Review: The Red Thread: Nordic Design by Oak Publishing

Nordic design’s embrace of intelligent design and comfort has captivated everyone from top architects to the internet’s hoi polloi. This broad regional area, which includes Norway, Demark, Sweden and Finland, is celebrated in this stylish new volume. It celebrates both the democratic, yet intensely personal and site-specific ways they have created objects to improve daily life and social interaction – not merely dazzle with ornamentation, cost or clichés of aspirational living.

The title is the English equivalent of the Swedish expression den röda tråden, which also means ‘the heart of the matter’ or ‘the connecting substance of an idea’, and it’s what connects the volume’s 200 regional objects, which are presented in three sections. Each section speaks of lighting, accessories, furnishings, textiles and fashion items that improve life, spaces and relationships. Amongst works from known designers such as Alvar Aalto, Verner Panton and Georg Jensen, notable pieces include the Rewrite desk by GamFratesi for Ligne Roset and the Harp chair by Jørgen Høvelskov for Koch Design.

Charming and sincere, this lovely volume presents a vision of life that design-lovers, architects and anyone seeking peace will enjoy.

The Red Thread: Nordic Design

by Oak Publishing

Phaidon