Industrial design: having an effect

Strategic design can have a positive impact on profitability and the company’s bottom line, according to the Norwegian Design Council. It has even created a new award called Design Effect – modelled after the British one – to recognize projects for their financial impact, part of the government’s Design Driven Innovation Program launched in 2009.

Norwegian design – abundant & individual

As a design writer and curator for the best part of the last decade, one of the most enjoyable and inspiring roles I have had the pleasure of being employed in is that of curator for 100% Norway – which I’ve been doing for the last five years. 100% Norway is an exhibition established to showcase and promote Norwegian design to an international audience. It is organized by the Norwegian Embassy in London, The Norwegian Design Council in Oslo, and Innovation Norway, and it has taken place annually since 2003 during the London Design Festival every September. The idea is to improve trade links, swap best practice, generate new business and a warm fuzzy glow of pride among the Norwegian creative industries – all good economy boosting stuff.

Certification – ensuring sustainable seafood

The use of ecolabelling in the fisheries and aquaculture industry has become more prevalent during the last decade. Customers want to know their seafood products are coming from a sustainable source. Norway’s seafood industry has been keeping pace with this trend and certifying more types of fish and adopting new standards for assuring the quality of the fish we eat.

Innovation through cooperation

The Norwegian Design Council, together with the design and architecture environment in Norway knows that user-oriented designers are possibly the most accessible and efficient innovation tools available in product development. Working creatively, with innovation and cooperation, Norwegian designers and architects will continue to “raise the bar” with products that are aesthetic, sustainable, user-friendly, environmentally responsible and commercially successful

Norwegian architecture & design – does it make sense?

Does a specifically Norwegian architecture and design exist? Is there a collective identity which is essentially and tangibly different from that of other nations? Or, as national boundaries seem to dissolve, with trends and products spreading in global waves, is this mainly and outdated discussion put forward just to attract tourists?

Norwegian design is taking the world by storm

Traditionally Norway has not been associated with design in the same way that its Scandinavian neighbours have. Almost every building in Finland houses at least one item of Alvar Aalto furniture and a Marimekko textile or two. The Danes bask in the glow of their lovely Louis Poulsen lights while they curl up in Arne Jacobsen’s egg chair of a night in. Sweden – well we’re at the Stockholm Furniture Fair, so I don’t need to go into much detail here. Plus you have IKEA… the poor Norwegians have a lot to live up to really.

Light creates moods – Beyond Light

Light is more than lighting. Light can prevent and cure. It can accentuate moods, creating aggression as well as peace. Light can create confidence and romance. The design biennale BeyondRisør continues its experimental approach to design, from BeyondAcoustics in 2008 to light and sustainable design in 2010 – BeyondLight.