Kolding Design Days

What is it like to pick up the phone and be offered one of the most high-stakes illustration commissions imaginable?

For designer, illustrator and author Signe Parkins, the reaction was simply “WHAT?!” when she was invited to create illustrations for Danmarks Nationalbank’s new banknotes. On the other end of the line was a chief designer with a confidential assignment she could never have imagined being offered. It was something of a dream commission for Parkins, who has always been fascinated by the graphic design of banknotes.

Today, Signe Parkins is one of two Danish artists behind the illustrations for the new banknotes, which the rest of us will get to see when they are issued in 2028. Parkins has, of course, seen her own contribution, but all her sketches were handed over to Danmarks Nationalbank long ago. She still has her pens, though, and uses them as part of the daily discipline she is known for: drawing every day to keep her creativity alive.

The thread of time
For knitwear designer and textile artist Iben Høj, working without having seen a piece in its entirety is nothing unusual. Machine knitting has been her primary medium for around 20 years – first as a knitwear designer for international fashion houses, top models and members of the Danish royal family, and later through spatial, sculptural installations exhibited everywhere from Salone del Mobile in Milan and Trapholt Museum in Kolding to The Future Perfect Gallery in New York.

Many of these works have been so large that their full form has only revealed itself once they were installed. Here, it is not ink but thread that fascinates her and drives a creative process that continues to evolve once the installation is in place and begins interacting with its surroundings.

Design thinking as a driver
Surroundings and human needs form a third kind of medium for Johanne Engelhart Said. She is Head of Innovation at Orkla Danmark Food Solutions in Kolding and has a background in design management, including studies at Kolding School of Design.

Here, neither thread nor ink is part of the development process. Instead, the focus is firmly on understanding the needs that products and services can address in everyday life.

For Said, design thinking is a key tool in developing new products and an integral part of everyday business practice, keeping development closely connected to both products and users. Design becomes a practical tool for making decisions when the market does not provide clear-cut answers.

Three days of design
Each of the three profiles brought their own perspective to Kolding Design Days, where Kolding School of Design joined companies and organisations across Denmark’s only designated design municipality in filling the three days with talks, exhibitions, workshops and guided tours.

Inside a former bank in the heart of Kolding, a temporary auditorium provided the setting for talks about design thinking, thread and ink – all captured on camera so that the three perspectives can now be experienced in a short film.

Watch the film featuring three voices from Danish design below, produced by Oliver Båge.