Week 5 - Samantha Soleta

Known to excel in design and furniture manufacturing, Denmark has made a name for itself in the creation of furniture design across the world. Designing a product that has the same function no matter the region, furniture design has become a dependable key product of the nation. Per H. Hansen's Networks, Narratives, and New Markets: The Rise and Decline of Danish Design notes the many reasons that Danish furniture has flourished into becoming the staple and frontrunner for furniture design. Confronting design by bringing their products to the bare minimum, Danish designers were able to have their modern furniture "sell itself" because "it possessed the essential characteristics of beauty, simplicity, and functionality." (450) Holding its position as the design leader of the world, Denmark was celebrated as the source of craftsmanship and sleek and classic design. With Danish Modern being a simplistic and minimalist style known across the world, Denmark's industry began to rise and thus set the standard for what modern design came to be. 

The shift into postmodern design, however, had created a shift away from Danish modern design and into new postwar aesthetics. The need for newer metal and synthetic materials was a rapid shift away from what Danish designers had typically used and thus left them to fall behind in furniture design. It's interesting to see how this lasting impact has translated into modern design today. While many of the styles and aesthetics of Danish design live on, the world no longer looks to them as a leader in furniture design. Remembering the designs of the Eames or Le Corbusier, Danish design can sometimes be lost in the shadows.

Hansen, Per H. Networks, Narratives, and New Markets: The Rise and Decline of Danish Modern

        Furniture Design, 1930-1970. The President and Fellows of Harvard College.

https://www.barcelona-designs.com/blogs/news/arne-jacobsen-a-man-with-no-philosophy

modern

furniture

was

able

to

"sell

itself,"

in

a

sense,

because

it

possessed

the essential

charac

teristics

of

beauty,

simplicity,

and

functionality.