Scandinavian design

Scandinavian design emerged in the 1950s in the three Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway andSweden), as well as Finland. It is a design movement characterized by simple designs, minimalism, functionality, and low-cost mass production.

The Lunning Prize, awarded to outstanding Scandinavian designers between 1951 and 1970, was instrumental in both making Scandinavian design a recognized commodity, and in defining the profile of Scandinavian design. Since 2006, the tradition of a pan-Nordic design award has been resumed with the Forum AID Award.

The idea that beautiful and functional everyday objects should not only be affordable to the wealthy, but to all, is a core theme in the development of modernism and functionalism, but is probably most completely realised in post-WWII Scandinavian design. The ideological background was the emergence of a particular Scandinavian form of social democracy in the 1950s, as well as the increased availability of new low-cost materials and methods for mass production. Scandinavian design often makes use of form-pressed wood, plastics, anodized or enameled aluminum or pressed steel.

The concept of Scandinavian design has been the subject of many scholarly debates, exhibitions and marketing agendas during the last fifty years, but many of the democratic design ideals that were the central theme of the movement have survived and can be found resonant in contemporary design work by Scandinavian and international designers.