Made a trip to Denmark last monday for a meeting with the nordic design organizations. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and all the danes were drinking beer in the open-air restaurants. We had our lunch, or  as you say it in danish - ”frokost”, at a place named Kanalen. Good food and nice interior; noticed the classic Y-chair designed by Hans Wegner. Copenhagen is a great city and a perfect spot to get a glimpse of the early summer. I took a few photos with my lousy mobile camera, poor quality I know, but good enough for the blog. Cheers!

Together with Svid, Almi and the business network Design Sydost I gave a lecture about creating value with design last week. The target group was sme companies in the region wondering what design can do for them, and also how and where to get in touch with design.

The meeting was held in Vimmerby (the home town of famous author Astrid Lindgren!). Except of me representing my own company; Design Nation and Swedish Designers, the speakers was Martina Lago from Almi and Johan Malmquist from Addi.

After the presentations we did a study visit to the successful light company Zobra where the manager Michael Engstrand showed us the plant and the products.

I should never have said it, the spring is approaching. Just because of that there has been a snow chaos in Sweden. Trains suspended, roads closed and flights delayed. I mean, I like the winter but come on. I heard there is some kind of record in our area, it has been almost 60 days in a row with minus degrees!

Last week I was in Oslo, had a meeting with the scandinavian design organizations, Swedish Association of Designers, Danish Designers, Grafill – the Norwegian Organisation for Visual Communication and NID - the association for professional industrial designers in Norway. The reason we met was to discuss the opportunities for closer cooperation between the organizations. The meeting was successful and a good step ahead in the progress.

When I had the opportunity I also visited this school that a friend of mine started six years ago; Designinstituttet. The students gets the opportunities to explore their skills within different disciplines in an open creative atmosphere and together with the very best of teachers. The results from the school is really impressive.

Anyhow we stayed over the weekend spending some time with some old friends living in Oslo. We had a very nice time, good food, cinema and ”fika”. Because of the snow, the cold weather and the transport issues the travel back home got a bit delayed. But finally we got home, safe and happy.

Chris Bangle – someone say ”Or you love, or hate him”. I admire him!

As the head of design for BMW Chris became one of the most famous – and reviled – auto designers in automotive history. Recently he abruptly resigned after 16 years with the German automaker. His daring designs have affected the industry, and made spurning rivals to follow in emulating his distinctive style.

On the Icsid World Design Congress in Singapore, Chris presented his work and thoughts about Personal Emotional Mobility 2050. He explained how it is a catalyst; a phenomenon that engages and inspires creativity and productivity within society. It was a very inspiring lecture, and I had the pleasure to meet him during my time I spend on the congress.

In my opinion, Chris is an open minded, daring designer contributing to a creative approach to the future of, not only cars, but more interesting – auto mobility. His geniality and strong innovation in automotive design are often compared to his controversy in some solutions. One of them is the BMW GINA concept car from 2008, see video below.

I was attending at the Icsid General assembly when it was held in Singapore 26th and 27th of November. The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) is a global not-for-profit organisation that promotes better design around the world. Today, Icsid counts over 150 members in more than 50 countries, representing an estimated 150 000 designers.

Icsid members are professional associations, promotional societies, educational institutions, government bodies, corporations and institutions, which aim to contribute to the development of the profession of industrial design.

Delegates from Sweden were, except from me, Dag Holmgren also representing Swedish Association of Designers,  Robin Edman, SVID, The Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, and Tomas Seo. The first picture below showing us together with the outgoing president of Icsid Prof. Carlos Hinrichsen and the new president Dr. Mark Breitenberg.

Konstfack (University College of Arts Crafts and Design), Ergonomidesign and White Architects. That was the program for my students at Nässjö Träcentrum when we were going to Stockholm for a field trip on the 17th of November.  Me and my colleague Rolf Herrström arranged the trip, with good assistance from the school. The day couldn’t have been better.

The wide range of the visits gave us an interesting overview. From the different faculties at Konstfack, to Ergonomidesign one of the most successful design agencies in the world, and White who is working with the complete set of skills within architecture and design.

At Konstfack Thomas Herrström was our excellent guide, at Ergonomidesign Maria Benktzon and Peter Ejvinsson, and at White Architects Märta Friman and Björn Tegnell. Thank you all concerned for making this to very pleasant and inspiring day.

When SVID, The Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, arranged a field trip within Design Management, I was there representing Swedish Association of Designers. The place for the study was Materia in Tranås; a natural choice, since the company is really skilled within the area. The comprehensive approach of Materia is very impressive, how every little detail is carefully thought out, and how all together bringing out the core values to get very clear – internally and externally.

Design management is also one of my special working areas. To introduce design thinking in the company strategy – management by design. I often have to prove and convince about the importance of design management. What’s the profit? Well, Materia is the perfect example:
Materia was founded in 1992 by Kersti Sandin and Lars Bülow. Materia has quickly grown into one of the most prominent design companies in the industry, with a turnover on 140 mSEK and 62 employees.

It was a very interesting and informative day, with lectures from Robin Edman – CEO SVID, Lisbeth Svengren Holm – Head of Research and Education SVID, Lars Bülow – CEO Materia and Kersti Sandin Bülow Director of Design Materia.

Design Open is a design competition for Swedish students. I am participating as a coach for leading one of the schools, hopefully to win the first prize. The challenge for the students is to come up with sustainable solutions for future transport needs. This year, 1500 people will be involved in Design Open, together putting in 80 000 h of creative thougts on the subject. It will be intresting to see the outcome of that!
Click here to see the Design Open website.

From the design festival in Sundsvall.

Formex is Scandinavia’s leading fair for design and interiors. Of course Swedish Association of Designers attended at the event August 27-30. Here we are, happy board members, gathering in our stand for a group photo.
Standing from left: Anna Bonnevier, Daniel Byström, Hanna Ydremark, Ulf Berlin, Mattias Svensson, Katarina Brieditis and Gottfried Gemzell. Sitting: Nina Back-Sundström, Anneli Pettersson and Lotta Ahlvar.

Wednesday 27.5 the Swedish Association of Designers (Sveriges designer) had their annual meeting in Stockholm.

When selecting the new board I was one of the nominated. Of course I accepted the offer. I feel very honored and excited to contribute. The position gives an opportunity to influence in the organization, it also gives new interesting contacts. 

The Swedish Association of Designers is a trade organization for professional designers based in Sweden. Members of the organization are from following areas: Fashion Design, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Interactive Design, Product Design, Textile Design, Web design. The Swedish Association of Designers is also member of Beda and Icsid.

Investigations show that design has a sustained strong position, and that the extent of using design has increased. It is clearly a growing market for design, but also a growing understanding on how design can be applied amongst companies, business organizations and the Swedish government.

The meeting was held at a really nice site in Gamla stan, the design studio Ohlssonsmith. After all the formalities we gathered on the top of the roof for ecological wine and snacks in the sunset. Very romantic!

Lotta Ahlvar, Tomas Seo and Claes Frössen in the sun…