Archetypes: Essential Works of Danish Design

Twenty-one portraits of objects from Danish Modernism that remain relevant to this day.

From 1940-80, a group of Danish architects and designers created a series of mass-produced objects that have the quality of archetypes: basic equipment for daily life reduced to their essential and timeless forms. Created at the intersection of craft tradition and industrial production, these items of furniture, lighting, cookware, and tableware remain absolutely relevant, and a number of them are still in production.

A decade in the making, Archetypes: Essential Works of Danish Design offers the reader illuminating and richly illustrated profiles of twenty-one extraordinary designs that are emblematic of Danish material culture: modest, ethical, and sustainable. Chapters on each archetype include biographical information on the designer, their creative processes, and detailed descriptions of the objects.