So I had some very distant relatives come to Denmark yesterday and when I say distant I mean VERY distant. This was the first time I met them but I still took the day off and showed them around Copenhagen. We went to different sights but our last stop was the Danish Design Centre, this was only my second visit there and I'm glad I remembered my camera this time. This place is dedicated to exhibiting Danish designs. Danish design have really undergone a renaissance since the slow times in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Danish design sky rocketed in the 50's and 60's with prominent names such as Arne Jacobsen and others. What I like about it is the simplicity and beautiful lines and natural material used. The same can be said about Danish fashion. Simple, yet beautiful.
The picture of the monkey is a children's toy, handcrafted in wood, each one takes a long time to make. An alumni from my study, which I had the luck to meet, told me once that one of his contacts in Tokyo let him know that if he had some danish merchandise, there was this one guy who might be interested. He got the address and when he landed in Tokyo he went to his store. Now, this isn't the ordinary street-level, big facade kind of store we're talking about. Martin, which is is name, had a hard time finding the place, despite having lived and worked in Tokyo for so many years and knowing his way around. Eventually he found this place that was sub-ground, a tiny store with one working there, the owner. The owner of the store was intrigues by this monkey and wanted a total of 2 to keep in his store. He would often make journeys all over the world, find special items that he loved, get 1-2 of them an sell them at his "store". Disappointed that a this was all he was able to sell, Martin sold them and went out to lunch with the store owner and his contact. Now, many many months later, when he had forgotten this incident, the store owner suddenly called him, asking if it was alright if this big shot used the monkey in an advertisement. He cleared it with HQ first and got a go. Fast forward 2 months later, Martin steps on the subway in Tokyo when in the wagons, posters of that monkey are EVERYWHERE! Shocked and pleasantly surprised, he saw that it was an ad for the newest cellphone, with the hottest Japanese actress at the moment and...the monkey next to her. This made demands go through the roof! All stocks worldwide had to be shipped to Japan and even then demands could not be met. It ended in people paying over 300$ for a wooden monkey. Unfortunately it takes a LOONG time to make a handcrafted monkey, so even though HQ did their best, they couldn't supply the demand in Japan.
Items that could be bought. The "crushed" bowl I kinda liked, really special. And the birds! You could turn their bodies upside down, making them thinner or fatter, make them look sad or happy just by moving their body parts!
Very convenient for any backpacker, a spoon and fork in one, takes up minimal space!
These "items" could be found downstairs in a supermarket environment. When I say "items" I mean empty packaging and hadn't it been for the rather pricey tags, I would have gotten a few of these for friends and myself.
