New Norse: We track down three Nordic design studios doing things differently

Scandinavian design has existed on a bedrock of core values since the 1950s; a set of clearly-defined principles that favour functionality, simplicity and minimalism. They are principles that apply equally to industrial design as to hand-crafted products – you’re as likely to find examples of minimalism in the ceramics of a Finnish potter as you are in the warehouses of IKEA – and can be found throughout all of the Nordic nations (which is particularly unusual as there’s anecdotal in-fighting between countries; I’m told that the Finns are arrogant, the Norwegians speak an inferior form of Danish and nobody likes the Swedes). In the product design world in particular, the Scandinavian identity has been hard to escape. Brands like Bang & Olufsen and Electrolux have dominated the international market, controlling the perception of their respective nations abroad and enforcing their aesthetic of clean lines, neutral colours and functional simplicity. But the market has shifted, the economic climate has changed and increasingly young Nordic designers are breaking out of the mould in which they’ve been shaped for half a century, producing products that satisfy their consumers’ demands in entirely new ways. In light of this we went to chat with a handful of product designers in Sweden, Denmark and Norway to see how Scandinavian design is moving away from a single vision and producing products in completely innovative ways. AM AM are a Danish company based in Copenhagen with a two-part history. Founded in 1971 by Anders Moesgaard they established themselves as a leading brand in the then unexplored field of vinyl cleaning. Anders was 17 years old when he produced his first product, still living with his parents and finishing his last year of school. “I had a good friend who made a lot of products and was producing small, easy objects like salt and pepper mills, and he always told me that I should start my own company. He drove a Mustang and had a big swimming pool so I thought ‘Yeah, why not, that seems like fun.’” Anders initially struggled to find a product with which to start his company but was inspired when his older brother threw a party at which his guests nearly ruined his record collection. He couldn’t find anything to clean the records so sought the advice of a friend who told him to get himself to the pharmacy and buy some alcoholic face wash. It did the job and Anders realised that if he could give the cleaning fluid anti-static properties then he’d have a record-cleaning product that was utterly unique. So he began experimenting in his garage until he had something that worked, then dyed it blue so it would be instantly recognisable. “Then I went down to the local record shop with my products and the guy that ran it just said no, there was no demand for what I was selling and sent me away. The day after I sent my mother down to the shop to ask for this new, blue record cleaner that everyone was talking about. The owner called me up that afternoon to order a bottle, but I told him he had to buy twelve. After that my mother was always scared to go past the shop.” Two years later Anders was selling record cleaner and a whole host of other vinyl-related products all over Europe and began to realise that his stock needed to look as good as it performed. “I was very focussed on producing something that looked polished, so I told my designer Søren Balle that the products had to look so good that they could sit next to a Bang & Olufsen or a Braun, who at the time were the number one selling audio designers in Denmark. Whatever I did I wanted to match the best products available.” Forty years on AM are a very different beast, still successfully producing desirable and functional products but now aiming themselves at the tech world, their sights set on Apple loyalists in particular (the B&O of modern design). They’re still all about cleaning, but with the vinyl market failing they’re keen to be part of a new digital generation. Anders is no longer involved in running the business and his son Jacob stands in his stead, a man more than qualified to do his father’s old job. Jacob cut his teeth pursuing a business degree and, during evenings and weekends, ran club nights around Copenhagen with his friends. They had achieved moderate success so found themselves an abandoned building and started making their shows more regular. “We had the club up on the roof and were doing events every weekend so we got to know all of these people that were part of the creative scene. We knew the developers were waiting on planning permission for the building so we decided to stop it from sitting there empty for two years and fill it with stuff instead. We had events upstairs and artist studios in the rooms below. At first we only had about ten people and then all of a sudden the place was full.” The A-Huset, as the building was known, ended up playing host to some of Denmark’s finest creative talent, with artists like Tal R, Asger C