It is easier to name five contemporary Danish design brands than five living Danish designers. This provocative statement points up to a significant phenomenon in today’s Danish design — it is the brands, not the designers, that we hear about and refer to. Through stories told by some of the entrepreneurs responsible for the emergence of the second golden age, as well as designers, curators and journalists, this book paints a picture of a dynamic and innovative design scene that has managed to reinvent itself while still being able to profit from its heritage. The brands that have made names for themselves are young, some barely ten years old, and yet they are defining what Danish design is. How did this come about and how has it affected the values associated with the concept Danish design and the country’s design industry in general? This book not only provides the answers, it puts them into their proper context — that is, in the second golden age of Danish design.

Summit’s ninth release is published just as we see Danish brands like Hay collaborate with Swedish Ikea and Muuto being bought by the American furniture giant Knoll. It is a book that could not have been written or released at any other moment. Buy your copy in our book shop here!