Monkey Business
Around one year ago I was contacted by the danish design company Rosendahl.
Rosendahl is one of the largest and most well known danish design companies in Denmark as well as internationally. They are especially known for their high-end kitchenware designs.
Also they maintain the rights to produce an impressive list of designers and their work worldwide.
Among them is the legendary danish toy designs of Kay Bojesen.
Kay Bojesen (1886–1958) was an apprentice of Georg Jensen, training as a silversmith in 1910. After a few years in Germany and France, he began working as a silversmith in Copenhagen. In the 1930s he realised there was something particularly lively about wood, and his wooden figures have made him one of the great pioneers of Danish art manufacture.
Kay Bojesen’s premise in his work was a conviction that his objects should have life, blood and a heart. People should want to pick them up, and they should radiate humanity, warmth and vibrancy. The monkey was produced in accordance with Bojesen’s motto that lines should smile. In the early 1950s, it was so popular that it was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
In 1990, Rosendahl bought the rights to the production, marketing and sale of Kay Bojesen’s products, including his guardsmen, wooden animals and award-winning Grand Prix cutlery.
Kay Bojesen’s productions are characterised by an inherent sense of simplicity, naturalness and clean lines.
I was very thrilled to be working with Rosendahl and needless to say intimidated to touch the legacy of Bojesen's work. Luckily for me I got to work with some really talented and pro people like Lesia and Magnus who turned out to be such a pleasure to work with. Sometimes that is a real treat in the freelance field. Especially when you're in two different countries with a 6 hour time difference.
I was asked to do a small "Pixie"format book to bring the wooden animals to life.
What I ended up doing was the exact opposite -
"let's make a book that folds out and keeps getting bigger and bigger!"
The book is wordless and consists only of images intuitively telling the story. So in the future when you purchase one of Boyesen's unique animals in your local design store, you will get my book for free!
I'm very glad that Rosendahl went with this concept and that it turned out the way it did.
We are also cooking up some other new designs and products that will come out in 2011. I'll keep you posted on that. You can see all the other cool products of Rosendahl here.
It's the year of the Monkey!
This was the basic idea for the book layout.
Starting with a small square - the pink, it folds out to double size - the yellow,
and again to the green, and so fourth to the blue and the black ending the book as a wall poster.
Here is the cover:
And here are the contents:
