How did ‘Danish Design’ become a success? Products, management, design policy, or…?

Date: August 15th
Time: 9.00 - 16.00
Location: Det Kongelige Akademi, Fabrikmestervej 10, Auditorium 6, København, Denmark

Join The Danish Academy to explore the development of the Danish design scene from the 1980s to today and discuss overlooked aspects of Danish design history.

This seminar, based on new research and historical examples, will highlight how political and management strategies have shaped our perception of ‘Denmark as a design nation’.

The seminar is part of a new Ph.D. project on design management, examining its impact on Danish design development and education from the 1980s to the present.

The project, titled ‘Success through DESIGN’, is a collaboration between the Royal Danish Academy and the University of Southern Denmark. It aims to investigate how design management has contributed to Danish design’s international success and status.

The research posits that design management, with its focus on political, managerial, and strategic aspects, has been as influential—if not more so—than the famous ‘golden age designers’. This calls for a revision of Danish design history and raises questions about what we can learn from the past to maintain and advance Denmark’s position as a design nation in response to contemporary sustainability demands.

The project is a collaboration between Ida Engholm, Professor at the Royal Danish Academy, Mads Nygaard Folkmann, Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, and Katrine Brahe Hall, Ph.D. candidate at the Royal Danish Academy.

At the seminar, key figures in Danish design history will share their experiences in the emergence and development of design management in Denmark, contributing to the project’s empirical research.

This event is FREE.

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