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Networks, Narratives, and New Markets: The Rise and Decline of Danish Modern Furniture Design, 1930–1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Per H. Hansen
Per H. Hansen
Affiliation:
PER H. HANSEN is professor at the Centre for Business History, Copenhagen Business School.
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Abstract

Histories of the rising popularity of Danish modern furniture in both Denmark and the United States have traditionally ascribed its success to the inherent beauty of Danish design. This article argues that Danish modern furniture succeeded for two other reasons. First, through the creation of powerful narratives, or stories, that framed the way consumers made sense of this furniture; and, second, through the calculated development of a network of individuals and organizations whose goal was to promote and legitimize these narratives.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 80 , Issue 3: Fashion and Style , Autumn 2006 , pp. 449 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2006

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References

1 Baudrillard, Jean, “The Ideological Genesis of Needs,” in The Consumer Society Reader, Holt, Douglas B. and Schor, Juliet B., eds., The Consumer Society Reader (New York, 2000), 58–80Google Scholar, esp. 57, 70–71; Baudrillard, The Consumer Society; and Barthes, Roland, The Fashion System (Berkeley, 1983Google Scholar; French ed., 1967), xi.

2 I am not arguing that the furniture, the producers, and the designers did not exist, but, rather, that the categories and the meanings attached to them were constructed by the narrative.

3 The exceptions are Andresen, Carl Erik, Dansk Møbelindustri, 1870–1950 (Århus, 1996)Google Scholar, whose analysis stops in 1950, exactly at the time of the international breakthrough of Danish Design. Johansen, Hans Chr., Industriens vækst og vilkår, 1870–1973 (Odense, 1988)Google Scholar, on the other hand, argues that Danish furniture's success was driven by the demand that grew out of increasing incomes and the opening of export markets (p. 299). Internationally, Michael Porter has pointed to design as a basis for Denmark's comparative advantage in the production of household products and furnishings. Porter attributes the country's edge to “a pool of university-trained designers” and “several professorships in furniture design.” See Porter, Michael, The Competitive Advantage of Nations (London, 1990), 78, 133CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 The literature is abundant and mostly written by people who were part of the social network that I describe. See, for example, Karlsen, Arne, Dansk Møbelkunst i det 20: århundrede: Bind 1–2 (Copenhagen, 1990)Google Scholar; Hiort, Esbjørn, Arkitekten Finn Juhl: Møbelkunst, Arkitektur, Brugskunst (Copenhagen, 1990)Google Scholar; Jalk, Grete, ed., Dansk Møbelkunst gennem 40 år. Københavns Snedkerlaugs Møbeludstillinger, 1927–1966, vols. 1–4 (Copenhagen, 1987)Google Scholar; Gelfer-Jørgensen, Mirjam, Dansk Kunsthåndværk fra 1850 til vor tid (Copenhagen, 1982)Google Scholar; and Andersen, Rigmor, Kaare Klints Møbler (Copenhagen, 1979)Google Scholar.

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6 Obviously the advent of Danish modern furniture came about for a variety of reasons. Harvey Molotch employs the concept of “latch up” to describe the many conditions that must be fulfilled in order for a new design to appear. See Molotch, Harvey, Where Stuff Comes From (New York, 2003)Google Scholar.

7 For an introduction to narrative and discursive analytical strategies, see Czarniawska, Barbara, Narratives in Social Science Research (Thousand Oaks, Calif., 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Boje, David M., Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research (Thousand Oaks, Calif., 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Andersen, Niels Åkerstrøm, Discursive Analytical Strategies: Understanding Foucault, Koselleck, Laclau and Luhman (Bristol, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Quotations are from Olins, Wally, “How Brands are Taking over the Corporation,” in The Expressive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation, and the Corporate Brand, eds. Schultz, Majken, Hatch, Mary Jo, and Larsen, Mogens Holten (Oxford, 2000)Google Scholar. See also Twitchell, James B., Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld (New York, 2004)Google Scholar. Was Danish Modern a brand? I will argue that it makes sense to use the concept in a broader perspective when assigning specific meanings to things in order to create or add value, even to a monarchy. See John M. T. Balmer, Stephen A. Greyser, and Mats Urde, “Monarchies as Corporate Brands,” Harvard Business School Working Paper no. 05002 (Aug. 2004).

9 On brands and narratives, see Holt, Douglas B., How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding (Cambridge, Mass., 2004)Google Scholar.

10 Federal Trade Commission, “Advisory Opinion Digest No. 301,” Federal Trade Commission Advisory Opinion Digest, vol. 1–313 (1 June 1962–1931 Dec. 1968): 234Google Scholar; and Werner, Ray O. et al. , “Legal Developments in Marketing,” Journal of Marketing 33 (2) 1969: 70–81Google Scholar.

11 For an influential account of how language and metaphors shape the way we think, see Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, 1980)Google Scholar.

12 Czarniawska, in Narratives in Social Science, argues convincingly that narratives cannot be controlled exclusively by the actors. However, in this case, the network was remarkably successful in doing so for a long period of time.

13 Regarding social networks, see Granovetter, Mark, “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness,” American Journal of Sociology 91, no. 3 (1985): 418–510CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Latour, Bruno, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory (New York, 2005)Google Scholar.

14 McCracken, Grant, “Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods,” Journal of Consumer Research 13, no. 1 (1986): 76CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The concept of a “fashion system” was originally conceived by French semiologist Roland Barthes in 1967. See Barthes, Roland, The Fashion System (New York, 1983)Google Scholar.

15 McCracken, Culture and Consumption, 77–78; and Olins, “How Brands are Taking over the Corporation.” This movement of meaning from designers and producers to consumers is not a one-way street, however. Regina Blaszczyk, Lee, in Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning (Baltimore, 2000)Google Scholar, has argued that producers pay serious attention to consumers' preferences, which are conveyed through “fashion intermediaries,” and therefore that designs are also influenced by a “bottom-up” process whereby meanings are transmitted by consumers to designers and producers.

16 There is a substantial literature on consumption, taste, and lifestyle. For different perspectives, see, for instance, Veblen, Thorstein, The Theory of the Leisure Class (New York, 1994; 1st ed. 1899)Google Scholar; Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (London, 1984)Google Scholar; and Attfield, Judy, Wild Things: The Material Culture of Everyday Life (Oxford, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Dant, Tim, Material Culture in the Social World: Values, Activities, Lifestyles (Buckingham, 1999)Google Scholar; and Grant McCracken, Culture and Consumption. Concerning furniture and interior decoration, see McCracken, Grant, Culture and Consumption II: Markets, Meaning and Brand Management (Bloomington, 2005), 17–47Google Scholar; and, albeit for another period, Auslander, Leora, Taste and Power: Furnishing Modern France (Berkeley, 1996)Google Scholar. See also Parr, Joy, “Household Choices as Politics and Pleasure,” International Labor and Working Class History 55 (April 1999): 112–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Madigan, Ruth and Munro, Moira, “‘House Beautiful’: Style and Consumption in the Home,” Sociology 30, no. 1 (1996): 41–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Woodward, Ian, “Divergent Narratives in the Imagining of the Home amongst Middle-Class Consumers: Aesthetics, Comfort and the Symbolic Boundaries of Self and Home,” Journal of Sociology 39, no. 4 (2003): 391–412CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who, from different perspectives and empirical bases, argue that consumers were torn between the desire for decoration and the desire for comfort. For a discussion of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of distinction in relation to U.S. consumption, see Douglass B. Holt, “Does Cultural Capital Structure American Consumption?” in The Consumer Society Reader, eds. Schor and Holt. For a discussion of taste in relation to furniture, see Bayley, Stephen, Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things (New York, 1992)Google Scholar.

17 This representation of Klint can be found in many places. For a more detailed discussion, see Hansen, , Da danske møbler blev moderne: Historien om dansk møbeldesigns storhedstid (Copenhagen, 2006)Google Scholar. For an example in English, see Rasmussen, Steen Eiler, “Furniture: Tools for Living,” Danish Foreign Office Journal 8 (1953): 5–7Google Scholar, and the somewhat more critical treatment by Davies in “Twentieth Century Danish.”

18 Klint, Kaare, “Undervisningen i møbeltegning ved kunstakademiet,” Arkitekten 13 (1930): 193–224Google Scholar.

19 See Hansen, Da danske møbler. Concerning the invention of tradition, see, for instance, Abrahamsen, Povl, Den danske enkelhed: Et samfund og dets arkitektur (Copenhagen, 1994)Google Scholar, who devotes an entire book to demonstrating a unique and lengthy tradition of simplicity in Danish architecture and furniture design. The Arts of Denmark exhibitions in the United States in 1960 and 1961 are another good example. See Lassen, Erik, The Arts of Denmark, Viking to Modern: An Exhibition Organized by the Danish Society of Arts and Crafts and Industrial Design, United States of America, 1960–61 (Copenhagen, 1960)Google Scholar. Skjerven, Astrid, “Goodwill for Scandinavian Design: The Lunning Prize, 1951–70” (unpublished Ph.D. diss., Oslo University, 2001)Google Scholar also discusses the invention of tradition in Danish furniture. For the invention of traditions, see Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terrence, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar.

20 Denmark: The Lonely Planet Guide (2005), 38. See also Hansen, Per H. and Petersen, Klaus, Den store danske møbelguide (Copenhagen, 2005)Google Scholar, and, in particular, Hansen, Da danske møbler (2004). Recent examples of the Klint subnarrative are Douglass Brenner, “The Other Danish Modern,” New York Times, 3 Apr. 2005; and M. Owens, “Kaare Klint,” Elle Décor, Apr. 2005 : 84–88.

21 Peter Hvidt, “Snedker og arkitekt,” Berlingske Tidende, 17 Feb. 1959. (My translation.)

22 Elizabeth Gordon, “The Beauty that Comes with Common Sense,” House Beautiful, July 1959: 55–122.

23 Marion Gough, “Hans J. Wegner—Poet of Practicality,” House Beautiful, July 1959: 65–114.

24 Betty Pepis, “For the Home: Danish Craft Designs Stem from the Traditional,” New York Times: 15 July 1950.

25 Lassen, The Arts of Denmark.

26 See Jalk, Dansk Møbelkunst; Christiansen, Povl, Fyrretyve år med snedkerlaugets møbeludstillinger (Copenhagen, 1986)Google Scholar; Møller, Viggo Sten and Hansen, Johannes, Vore dages møbler: Et håndværks vej i en maskintid (Copenhagen, 1955)Google Scholar; and Hansen, Da danske møbler.

27 Quoted from Hansen, Da danske møbler. (My translation.)

28 Christiansen, Povl, Snedkerlaugets Møbeludstilling: Københavns Snedkerlaug 32. Udstilling. Exhibition catalog. (Copenhagen, 1958)Google Scholar. (My translation.)

29 Christiansen, Snedkerlaugets Møbeludstilling.

30 For the concepts of narrating identity and positioning, see Barbara Czarniawska, “Identity Lost or Identity Found? Celebration and Lamentation over the Postmodern View of Identity in Social Science and Fiction,” in Schultz, Hatch, and Larsen, The Expressive Organization, 271–83.

31 “Danish Arts and Crafts. A Permanent Sales Exhibition,” Danish Foreign Office Journal no. 3 (1951): 24–26Google Scholar.

32 Viggo Sten Møller, “Fashions in Furniture,” Danish Foreign Office Journal (1960, special U.S. issue): 28–30.

33 Modern Danish Industrial Art: New York, 1939 (Copenhagen, 1939), 3–4Google Scholar.

34 Ibid., 5.

35 See McCracken, Culture and Consumption, 76–77; and Hansen, Da danske møbler.

36 Sørensen, Leif Leer, Edvard Heiberg og dansk funktionalisme—en arkitekt og hans samtid (Copenhagen, 2000)Google Scholar.

37 See, for instance, Raizman, David, The History of Modern Design (London 2003), 204Google Scholar.

38 Finn Juhl, “Danish Furniture Design,” Architects' Year Book (1949): 134–40.

39 See Henriksen, Bård, “Arne Jacobsen and His Laminated Chairs,” Scandinavian Journal of Design History 7 (1997): 7–28Google Scholar; Thau, Carsten and Vindum, Kjeld, Arne Jacobsen (Copenhagen, 2001)Google Scholar; Harlang, Chr., ed., Poul Kjærholm (Copenhagen, 1999)Google Scholar; and Hansen, Da danske møbler.

40 Modern Danish Industrial Art; and Hansen, Da danske møbler.

41 For more information on Den Permanente, see Hansen, Da danske møbler; Sieck, Frederik, Dansk kunsthåndværk og kunstindustri, 1931–1981—belyst gennem glimt af Den Permanentes historie (Copenhagen, 1981)Google Scholar; and Hiort, Esbjørn, Premio la Rinascente Compasso d'Oro—Den Permanente—Copenhagen (Milan, 1964)Google Scholar.

42 Such statements, like these made by master cabinetmaker Jacob Kjær in 1932, were not unusual. See Jacob Kjær, “Magasinmøbler—magasinstil,” Nyt Tidsskrift for Kunstindustri (1932): 119–20. The concept of Danish design as democratic is also discussed in Davies, Twentieth-Century Danish Furniture Design.

43 See Pulos, A. J., The American Design Adventure, 1940–1975 (Cambridge, Mass., 1988)Google Scholar; and Nelson, George, Chairs (New York, 1953)Google Scholar.

44 See Hansen Da danske møbler; Salicath, Bent, “The Lunning Prize Designers' Exhibition” (New York, 1957)Google Scholar; and Skjerven, Goodwill for Scandinavian Design.

45 This discussion mirrored the “trickle down” theory proposed by Veblen, in The Theory of the Leisure ClassGoogle Scholar, and by Georg Simmel, in “Fashion,” International Quarterly (Oct. 1904; reprinted in American Journal of Sociology [May 1957]: 541–58). Cabinetmaker A. J. Iversen was firmly convinced of this theory. He believed that once the upper classes began to adopt modern furniture, the lower classes would follow suit. See Hansen, Da danske møbler.

46 Cf. Schumpeter, Joseph, The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle (Cambridge, Mass., 1934, English ed.), 66.Google Scholar This case does not fit well with Blaszczyk's claim, in Imagining Consumers, that producers relied on fashion intermediaries to learn about consumers' preferences.

47 Interestingly, in 1948, Nyt Tidsskrift for Kunstindustri [New Magazine for Industrial Arts] changed its title to Dansk Kunsthåndværk [Danish Arts and Crafts]. The change reflected the early Danish functionalists' initial admiration of the machine age, which subsequently shifted to a preference for arts and crafts.

48 Egebjerg, Gudrun, Sådan skal du bo (Copenhagen, 1936)Google Scholar; Bo Bedre (Copenhagen, 1937)Google Scholar; and Hiort, Esbjørn, Bo rigtigt (Copenhagen, 1947)Google Scholar. See also Kjær, Jacob, Møbelbogen (Copenhagen, 1945)Google Scholar.

49 The background of FDB-Møbler is discussed in more detail in Hansen, Da danske møbler, and in Guldberg, Jørgen, “Tradition, modernitet og usamtidighed: Om Børge Mogensens FDB-møbler og det modernes hjemliggørelse” (Working paper, University of Southern Denmark, Center for Cultural Studies, 1998)Google Scholar.

50 Hansen, , Da danske møbler; and Birgit Kaiser, Den ideologiske funktionalisme (Copenhagen, 1992)Google Scholar.

51 Kaiser, Den ideologiske funktionalisme and interview on 25 Feb. 2004 with cabinetmaker Holger Nissen, who took over Wørts's cabinetmaker's workshop in 1956.

52 Hansen, Da danske møbler; Davies, Scandinavian Furniture in Britain; and Davies, Markets, Marketing and Design. Davies concentrates on the U.K. market. Because of the United Kingdom's import restrictions, higher taxes, and lower income levels, exports to the United Kingdom were primarily of cheaper furniture.

53 See Pulos, The American design Adventure; Marcus, G. H., Design in the Fifties: When Everyone Went Modern (New York, 1998)Google Scholar; and Tate, Allen and Smith, C. Ray, Interior Design in the 20th Century (New York, 1986), 390–91, 433–34Google Scholar.

54 Holt, Does Cultural Capital? 222, 238–41; Laumann, Edward O. and House, James S., “Living Room Styles and Social Attributes: The Patterning of Material Artifacts in a Modern Urban Community,” Sociology and Social Research no. 3 (1970): 321–42Google Scholar; and Parr, Household Choices, on the negative correlation between modern furniture and a traditional way of life and low incomes. See also the American designer Edward Wormley's explanation for Danish Modern's appeal to American consumers: Wormley, Edward, “Hans J. Wegner i USA,” Dansk Kunsthåndværk (1959): 45–46Google ScholarGoogle Scholar; and Johnson, Abbey, “Homemaker Finds Furniture Buying Threat to Her Ego,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 14 Feb. 1960.

55 Hansen, Da danske møbler.

56 Kaufmann, Edgar, “Finn Juhl of Copenhagen,” Interiors (Nov. 1948): 96–99Google ScholarGoogle Scholar. See also Gueft, Olga, “Finn Juhl: About the Quiet Life of a Danish Architect,” Interiors (Sept. 1950): 82–91.

57 “Juhl Furniture: Baker's Grand Rapids Galleries,” Interiors (Nov. 1951): 84–93.

58 D.A., , “Danish Furniture: Old Hands Give Shape to New Ideas,” Interiors (Feb. 1950): 86–91.Google Scholar

59 Interiors (March 1950). See also Møller and Hansen, Vore dages møbler; Nielsen, Johan Møller, Wegner—en dansk Møbelkunstner (Copenhagen 1965)Google Scholar; and Denmark: The Lonely Planet Guide, 38.

60 See also Svend Erik Møller, “Den første eksport til USA,” in Møller, Svend Erik, ed., På; Wegners tid (Herning, 1989)Google Scholar; and Flemming Kilander, “Dansk Møbeleksport,” in Møller, ed., På; Wegners tid.

61 Hansen, Da danske møbler.

62 The marketing of Danish furniture by persons with links to Denmark was also the case in the U.K. See Jackson, Positive Influence, and Davies, Scandinavian Furniture in Britain. See also Møller and Hansen, Vore dages møbler.

63 The quotation is from The Lunning Collection (catalog, n.d., probably 1957). See also The Danish Craftsmen Series published by John Stuart Inc. (catalog, n.d.); and The George Tanier Selection (catalogs: New York, 1956, 1960)Google Scholar.

64 Anderson, J., “Designs for Living,” Playboy, July 1961: 50, 52, 108–9, 110.Google Scholar

65 A good example is Elizabeth Gordon, “The Threat to the Next America,” House Beautiful: Apr. 1953: 126–30, 250–51.

66 “For the Home: New Designs Shown in Denmark,” New York Times, 2 Oct. 1954. See also Gough, Hans J. Wegner—Poet, 68, on Hans Wegner's furniture.

67 See, for instance, Edgar Kaufmann Jr., “Hans Wegner: The Heresies of a Quiet Dane,” Industrial Design, Mar. 1959: 56–59.

68 Keating, Kate, A Young American Looks at Denmark (New York, 1963), 28Google Scholar, 36, 50. For the shopping guides, see, for instance, Fielding, Temple, Temple Fielding's Selective Shopping Guide to Europe (New York, 1961)Google Scholar, and her glowing recommendation of Den Permanente and Illums Bolighus for furniture and design.

69 S. Johnsen & Co., Sightseeing Copenhagen and Sealand (brochure) (Copenhagen, 1956)Google Scholar.

70 H. S. Commager, “Big Lessons from a Small Nation,” New York Times Magazine, 2 Oct. 1960.

71 “Famous for Food, Fun and Fairy Tales,” New York Times, 23 Feb. 1964.

72 Sarah Tomerlin Lee, “Scandinavia,” House Beautiful, Jan. 1968: 73.

73 Edgar Kaufmann Jr., “An American View of the Arts of Denmark and Danish Modern Design,” in Lassen, The Arts of Denmark, 99–106.

74 See Hansen, Da danske møbler. For traditional accounts of how the exhibition was organized, see Remlov, Arne, Design in Scandinavia: An Exhibition of Objects for the Home from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden (Oslo, 1954)Google Scholar; and Huldt, Aake, Design in Scandinavia: USA-Canada, 1954–1957 (Stockholm, 1958)Google Scholar. Leslie Cheeks Jr. wrote about Scandinavian design and American taste in “Do Americans Have Good Taste?” New York Times, 6 June 1954.

75 Betty Pepis, “Glass and Silver give Tone to Show,” New York Times, 16 Jan. 1954. For a systematic account of the press coverage of the exhibition tour, see Huldt, Design in Scandinavia. See also Remlov, Design in Scandinavia; and Hansen, Da danske møbler.

76 For an analysis of this, see Glambek, Ingeborg, Sett utenfra: Det nordiske i arkitektur og design (Vojens, 1997)Google Scholar.

77 Edgar Kaufmann Jr., “Scandinavian Design in the USA,” Interiors (May 1954): 108–85.

78 Marion Gough, “How to visit Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden during the Scandinavian Design Cavalcade,” House Beautiful, July 1959: 46–110.

79 Danish Design, catalog prepared by Magasin du Nord (Copenhagen, 1960)Google Scholar.

80 Danish Design, catalog prepared by Crome & Goldschmidt Department Store (Copenhagen 1960)Google Scholar; and Illums Bolighus: Center for Modern Design, catalog prepared by Illums Bolighus (Copenhagen, 1961)Google Scholar.

81 J. Katzen, “Prestige—The Intangible Asset,” Retailing Daily, 28 Apr. 1952.

82 E. Bartels, “Danske møbler til USA,” Mobilia (Feb. 1956): 21–28.

83 The examples are numerous, but see, for instance, Elizabeth Gordon, “The New Taste Trend,” House Beautiful, Oct. 1952: 174–75; Elizabeth Gordon, “The Editor's Forecast of the New Taste Cycle,” House Beautiful, Oct. 1952:182–83, 269–72; M. Roche, “The Growing Love of Soft, Rounded Flowing Forms,” House Beautiful, Oct. 1952:184–87, 248–49; L. van Houten, “Furniture,” Arts & Architecture, Aug. 1954: 25–29; and George Tanier Selection (catalog).

84 Van Houten, Furniture.

85 See also Betty Pepis, “The People's Choice,” New York Times, 2 Jan. 1955.

86 This correspondence can be found in the Danish Business Archive, Aarhus, archive of “Thorald Madsens Snedkeri (1550),” box “1929–79, Diverse korrespondance vedr. ordrer og tilbud.”

87 For possession rituals, see McCracken, Culture and Consumption. According to Madigan and Munro, in “House Beautiful,” the claim to craftsmanship is a general characteristic of the furniture industry, even when the claim is not substantiated by the actual production process. Nonetheless, the Danish network was successful in identifying craftsmanship as a special characteristic of Danish furniture.

88 Laumann and House, Living Room Styles. See also McCracken, , Culture and Consumption II, 17–47Google Scholar.

89 Parr, Household Choices.

90 See the map at the end of Møller and Hansen, Vore dages møbler.

91 Jerome, Judson, “Go East, Young Man,” Chicago Review 18 (1965): 78–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

92 Betty Jo Ramsey, “What Perfume Tells About You,” Los Angeles Times, 13 Nov. 1960.

93 Monica Boman also makes this claim in her book on Swedish modern furniture, cf. Boman, Monica, ed., Svenska MöBler, 1890–1990 (Stockholm, 2004), 235Google Scholar. On the United Kingdom, see Jackson, A Positive Influence, 48.

94 Pepis, Glass and Silver. During the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, a number of books and catalogs helped to construct Danish Modern as a brand. See, for instance, Contemporary Danish Design (Copenhagen, 1960)Google Scholar; Hiort, Esbjørn, Modern Danish Furniture (New York, 1956)Google Scholar; Segerstad, Ulf Hård af, Modern Scandinavian Furniture (London, 1963)Google Scholar; Karlsen, Arne and Tiedemann, Anker, Made in Denmark: A Picture Book about Modern Danish Arts and Crafts (New York, 1960)Google Scholar; Karlsen, A., Salicath, B., and Utzon-Frank, M., Contemporary Danish Design (Copenhagen, 1960)Google Scholar; Lassen, The Arts of Denmark; Møller, Svend Erik, Brugskunsti stuen [Danish Design in the Living Room] (Copenhagen, 1956)Google Scholar; and Remlov, Design in Scandinavia.

95 Hansen, Da danske møbler.

96 Regarding the shift from a modern to a postmodern consumer culture, see Holt, Douglas B., “Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding,” Journal of Consumer Research 29, no. 1 (2002): 70–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

97 Ibid.

98 Hansen, Da danske møbler.

99 Edgar Kaufmann Jr., “Two Decades of Interiors: Design: The Guiding Stars, 1940 and 1960,” Interiors (Nov. 1960): 177–79. See also Hansen, Da danske møbler; and Lassen, The Arts of Denmark.

100 Rita Reif, “A Show at the Met on What's Out of Fashion,” New York Times, 2 Mar. 1978.

101 Ada Louise Huxtable, “The Melancholy Fate of Danish Modern Style,” New York Times, 21 Aug. 1980.

102 Bodil Wrede Nielsen, “Behind the scenes of Danish Design,” Interiors (Oct. 1960): 30. See also Svend Erik Møller, “The Danes at Home,” Danish Foreign Office Journal (special U.S. issue, 1960): 18–20.

103 Skjerven, Goodwill for Scandinavian Design. Regarding Finn Juhl's furniture, see Hansen, Da danske møbler.

104 The invitation is in the Danish Business Archive, archive of “Thorald Madsens Snedkeri,” box “1912–72: Diverse sager.”

105 “En haandsnedker bruger da maskiner,” Politiken, 20 Feb. 1955.

106 See Holt, “Why Do Brands Cause Trouble?”; Hansen, Da danske mebler; and Horsfeld, Hanne, “Innovations—Fusions—Provocations: Verner Panton's Seating, 1955–1970,” Scandinavian Journal of Design History 8 (1998): 44–79Google Scholar.

107 Weick, Karl, “Sensemaking in Organizations: Small Structures with Large Consequences,” in Weick, Karl, Making Sense of the Organization, 2nd ed. (Maiden, Mass., 2001; first ed., 1993), 3–31Google Scholar.

108 Horsfeld, Innovations—Fusions; Harlang, Paul Kjærholm; and Hansen, Da Danske Møbler.

109 Jack Lenor Larsen, “Furniture, Italian and International,” Interiors (Nov. 1957): 112–16.

110 Per Arnoldi and Torben Schmidt, “De beslutningsdygtige. Samtale med Jens Bang,” Mobilia (July 1970).

111 Blaszczyk, in Imagining Consumers, argues that producers took notice of consumer preferences. The case of Danish Modern seems to indicate, however, that this was a complicated dialectic that led to the lock-in of design “type forms.” See Molotch, Where Stuff Comes From, for the concept of “type form” and a discussion of consumers' resistance to changes in design.

112 See also Madigan and Munro, “House Beautiful.”

113 Hansen, Da danske møbler.

114 Most of this section is from Hansen, Da danske møbler.

115 Hansen, Da danske møbler, 560.

116 Jens Lenler, “Designoprør: Dansk håndværk trues,” Politiken, 31 Aug. 2004.

117 See, for instance, Holt, Douglas B. and Schor, Juliet B., “Do Americans Consume Too Much?” in Holt, Douglas B. and Schor, Juliet B., eds., The Consumer Society Reader (New York, 2000), vii–xxiiiGoogle Scholar; Ritzer, George, “Introduction,” in Baudrillard, Jean, The Consumer Society. Myths & Structures (Thousand Oaks, Calif., 1998; French ed., 1970), 1–23Google Scholar. See also Twitchell, James B., Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld (New York, 2004)Google Scholar; Holt, How Brands Become Icons; and McCracken, Culture and Consumption II.

118 For some further discussion, see Czarniawska, Barbara, Narratives in Social Science Research (Thousand Oaks, Calif., 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Boje, David M., Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research (Thousand Oaks, Calif., 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Andersen, Niels Åkerstrøm, Discursive Analytical Strategies: Understanding Foucault, Koselleck, Laclau and Luhman (Bristol, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.