Danish design

I'm having an 'I miss Denmark day'. T will soon be traveling to Denmark for some job related meetings and a seminar and we normally take this opportunity to buy stuff in Denmark that we want to use (or eat) here or just really need. It can be as mundane as freezer bags that you can write on and are strong enough not to tear when pried from other icy stuff it's pegged to. We've tried many here and they always tear plus I have to take the extra step of writing the content and date on paper, wrap it in plastic and put it inside the freezer bag for identification. It's just faster and easier with the freezer bags we use in Denmark.

The times I lived in Denmark (in between postings), I would normally opt out of buying popular Danish design items because it seems that every household would have them and the monotony of it killed my interest. They even stopped becoming conversation pieces as everyone owns practically the same things, therefore kitchens looked mighty uniform - clean, streamlined, chic and efficient but very homogeneous . That's how my kitchen looked too, so how can I openly admire my friends' kitchen without sounding like a moron just trying to make conversation when mine and 20 others looks the same (oh alright, mine is a tad messier than theirs, ok everyone else's). And as the kitchen is the heart of people's homes, prior to serving dinner to guests, the hosts and the guests converge there to chat and help out. Each time we're invited to dinner, I kind of know almost exactly where things will be. Warning: Enlarge at your own risk. I almost (I gave him h*ll instead) divorced T after he took this photo (of me at my worse) but I really can't find any other photos of our kitchen in DK - ignore T's stuff as he was getting ready for work...in a rush but managed to take an awful photo of me, go figure.

Now, living abroad on the other hand is a totally different matter. We proudly display and use danish design items because of 1. Their uniqueness; 2. Our penchant for having both cultures represented in our home; 3. their scarcity abroad due to their prohibitive prices and; 4. for them always being a source of interesting conversation.

Just yesterday, while having brunch at M & E's where we volunteered to bring the coffee (we're avid coffee drinkers while ironically, M&E never touch it) in 2 mission issued Stelton vacuum jugs, the gesture (okay, the jugs) in fact elicited some interesting and funny remarks.

B, while trying to pour coffee, tried to first loosen (unscrew) the top like one does with traditional coffee jugs, which of course didn't work because the beauty of this particular design is that coffee is kept hot and ready to pour without having to adjust the cover. Like fill and pour, if you want. Fast, clean, efficient and doesn't take so much table space.

B pointed out that sometimes he feels that the Danish design hinges on making fun of other nationalities to leave them perplexed and feeling inadequate (to use a polite word). It was of course said as a joke, which I personally found funny and so did T. Hmmm makes sense. We do have this Menu toothpick dispenser that no one can seem to figure out how to use (except the Danes, of course). Mental note: Schedule usage orientation for guests prior to dinner or just after main course is served, right before dessert.

There is that feeling of wanting to be unique that just plague some people (us?). People who step into our home, we think, should feel like stepping into our world, a realm unique to us, wherever in the world we are. So, while in Denmark, we used furniture and stuff we've accumulated from Asia and Africa....until I ached for efficiency in the kitchen. Like most Danes, I was both studying (the language) and working, V was going to school and T of course was at work the whole day. I started needing kitchen help. Fast, easy to maintain, efficient, classic, neat looking and space saving devices. I started living like a Dane and started acquiring more Danish design accoutrement. Which we had to leave behind in Denmark because this post is a 'furnished' post (sigh).

Now I miss them and wish we brought them with us.

The Danes are fiercely loyal and proud of Danish design and workmanship and by virtue of association, so am I. I say, give them a chance to grace your homes and you will end up raving about them, at some point become dependent on them and at the end won't be able to live without them. They are worth their price. They never go out of style, lasts forever and I've known them to be handed down from generation to generation.

In the website Denmark.dk, one may find an insight into 'The Essence of Danish Design':

"Design is partly expressed through a product’s aesthetic value, but no matter how beautiful classic Danish design can be, the creators were rarely aiming directly for beauty, but rather sought to solve a problem in the simplest way possible without violating the complexity of the task and never forgetting that a new product must above all be a good implement for the users. These criteria are basic to Danish design.

In Denmark, design is typically regarded as a problem-solving process. The solution to the design task must be as simple and natural as possible without violating the complexity of the task.

The aim is to create an identity between user and implement, and the solution must respect the requirements associated with cost and environment.

On this background, it is obvious that Danish design is not a style or fashion, but the expression and result of a set of aims and values with very long-term validity."

Jens Bernsen, Gyldendal Leksikon

Amen to that.