is more or less always functionality.
When I design something, I see it as
an improvement or a better solution
to a problem; my design should have
character and quality that will give it
a long life. I often say that it should
be something my kids would like to
inherit in the broad sense. It should
look as something they would like to
keep in 20, 30, or 50 years from now.
When thinking about the function-
ality of an object, the object should
do the work it is supposed to do, and
not just look nice or trendy right
now. I guess these parameters are my
basic principles.
As a child, did you think you’d
become an industrial designer?
Let’s say you design a chair. Yes,
over time it may turn into an icon,
like the Danish masterpieces we
have from the 1940s, 1950s, and
1960s. But when the chair was born,
it was a piece of design for ‘purpose’,
or you could call it functionality.
Occasionally, I might produce some-
thing that over time could be seen
as ‘classic’, but it’s not something I
conceived at the time. I conceived it
as a design object.You often call yourself an
old-fashioned designer. Why is that?
In the early days of my career,
I was probably the last generation
that didn’t learn to use a computer
to draw. I skipped these lessons be-
cause it didn’t make sense to look
at a blank computer screen and
press ten buttons in order to make a
straight line. So I just said, “OK, this
is for someone else.” I’d have designs
in production - having delivered a
nice drawing on paper - but then
suddenly something shifted, and ev-
erybody suddenly needed a digital
file. So, this is when I started hiring
assistants. I thought “OK, it’s not go-
ing to be me spending hours in front
of a computer.” Using my hands and
building a mockup was far more effi-
cient and a much greater pleasure. I
could reach the same point in a fast-
er and much nicer way.
When I get new assistants or in-
terns, I spend a lot of time explaining
to them how to make a cardboard
model rather than starting by draw-
ing on a computer. Many young de-
signers see my point and say, “This
is actually great. We can discuss the
model much easier this way”. We can
all stand around the model instead of
standing around a computer watch-
ing it fade out. You can see all the
details, you can turn it around, walk
around it, put it next to a table. It’s
very immediate.Both my parents are ceramicists.
In my childhood I was more inter-
ested in being an artist, but I’ve
always been curious about objects,
such as finding out how an object
is made and turning everything up-
side down.Do you regard industrial design
as art?
I’m not an artist, I’m a designer- and designers work with industry.
You cannot take industry or com-
merce out of the equation because
then it doesn’t make sense. It’s inter-
esting when designers treat design
like an art piece and, to some extent - if people are really talented and
have this artistic sensibility - they
may be able to pull it off, but in most
cases I would say that industrial de-
signers should stick to solving prob-
lems and do design. I guess I’m a bit
more traditional in that sense.