Do you want to be our friends?
“Once I was seven years old, my momma told me, go make yourself some friends or you'll be lonely”
- Those are the words of Lucas Graham. The Danish singer who is currently topping the international music charts and whom the Danish Prime Minister quoted in his banquet speech when he visited the White House recently.
These words are also very relevant in relation to Design School Kolding. We know that without friends we are nothing.
On Monday 23 May, Rector Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen welcomed around 50 ambassadors to Design School Kolding. And the new friends came from all over the world, including Ghana, Hungary, Bolivia, Vietnam, Albania, Canada and even our sister nations Sweden and Norway.
Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen began the international visit by talking about Danish Design:
- If I were to sum up the essence of Danish Design I would say: Excellent craftsmanship, simplicity and functionality centred on the user, and even more importantly I would say: Danish Design is democratic – for everyone – because it is affordable. Today, the starting point for large Danish Design companies, such as LEGO, Pandora, Grundfos, ECCO or IC Company is still democratic – they want to reach everyone. This applies to Design School Kolding as well.
This set the tone for a tour de force through Danish Design as it is practised at Design School Kolding. We value collaboration with the wider community, and so the ambassadors received an introduction to the school’s partnerships with a number of companies and organisations, including ECCO, Kopenhagen Fur, Vejle Municipality, LEGO, Coop, Swarowski, TREFOR and American space agency NASA.
