Contents

03 The Tube – engineering poetryKaren Kjaergaard, curator

04—05Literally SpeakingCollaboration between Birk Marcus Hansen and The LEGO Group

06—07Facial TreatmentCollaboration between Brian Frandsen and ege

08—09A Kind of BlueCollaboration between Siff Pristed Nielsen and Kvadrat

10—11Step by StepCollaboration between Pauline Joy Richard and ECCO

12—13 Cutting EdgesCollaboration between Katja Brüchle Knudsen and LE KLINT

14—15Vernacular VeneerCollaboration between Joan Pedersen and Republic of Fritz Hansen

16—17Design with Roots and WingsElsebeth Gerner Nielsen, Rector Kolding School of Design

18—19School BusinessThe way we work

Credits

Published by: Kolding School of Design

Editing: Charlotte Melin, Karen Kjaergaard

Translation: Marianne Baggesen Hilger

Curator: karenkjaergaard.com

Photo: Gert Skaerlund

Printing company: Vestjysk Rotation A/S

Paper: Arctic Paper Denmark, Munken Polar 90 g./m2

Printing: 11,000

Thank you:

AUGUSTINUS FOUNDATION

Kolding Municipality has the objective to integrate design on all levels;

currently, design is an integral part of the teaching at all the municipal schools.

Innonet Lifestyle is a network and cluster under the Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and

Higher Education that promotes growth and innovation in the furniture and

clothing sectors and the creative industries.

Innonet Lifestyle - Interior & ClothingInnovationsnetværket Livsstil - Bolig & Beklædning


A face of carpets, a wall of pleats, a climbing shoe, a kind of blue, a word of bricks and a wave of veneer are the results of collaborations between six designers and six companies, arranged by Kolding School of Design.

Together with six leading Danish companies, Kolding School of Design presents the exhibition project The Tube at I Saloni, Milan. The Tube is an exhibition where knowledge is shared beyond the tight parameters that form common perceptions of design, demonstrating the importance of collaborations between designers and industry. The six designers, all in their final year or just graduated, have been matched with six companies who support the project with their resources, skills and know-how. Participation in The Tube represents a unique possibility for the designers to explore their qualifications and competencies in a professional relationship and is at the same time an appeal to companies to enter small-scale collaborations with young designers.With the exhibition we hope to stimulate and attract the most talented students for future collaborations and to give companies a gaze into the crystal ball of future design inspiring them to consider innovative and exciting ways of using designers. The Tube is a cultural incubator providing discussions about values, a cultural platform generating cooperative initiatives and processes, and hopefully a cultural statement branding Danish design internationally. Juxtaposing the environmental, cultural and historic contexts in which design exists, The Tube addresses the urge of engineering poetry in current design. Welcome to a tube of collaborations presenting new products and installations that, besides being experimental, possess an artistic element and a commercial potential. KOLDING SCHOOL OF DESIGNKaren Kjaergaard, curator, The Tube

The Tube

03Photo: Gert Skaerlund

Literally Speaking

Designer: Birk Marcus HansenCompany: The LEGO GroupTitle: Betabet

LEGO is a world-famous Danish brand, perhaps Denmark’s strongest. Everybody is familiar with the toy brick producer. Recent years’ focus on The LEGO Group’s turnaround and successful growth strategy have shown the need for alternative ”mindsets” and agility – prerequisites for continued growth in a changeable world and increasingly tougher market place. Birk Marcus Hansen is a graphic designer with a flair for aesthetics and new media. For his bachelor project, Birk Marcus Hansen created the building bricks for a new alphabet. which is now translated for a LEGO and exhibition context.

36,000 white lego bricks, 4 new signs, play and new learning. Birk Marcus Hansen has developed 4 examples of characters for his Betabet; a visual and phonetic compound of the letters of the Latin alphabet. Thus, Betabet is not merely a new font; it is the creation of new letters which continuously add new elements. Betabet questions the way we perceive our written surroundings. How do we read? What is it we see when we read? Why are the words not always written the way they sound? Many people with reading difficulties struggle to understand the logic of the alphabet. When the eye encounters a piece of text, the brain initially deduces a word based on word images. On basis of research and by investigating how the structure of the alphabet can either support or interfere with readability, Birk Marcus Hansen plays with the visual as well as audio expressions - and with LEGO bricks. How can we use the brilliant toy bricks for something as fundamental as learning how to read? “Like the letter, the LEGO brick is not much by itself but entails the potential for unique and yet undiscovered shapes and combinations. Letters are like LEGO bricks; they can be put together over and over in new ways,” says Birk Marcus Hansen, graphic design student at Kolding School of Design. The collaboration with The LEGO Group represents an example of how using an artistic, exploratory approach can contribute to the development of children’s creative and imaginative abilities; and possibly add another layer to LEGO’s multi-faceted product development by focusing on early learning. Betabet is part of Kolding School of Design’s exhibition The Tube, Milan 2012. Betabet constitutes the foundation for a new set of letters based on phonetic and visual compounds, and after the exhibition the development will continue on www.betabet.me and pave the way for new communication. “The 4C LEGO Learning Frame Work is based on Connect, Construct, Contemplate and Continue. Part of our mindset is to facilitate processes and experiments; so of course participating in The Tube makes sense for us. The ideas behind interpreting and expanding the alphabet involve our 4 Cs – and on top of that, Birk Marcus Hansen’s Betabet offers an aesthetic dimen-sion,” says Nanna Ulrich Gudum, creative senior director, The LEGO Group.

“The Betabet questions the very essence of how we perceive our written surroundings. How do we read? What do we look for when we read?The Betabet is made up from pieces of letters which joinedtogether make new letters which combined can form words, sentences, and in the end, hopefully meaning.”

Birk Marcus Hansen, graphic designer

“The LEGO Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of play materials for children, employing approximately 10,000 people globally. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children’s creative and imaginative abilities. LEGO works with artists and designers world-wide to continuously rethink the com-pany basis of ¡’playing well’.”

Nanna Ulrich Gudum, creative senior director, The LEGO Group

”As we all know, a beta version is a work in progress. This is also true of Betabet which is continuously completed as more compounds are added, supporting the concept of The Tube that product development must be defined as a collaboration which builds with time. Adding more and more compounds Betabet playfully uses the brick as a graphic and sculptural element, exploring non-standardised practise.”

Karen Kjaergaard, curator, The Tube

Exhibition: The Tube, Milan 2012Design: birkmarcus.dk Company: lego.comMaterials: LEGO bricks and print

KOLDING SCHOOL OF DESIGN

04—05Photo: Gert Skaerlund

Collaboration with designers and artists constitutes a fundamental and essential part of ege’s product development. Like all industries, ege must innovate and consider new and unconventional contexts for its product, and platforms for using carpets. Brian is a designer working in the cross-field between fashion and product design. His approach is conceptual, and he uses art to explore new territories. Taking a three-dimensional approach, Brian Frandsen has attached new qualities to the carpet by adding a sculptural experience and a user-interaction out of the ordinary. 920 m2 of carpet, printet, cut up in 250 layers and composed into a three-dimensional portrait. In a soft projection of tufted carpets we are confronted with a three-dimensional portrait of Brian Frandsen, Face to Face. The meeting between industrial design student Brian Frandsen and established carpet manufacturer ege represents an encounter between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional. The company has a long-standing tradition of applying the latest and most advanced technology available within carpet production. Combined with innovative design possibilities, environmental considerations and uncompromising quality, ege creates individual and unique carpet solutions which combine individuality with high comfort. ”Brian thinks outside the box in terms of how carpets can be used. Collaborating with artists and designers challenges and provokes us to come up with new solutions. Face to Face is exciting and, I think, will appeal to a wide audience. The un-conventional use of the carpet and the intense visual expression of the face, we expect, will create attention. The project uses colours in a way which enhances the details and the depth of the motif giving a new perspective on carpets. Using known tech-niques Brian’s project has added a three-dimensional dimension to the use of carpets that we find interesting and look forward to presenting in Milan,” says CEO of ege Svend Aage Faerch. Face to Face is brash and personal: Brian Frandsen’s own face has been scanned and used as a pattern for the many carpets that have been cut out and placed vertically and in layers. “Using your own face is quite transgressive. However, it was important not to use a computer-manipulated image. The scale adds a further dimension to the piece when the spectator is confronted with the face and reflects on how close we are able to go to another human being,” says Brian Frandsen. Face to Face is presented at Kolding School of Design’s exhibition, The Tube, Milan 2012.Further, ege displays the positive feature of the face that functions as a sculptural landscape in ecocontract’s showroom in Via Turati 14 / Via Manin 13.

”Designing is a way to experience and examine the world around me. My design pieces always depict my interpretation of life and my relations to other people, other objects and other beliefs. I make sure to leave a little piece of myself in every object or solution that I create hence I believe this is the only way to create things that people will find special and meaningful.”

Brian Frandsen, graphic designer

”Design, quality and respect have always been important elements of the corporate philosophy of the Danish carpet manufacturer ege. Combined with a mantra to think along new lines to reach its goal, the company has succeeded in creating a business which is currently among the leading carpet manufac-turers in Europe.”

Svend Aage Faerch, CEO, ege

“Brian Frandsen’s conceptual, artistic and uncompromising approach to design combined with his humble attitude to the art of the possible makes him successful in getting his message across. In his process of narration and transforming the familiar, he is able to create a new space for design.”


Exhibition: The Tube, Milan 2012Design: urbanfrank.dkMaterials: ege highline 1100, 100% polyamide Company: ege.dk


Facial Treatment

Designer: Brian Frandsen Company: egeTitle: Face to Face

06—07

Facial Treatment

Designer: Brian Frandsen Company: egeTitle: Face to Face


For the past 10 years Kvadrat has set the bar high for the development and use of textiles in collaboration with international museums, companies and artists. Taking an experimental approach Kvadrat has managed to create growth and turn the company into a global player. Siff Pristed Nielsen, newly qualified textile designer, fabulates, folds, samples, prints, knits, and creates her very own unique textile universe. Siff has processed a well-known Kvadrat fabric and created a spatial element and a mood displaying the fabric from a new angle.

2000 ornamented, appliquéd, and hand-printed patches in shades of blue and purple. Wall-hanging, blanket, or ham-mock according to one’s need. Taking as her starting point the Kvadrat classic Divina, textile designer Siff Pristed Nielsen has grafted upon the inherent qualities of the fabric and created a sculptural, floating body holder. In a kaleidoscopic universe of flat, folded and colourful units, the classic fabric becomes refined. In a range of colours moving from shades of strong, ultra- navy blue to nuances of deep purple, Siff applies the colour blue to create a mental space. The objective has not been to design a new fabric but to use the process and the immersion in the material to discover new ways of seeing and utilising the fabric. ”Being a textile designer you must work within a context; you must experiment with the fabric in relation to the room or use the body as a point of reference. The experiments will show you what works and what doesn’t. It’s a hands-on process for me to discover the possibilities of a material,” Siff Pristed Nielsen says when she explains her design piece Ultramarin, which Kolding School of Design presents in The Tube in Milan. Ultramarin is created in dialogue with Kvadrat, which holds a leading position in the European market of design textiles. The company continuously seeks to push the aesthetic, technological and artistic boundaries of textiles, working with the world’s top designers. “However, young designers are very motivated to explore boundaries as they have no financial commitments. Through their education they are experimenting with new techniques and materials which can bring interesting solutions. Furthermore, it’s important for us to support young talents to get to the next stage in their career,” says marketing director, Kvadrat, Njusja de Gier. “Due to her background as a textile designer, Siff gives an interesting view on the use of textiles in interiors. By using techniques from the fashion industry she has made an interesting installation that will give the public a very tactile experience that may inspire other designers and interior architects to start integrating textiles in new ways in their projects,” de Gier ends.

“I wanted to experiment with the possibilities of using a classic Kvadrat fab-ric in a three-dimensional and expressive way. I have created elements which can be used in a space in different ways and which create an abstract experience of depth and endlessness using the different shades of blue.”

Siff Pristed Nielsen, textile designer

”Kvadrat continuously works to expand the aesthetic, technological and ar-tistic limits of the use of textiles through a long series of collaborations with some of the world’s most renowned designers, architects and artists, among others Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Akira Minagawa, Tord Boontje, Alfredo Häberli, Peter Saville, David Adjaye, Thomas Demand and Olafur Eliasson.”

Njusja de Gier, marketing director, Kvadrat

”Working in the tension field between intuition and skill, Sitt Pristed Nielsen allows herself the time to complete her textile research. At the end of the day, this enriches the outcome which reflects a natural curiosity and urge for further development.”


Exhibition: The Tube, Milan 2012Design: siffpristed.dkCompany: kvadrat.dkMaterials: Kvadrat Divina,100% woolTechniques: Application, foil print, discharge print, embroidery, quilting


A Kind of Blue

Designer: Siff Pristed Nielsen Company: KvadratTitle: Ultramarin

08—09

A Kind of Blue

Designer: Siff Pristed Nielsen Company: KvadratTitle: Ultramarin


Step by Step

Designer: Pauline Joy Richard Company: ECCOTitle: The Ladder

ECCO is the third largest shoe manufacturer in the world and known for offering unique fit and comfort. Since the 70’s, ECCO’s identifiable logo on the soles of the shoes has made significant imprints around the world. Besides The Tube, there are close ties between ECCO and Kolding School of Design where ECCO is regularly involved in development projects with the school and its students. Pauline Joy Richard is originally from France but received her Bachelor’s degree in product design from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. In 2011, she was accepted to the Industrial Design Master’s Programme at Kolding School of Design. She chose Kolding because of the strong Danish design culture, the school’s educational methods and close collaboration with industry in the form of internships. The Ladder is an installation combining a raw container and a ladder without steps with a customised pair of shoes for climbing an unclimbable ladder. Where do these shoes and this infinite structure take you? The collaboration between ECCO and Pauline Joy Richard aims to challenge the concept of walking and sensoring and is not about designing another pair of shoes. Pauline’s assignment was to reflect on the basic and, for most people, elementary motor activity of walking and relate it to the values that ECCO represents. Applying her design skills conceptually and specifically she has managed to construct an infinite ladder that defies gravity and requires specially designed shoes to climb. Why? “You wake up. You get dressed. You eat breakfast. You might read the news. You brush your teeth. And finally you put on your shoes. What shoes do you choose and where do they take you?” Pauline Joy Richard asks and presents us with the unexpected answer: A pair of unpredictable shoes that only goes with a ladder, and a ladder that can only be climbed with a special pair of ECCO shoes. The Ladder is part of The Tube exhibition which Kolding School of Design presents in Milan during I Saloni. The exhibition demonstrates the diversity of design disciplines and the debates that form the school. From conceptual ideas and handmade couture to graphic statements and material experiments. “ECCO collaborates with Kolding School of Design on various projects, seminars and internships in order to support the new generation of designers. A major project is a joint six-week design project that we have successfully run for three years involving students, international collaborators and designers. We are happy to take part in Kolding School of Design’s first venture in Milan and to display The Ladder on the World stage,” says Ejnar Truelsen, head of design, ECCO.

“You find beauty, delicacy and humour in the unexpected, the sur-prising. Design should challenge the conventions, whilst combining fine detailing and honest materials, reinforcing the elegance and the simplicity of an object.”

Pauline Joy Richard, industrial designer

“ECCO is a Danish shoe manufacturer and retailer founded in 1963. ECCO claims to be the only major shoe company in the world to own and manage every step of the production process – from tannery to consumer. ECCO opened its first retail store in Denmark in 1982 and has since expanded to have more than 4,000 branded sales locations throughout the world.”

Ejnar Truelsen, head of design, ECCO

”Design is no longer just about designing a cup or a car; it includes all aspects of human life from vernacular, systematic methods for crea-tion that can guide us towards more sustainable practices to aesthet-ic and ethical reflections on and solutions to current design matters.”


Exhibition: The Tube, Milan 2012Design: paulinejoyrichard.com Company: ecco.comMaterials: Solid beech, ECCO shoes



Ever since the architect P.V. Jensen-Klint designed his first pleated lamp a hundred years ago, the family-owned company LE KLINT has collaborated with architects and designers combining sublime craftsmanship with a contemporary mix of new technology and edging design. Fashion designer Katja Brüchle Knudsen became nationally known in Denmark when she was asked to design the gift from the outgoing Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen to his successor Helle Thorning-Schmidt after the Danish election in 2011. Katja Brüchle Knudsen came up with a bag produced by folded and merged papers from the Finance Bill Proposal 2012, which was subsequently known as the Money Bag; so matching her with LE KLINT, the pleater par excellence, seemed obvious. A single cut in the rhombuses of the white PVC material creates a three-dimensional effect which is emphasised by the underlying light. Merging art, design and fashion might serve as the subtitle of the constellation between Katja Brüchle Knudsen and LE KLINT. Both work with craft, materiality and scale in relation to the body. By making an installation that pushes the boundaries for the white PVC material, Katja has created a tactile environment based on the geometrical principles of an archetypical LE KLINT lamp. By cutting up the rhombus the edges pop up and interact with light and shadow creating the visual impression that the material in itself implodes and expands. “Right from my very first visit to LE KLINT I have been captivated by the surface and pleating of their famous hand-folded lampshades, and I noted that one of the geometrical figures reappering in many of their designs is the rhombus. I chose the form of that particular figure to create a common universe between LE KLINT and myself,” Katja Brüchle Knudsen explains. Inside-Out is the result of a collaboration between Katja Brüchle Knudsen and LE KLINT, and is presented in Milan in 2012 as part of Kolding School of Design’s exhibition, The Tube. Katja Brüchle Knudsen is currently completing her Master’s degree in fashion design at Kolding School of Design. “Being a fashion designer, Katja Brüchle Knudsen’s approach to light design differs from that of the product designer. However, with a fine sense of detail and materiality, light and pleating are transformed to a new scale in interaction with LE KLINT,” says Kim Weckstroem Jensen, CEO, LE KLINT. Katja Brüchle Knudsen is offered an opportunity to work with a company with historic craftsman traditions. LE KLINT pleating girls, as they are called, are a very special asset. The craft of folding lampshades is preserved in Odense, Denmark – and nowhere else in the world. And the LE KLINT factory is the only place in the world to produce cross-pleated lampshades. Countless engineers have attempted to produce a machine that can fold cross pleats. To date however, the task has proven to be particularly difficult and no machine has yet improved on this craftsmanship. “By means of the rhombus a unique universe is being created and comes alive in different lights and shapes. It is fascinating to watch the changes in the form by just a few cuts with the knife,” Katja Brüchle Knudsen ends.

“It is important for me to catch the interest of the spectators and evoke a craving for them to explore my work on a closer level. Contrasts, functionality, material tactility and quality are the values forming the base of my work.”

Katja Brücle Knudsen, fashion designer

“The story of LE KLINT is not merely the story of a company, but also reflects the history of design and technology for more than one hundred years – a century during which LE KLINT has evolved into the modern manufacturing company that it is today with a strong grip on traditional craftsmanship.”

Kim Weckstroem Jensen, CEO, LE KLINT

“In a highly competitive and standardised world the identity and value of a product from LE KLINT is without a doubt the fact that it is 100% handmade. The whole idea of the handmade process gives the product a pureness and a human imprint that exceeds industrial imitations. The installation raises the question whether a product loses value in the industrial process or not.”


Exhibition: The Tube, Milan 2012Design: Katja Brüchle Knudsen Company: leklint.dkMaterials: White, lasercut PVC


Cutting Edges

Designer: Katja Brüchle Knudsen Company: LE KLINTTitle: Inside-Out

12—13

Cutting Edges

Designer: Katja Brüchle Knudsen Company: LE KLINTTitle: Inside-Out


Vernacular Veneer

Designer: Joan Pedersen Company: Republic of Fritz HansenTitle: Fly

Republic of Fritz Hansen produces what is probably Denmark’s most famous chair, the Series 7 Chair, and is an international company working with some of the world’s top designers and architects. Republic of Fritz Hansen represents timeless Scandinavian design and manufactures first quality sculptural design furniture. Joan Pedersen is a newly qualified product designer and is, among other, currently working on a new collection for Georg Jensen Damask. She has an experimental and unrestricted approach to design, and due to her excellent sense of the strengths and weaknesses of materials, she was given the task of exploring new shapes and standards for the furniture of to-morrow. Five sheets of birch veneer, one pole and a handful of dowels. Designer Joan Pedersen’s organic shelving unit is simple and beautiful. Fly, which is the title of the shelving, is an abstract representation of the fine wings of the dragonfly folded onto an axis with mathematical precision. Stored in a shallow transport case it takes up minimum space and is kind to the environment. Fly is part of Kolding School of Design’s exhibition The Tube, Milan 2012, and is a fine example of how young talent can challenge a well-established company such as Fritz Hansen on product development. Introducing a simple concept, Joan Pedersen has found a new sense of spatiality within the veneer which requires minimal processing, is user-friendly, and possesses sculptural qualities that move the spectator. Not only is Fly easy to assemble, take apart and transport; it can also be organised and decorated according to one’s particular mood. The soft arches can be twisted around the pole and, depending on how they are placed, can either express order or chaos. The veneer comes into play around the axis and creates a unique and personal shelving unit. “Fly is an interesting way to apply veneer. It’s evident to us to continue to use veneer because it’s a natural, ductile, and beautiful material for developing furniture. Moreover, it’s the main constituent of one of our primary products, the Arne Jacobsen Series 7 stacking chair,” says Christian Grosen Rasmussen, head of design, Republic of Fritz Hansen. Throughout her studies at Kolding School of Design, parameters such as sustainability and social responsibility have influenced Joan Pedersen’s attitude towards creating lasting design. ”Fly is simple; both in terms of expression and material. It’s created with consideration for the environment; and it’s sculptural. Those are the values I want to represent as a designer,” Joan Pedersen explains. Republic of Fritz Hansen is one of the great Danish design successes of the 20th century. The company’s work is based on a design philosophy articulated on three levels: a visual, an emotional and a rational level. ”The visual value is founded on the concept of the original, pure and long-lasting. Just as our existing design contains originals, the design of the future must be original as well,” Christian Grosen Rasmussen says. ”The emotional level requires that the design is genuine, serene and Danish. In other words, quality as well as design must be “the real thing”; the products must be significant, subdued and sculptural and most importantly, they must build on a Danish design tradition. Finally, the product must be rational in terms of production.” Indeed, the ability for constant innovation has been Republic of Fritz Hansen’s magnet for always attracting the most talented designers; from design icons such as Arne Jacobsen and Poul Kjaerholm to contemporary talents like Kaspar Salto and Jaime Hayon.

”Design to me is to depart, to challenge, to investigate and to dare. I have a sculptural approach to my work and I believe that the object must be able to speak for itself. At the same time, being a designer, I must customise the object to the user. I’m fascinated by the organic universe where structure reigns in order and chaos alike and forms its own patterns.”

Joan Pedersen, industrial designer

“Fritz Hansen’s product assortment is famous for its contemporary modern classics and collaborations with leading international designers. Crafting timeless design is our mission, and our ambition is to be the leading interior brand by supporting our partners in using timeless design. And, we will show the world how sustainability, quality and premium design are all part of the same solution.”

Christian Grosen Rasmussen, head of design, Republic of Fritz Hansen

”Arne Jacobsen’s familiar super curves against Joan Pedersen’s almost reckless, casual veneer sheets are liberating and pleasant at the same time. New shapes and standards for the design of the future are explored with a vernacular attitude reminding us that that the elegant design com-pany was once a child itself.”


Exhibition: The Tube, Milan 2012Design: joanp.comCompany: fritzhansen.comMaterials: Aeroplan birch veneer and oak wood pole



EGN: A design education must never become self-contained. The students and the school must continuously allow themselves to be challenged by the business community. Equally, the business community needs a good push once in a while. In the encounter between convention and madness, business and art, necessity and abundance, reality and dream – that’s where new design emerges. I truly appreciate the bravery of so many design companies to engage in play with us. Kolding School of Design becomes a better and more relevant place because of it; and also to foreign students wanting to learn more about Scandinavian/Danish design within a contemporary context.

EGN: I’d have to say the interplay between art, research and practice. Shape, craftsmanship, materials, aesthetics continue to be fundamental elements of the education. However, we combine this – to some – old-fashioned approach to design with research-based training in, for instance, design methodology and user-inclusion.

EGN: Light, simple and functional design combined with responsibility and sustainability. Designing beautiful artefacts is not enough for us. Our designs must contribute to making the world a better place by supporting social relations – whether present or future generations are concerned. The starting point is humanism considered in the light of global challenges, including the climate and resource crisis. This being said, our students do sometimes move in the direct opposite direction and insist on cre-ating something that is simply beautiful. Personally, I appreciate this kind of “resistance” a great deal; the fact that the school is constantly forced to sharpen its arguments. Anti-authority is a significant propellant within the Danish educational system; this also applies to Kolding School of Design.

EGN: The great Danish designers have been part of the construction of the welfare society. Since World War II, left and right wing politicians have demanded that all Danes have access to basic welfare goods such as free education and medical aid. The designers commented by saying: This is not enough. We must surround ourselves with decent things as well; beautiful and functional objects. Specifically, this meant that everybody should have a proper chair to sit in and pleasant, bright rooms to live in. In other words, the material aspect of the welfare society was taken care of by designers and architects. Designers of the 21st century must recharge this story; must help create version 3.0 of the welfare society. The 20th century designer created functional and beautiful furniture; the designers of the 21st century design a common framework for positive relations and experiences. In other words: Kolding School of Design feels humbled by Scandinavian design tradition while recognising our responsibility to innovate it. The resource crisis as well as the economic crisis will help us do this. They force us to explore new ways.

EGN: Yes – the committee used the phrasing that Denmark should become a leading design society meaning that design should be used as a leaver for creating positive communities, organisations, institutions, etc. Denmark should be a pioneer country for using design to create excellent elderly care, education, complete patient care systems, and for instance transport systems that facilitate renewable energy sources, electrically charged means of transport, car sharing arrangements, clean cities, and economically efficient transport. Danish design is democratic. This means that fundamentally, it benefits everybody. Danish design is not for a select few; for the elite or for the wealthy. Danish design is represented by for instance the LEGO brick which everyone can play with, narrate with, indeed create the future with; or the ECCO shoe which is affordable even if you are not born with a silver spoon in your mouth. So, is there no room for extravagance and the wildly sublime? Of course there is. Danish design has a keynote but in order to discover it, something has to tower and stand out. Self-sufficiency is always a risk when creating a national strategy. Yet, I sincerely feel that Denmark is very conscious of the fact that we are part of a global world. Every second year, we host the world’s largest design competition, Index, on “design to improve life”. Moreover, a number of organisations and companies have recently come together to establish a design and architecture consortium. By setting up new alliances involving companies, educations, museums and professional organisa-tions, the consortium wants to establish dialogue with designers and investors outside Denmark. This is also one of the reasons why Kolding School of Design and a number of Danish companies have come to Milan. Of course we want to present a contemporary image of Danish design but we also come to be inspired and to learn.

EGN: We’ve set up these collaborations because students graduating from Kolding School of Design must be able to create designs for mankind; not just their cultural peers; and because you learn something about yourself when you’re measured against international standards. This goes for the school as well as for the individual students.

EGN: Yes, but then again, why not be located in Berlin or Cape Town? We’re very pleased to be located in a city and a region which is completely committed to using design as a competitive resource. For instance, Kolding Municipality has prepared a strategy for the entire education area making sure that children, from kindergarten to youth education, are taught design and design methods. Generally speaking, the school is immensely privileged to have our local community serve as our laboratory. Just recently, we were able to set up and test charging stations for electric cars in Kolding; charging stations which we designed in connection with a large-scale user-driven design project about electric cars called etrans and which we were then able to test before, hopefully, releasing them to the rest of the world.

EGN: We will attract students from all over the world because we teach students to create design for humanity based on a Scandinavian tradition. Kolding School of Design is a school with roots as well as wings.

Design with Roots and Wings

Interview with RectorElsebeth Gerner NielsenKolding School of Design

The Tube exhibition shows the result of the collaboration between six talented designers and six leading design companies. The designers have either just graduated or are in the process of completing their master’s degree project. They represent the fields of textiles, industrial design, graphic design, communication, and fashion, and the company match has been made to achieve the most surprising results. Why, Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, is this type of collaboration important?

Each year around 50 new designers graduate from Kolding School of Design; primarily young Danes. Yet, the school registers an increasing amount of international applicants. In your opinion, what distinguishes Kolding School of Design?

Kolding School of Design is a leading cultural and educational institution rooted in the Danish cultural heritage. How would you define the DNA of Kolding School of Design?

Danish design builds on proud traditions which command respect nationally and internationally and constitute the foundation for a particular Danish design tradition. How would you like to see Kolding School of Design capture and manage this historic heritage in relation to future generations of designers?

The Danish government recently set up a committee to identify a vision for a future design policy, and you served as a member of this committee. How will Denmark distinguish itself in the future when it comes to design? Will we see a special Danish model for design and development?

Internationalisation represents a primary focal area for Kolding School of Design. During the past few years, the school has set up collaboration agreements with universities in Ghana and China. Why?

What will be the role of Kolding School of Design in the next few years?

Wouldn’t it be more convenient if the school was located in, say, Copenhagen rather than Kolding – being that you give that much priority to internationalisation?

16—17 Photo: Gert Skaerlund

School Business The way we work

Kolding School of Design is a leading cultural and eductional institution rooted in the Danish cultural heritage with a special commitment to the issues of sustainability, social inclusion, cultural diversity, and to creating responsible economic growth.

EducationKolding School of Design is a recognised member of the Cumulus international network of top design schools educating design-ers at Bachelor, Master and PhD levels within six different lines of study: fashion, textiles, graphic design, interaction design, il-lustration and industrial design. In addition, the school offers a Master’s programme in design management in collaboration with the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and hosts the master level Interaction Design Programme at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID).The teaching is based on research and practice. Comprehensive knowledge of materials, techniques, methods, and theory combined with the ability to place design and products in societal and business contexts constitute key elements of the educa-tion as does cross-disciplinary collaboration.

ResearchKolding School of Design wants to understand, challenge and develop established design perceptions and practices. The re-search supports the development of concepts and methods in the nexus of user- driven and design-driven innovation in indus-try, cultural life as well as the public sector; just as the research is instrumental in continually developing the knowledge founda-tion of the design educations. It is often carried out in close collaboration with the business community and the cultural sector and often involves designers and researchers from other educational institutions nationally and abroad.

LABArtistic development work within the frame of design professionalism is pivotal to Kolding School of Design and a substantial part of this work takes place within the framework of the school laboratories. The LAB, as it is generally referred to, is an innova-tive room for experiments where education, business and cultural institutions meet in order to create new ideas using design as a tool.

Collaboration with industryBusiness collaborations enable students to focus on real cases and the real problems facing globalised society. This results in aware, capable and grounded students who receive great international recognition and deal with meaningful issues even while they are still studying, and when they graduate as designers continue to work in exciting and important international settings. Meanwhile, industry and other partners receive real, usable solutions to their problems and the unique opportunity to spot tal-ent and recruit future employees.

International outlookThe school gives priority to international exchange of students and employees and affiliating high-profile international visiting faculty to its already internationally oriented staff. Each year the school “exports” classes to universities in e.g. Shanghai and Ghana to collaborate with local students on designing creative solutions to local or common challenges. The much respected annual DesignCamp is a master-class for students from selected design schools and universities around the world, who gather to develop design solutions assisted by international designers and educators.

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Photo: Gert Skaerlund18—19

Department of Product DesignThe Department of Product Design comprises the disciplines fashion, textiles, and industrial design. All of these disciplines most often produce tangible, physical products. Therefore, knowledge of produc-tion and related issues is a key element in the teaching often involving collaboration with industry. Sustainability in all phases of the design process is fundamental. Designers are tasked with developing products which, through their form, function and artistic expression will make the sustainable product the obvious choice. The teaching is conducted by practicing designers as well as researchers guaranteeing that all instruction is grounded in the practical world of design as well as in the state-of-the-art knowledge gleaned from design research.

Industrial DesignIndustrial design focuses on design solutions which incorporate function, form, and production possibilities into one collective design solution. Industrial design students study classic design disciplines such as sketching, 3D program-ming and model making, but they also spend more and more of their time on overall concepts focusing on the future of the users as well as immaterial values and aspects of the products. Hence, user studies and mapping of consumer behavioural patterns have become core subjects in the teaching.

FashionThe fashion discipline focuses primarily on designing clothing which decodes, mirrors, and reflects the present. The students are given time and space for thoughts, experiments, reflections, and intuition to roam freely in the constant slipstream of trends, which also characterises fashion. Form development and materials knowledge are part of the core subjects of the curriculum, and the students learn to build entire collections aimed at target groups and production facilities.

TextilesIn the textile discipline the students work with the classic tools of the textile fields: weaving, knitting, and print. The focus is on developing new design within the design areas fashion and interior design. However, there is an increasing empha-sis on transforming textile values into new contexts and technologies. Hence, digital instructional tools have gained a footing at the department and are now considered equally important as the analogue techniques. The textile designers are given ample opportunity to apply their competences to the creation of material surfaces other than yarn and fabric, e.g. glass, steel and concrete.

Department of Communication DesignThe Department of Communication Design focuses on broad grounding in the design discipline as well as specific professional specialisations within the fields of graphic design, illustration and interaction design. There is a firm belief in the power of storytelling and the magic to be found in everyday life, and these are transformed into analogue, digital, sensory and spatial experiences where functionality and aesthetics merge in the most exquisite manner. Beautiful experiences and intelligent interaction. The designers create the communication of the future applying letters, images, drawings, video, animation, sounds, codes, shapes, objects, space, processes, and action.

Graphic DesignGraphic design creates the required contexts, and tells the good story in such a way that it will be noticed, absorbed and remembered. Material as well as immaterial contacts between the user and the communicator are designed, and de-velopment, planning and production of communication are approached from a theoretical practical angle. The output includes publications, identity design, typography, layout, branding, film, animation, and script design.

IllustrationHere, the unique story is designed by means of personal imagery, inclusive storytelling, the touching presentation, and the vibrant stroke. The story of the plot is illustrated through drawings in books, animations on the Internet, patterns on the walls, photos displayed in the street scene, games on the mobile phone, or films in the cinema, and they acquire that additional dimension and perspective which adds relevance and meaning to the message. People’s curiosity is roused, and associations enhance their comprehension and experience.

Interaction DesignInteraction design, the third branch of Communication Design, designs the dialogue between people, objects, systems, media, and space with the incorporation of technology as a fascinating new design material for experimentation. The point of departure is the individual and its sensory experiences along with other experiences and needs. The individual is at the centre of an interdisciplinary approach to designing the interactions, experiences, and dialogues of present, everyday life as well as the future, in the form of concepts, services, software, user interfaces, objects, furniture, robots, and spatial concepts.


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T(+45) 76301100F(+45) [email protected]

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