A t the Verpan showroom, a space dedicated to the work of Verner Panton , the renowned Danish designer’s daughter Carin Panton von Halem regaled a rapt audience with an anecdote. Apparently when Panton’s cone chair was displayed in a New York shop window in the late 1950s, it had to be removed by the police after drivers distracted by the tomato red seat got into a road accident. She also had stories about how the neighbours of the Pantons’ famous Hornbæk summer house started a petition to get him to change the bright green exterior of the holiday home.
Over at the Hem furniture shop, Finnish designer Yrjö Kukkapuro ’s daughter Isa gave an equally personal speech at the launch of the new edition of Kukkapuro’s experiment chair . She explained how the original launch of the chair coincided with the birth of her daughter Ida. Two wonderful creations.
Panton and Kukkapuro may be two of the most esteemed names in the history of Nordic design, but at Copenhagen’s annual design festival 3daysofdesign this week, it quickly became apparent that most companies are family-owned and there is huge pride in this. Few furniture showrooms could be visited without hearing about the number of generations that worked there. Indeed, it was a rare presentation that started without a reference to the grandfather who started the business.
At a time when entrepreneurs, startups and business unicorns are valued, family businesses seem old-fashioned, but looking at the success of 3days.