DesignMarch 24.-27.03 2011
DesignMarch is a four day design festival in Reykjavík featuring an extensive and impressive programme where a profusion of events, stimulating lectures and exhibitions reflect the diversity of Icelandic design and architecture.
See more about this event here
Exhibition: Gunnar Magnússon ’61 – ‘78
An exhibition devoted to the Icelandic designer Gunnar Magnússon and his domestic furniture was opened in Museum of Design and Applied Art on the 11th. of February. Gunnar Magnússon was born in 1933 in Olafsfjördur in the North of Iceland and studied furniture design in Copenhagen in the early 1960s. He is one of Iceland’s most prolific furniture designers and also created numerous interiors for companies, banks and private persons. The table for the famous World Chess Championship between Spassky and Fischer, held in Reykjavik in 1972, was designed by him.
This is the first comprehensive show of Magnússon’s furniture and the first exhibition the museum devotes to one of Iceland’s design pioneers. Curator is art historian Ásdís Ólafsdóttir.
Völuskrín is back in stock
Birkiland is happy to announce that Völuskrín is now finally back in stock. See more here.
New in Store: Gray Sheep’s Tie with pattern
Now we have a new color of the Sheep’s Tie by Herra Mókollur in Birkiland. The Tie is knitted using wool from the Icelandic sheep and totally produced in Iceland. Check it out here.
“Two years ago in October, Iceland went bankrupt with all the usual fallout: depression, homelessness and unemployment.. Since then, Iceland and its people have been fighting to stave off corporate takeover and some are doing it, literally, with Style”
“There’s a whole world of fashion out there though, other smaller pockets of the globe producing creative talent way beyond the benchmark that the boarders of our bubbles would have us believe. Iceland is one.”
Dazed TV present a documentary about how the young generation of a country ravaged by the economic crisis and the threat of corporrate takeovers are fighting back
Interview with a designer: Fridgerdur
Fridgerdur Gudmundsdottir graduated as a product designer from Iceland Acadamy of the Art in the spring 2009. In her designing she focuses on simplicity and practicality. Her graduation project is called Studlar and came into being in collaboration with packaging department Oddi Printing. We asked her few questions to get to know a little bit more baout her.
1. What is your favorite moment of the day?
Dinnertime, to have dinner with my family after cooking a good meal.
2. Favorite bus route in Reykjavik and why?
From Hafnarfjörður, where I live to my studio in Skipholt. Why? Because it takes me to work.
3. What did you want to be when you were a child?
A designer, but I didn’t know the term at that time, just wanted to make things.
4. Describe your work?
Nostalgic, practical, simple.
5. What kind of clothes do you avoid wearing?
Suits.
7. How is your work influenced by where you live?
The things I do are influenced by my surroundings.
8. Where do you go in Iceland when you want to feel inspired?
Out.
9. Where do you work on your design?
On the bus, at home, in my studio.
10. When you are working, do you discuss or exchange ideas with your colleagues?
All the time. I work closely with another designer, Kristín Birna Bjarnadóttir, together we are GERIST.
11. In which way do you think design is important for Iceland?
Design is important for every country, specially if the design reflects the specialties of the country; it’s nature, culture or history.
12. How would you describe Iceland in few sentences?
Iceland is open, beautiful, scary, it smells good and it is can be harsh.
13. What do you think is most beautiful place in Iceland?
Every place I visit is the most beautiful at that time, I’m easily charmed by the nature.
14. What frightens you most regarding the future?
I’m not afraid of the future.
