I was invited by Henriette Quistgaard to visit Strandgaarden – Jens Quistgaard’s home and workshop by the sea.  I will visit along with Stig Guldberg, creator of the Jens Quistgaard documentary film, over night and I am very much looking forward to my visit.

I’m sure to see a lot of cool stuff in Copenhagen, down South at Strandgaarden, again back to Copenhagen, and then in Paris on our final leg of the journey.  I’ll post to the blog as I go, so although I haven’t been writing a lot lately, keep your eyes on the blog for updates soon.

Oh, if you have any recommendation on what to see in Copenhagen or Paris, please post them in the comments.

From the Dansk International archives exclusively for Crate and Barrel, Jens Quistgaard’s award-winning mid-century designs are reinterpreted just for a new generation in eco-friendly acacia wood. With the same warm look and rich grain as the original teak, they’re so true to their museum-quality heritage that the original names live on. Mills display as sculpture and functional objects, with ceramic mechanism that grinds both salt and pepper.

You can find them at Crate & Barrel for $39.95 each.

First of all, the wood grain is somewhat different than most Dansk mills.  It does not feel like the nice teak Dansk used.  It’s teak, but the grain is not as straight and not as fine.  Perhaps it is not old growth teak.  The grain of the top portion doesn’t match the bottom as well as it should, either.

Second, the grinders look exactly like the grinders Dansk used during its run when it produced mills in Thailand, but all of the writing on the plastic has seemingly been sanded off – except the word Thailand. Perhaps someone in Thailand bought a bunch of Dansk grinders off the back of a truck and went into production for themselves after grinding off the brand?

Third, although the design is quite good, it never felt exactly like a JHQ design.  The scale and heft is right, but it’s not quite as refined and the quality is just a bit off.  That plug in the top sure looks right.  However, the way the top meets the bottom is not how JHQ did it.  Either the seam is hidden in some way by the contour of the wood or it is accentuated by a small bevel on each piece.  The top of this mill just sits on the bottom.

Fourth, the finish on the bottom is quite rough.  Most Dansk mills are finished equally fine on both the top and the bottom.

Lastly, most of the mills from that era are quite common – this one seems quite rare.

Today there was a new listing for the mill on eBay which has solved the mystery.  This mill clearly has a label which reads “Selandia Designs – Teakwood from Thailand”.  Selandia is a Danish company that made teak and stainless steel accessories, similar to Dansk, but probably a bit later in the era – perhaps in the 70s judging from some of the packaging I’ve seen.  It’s usually pretty good stuff, but much more utilitarian and not the quality of Dansk.

The mill is quite nice, but it it’s Dansk.  The good news is that the mystery is solved.  The bad news is that I have identified it as a Quistgaard mill in my book. It is in one of the illustrations, and in my defense, I had only seen poor photos of the mill at the time and was not aware of most of these issues.  I’ve found a few errors in the book, and will surely correct them if I do another edition.

Somehow Target has managed to laser in on multiple areas of interest for me and came up with a killer combination.

First of all, I like good, consistent design.  I really like the packaging for these products.  They all feature copious white space, the arrow with the knocked out logo, a clean lock up of bold and thin sans serif typography, plus simple, bold cut-out photography.  The quatity is clearly spelled out in a box with rounded corners in the lower right hand corner, and the details consistently laid out along the bottom.  I think they did a great job with the packaging on these.  The only potential issue is with the pharmaceutical products.  The generic Benedryl anti-itch cream tube looks a lot like the Hydrocortisone  anti-itch cream.  Depending on how bad the itch is, I could see getting them confused.

Second of all, they have jacked directly into my collector gene.  The idea of having a shelf full of matching products is compelling to me.  The visual clutter of different boxes and packages fades away with the colorful-arrows-on-white look of these. Collect them all and your drawers and shelves will look great!  There are over 800 products in the line – spanning more than 40 categories – including household, healthcare, beauty, baby, and personal care.  What a great look for a modern home. I mean, look at the collection of products on the left and on the right in the target banner below.  On the left you have a random collection of logos – some good, many terrible.  They are designed to stand out on the shelf, but often look terrible in the home. With up&up, you get a consistent, clean look. It’s fun to see how many of the common things you buy everyday could benefit from this treatment.

Just to be clear, I’d be perfectly happy in other aspects of my life buying all of my products from one company.  I’d get my clothes from Patagonia, power tools from Bosch, cars from VW, and – of course – dinnerware from Dansk.  Things can’t really work out that way in practicality, but the idea that you have a collection of items all envisioned by the same mind – or at least brand – is a compelling one.

The last of the trilogy of awesomeness for up&up is the high quality and low prices. I can’t pass up a bargain but hate poor quality. Besides the look, the banner above emphasizes you could save up to $27 with that shopping basket.  I don’t know if all of their products are the quality equivalent of the brand name, but the ones I have used are quite good and they have not let me down in either general quality or product design (where it matters, like for a toothbrush).  They also match the “premium” level of brand name products. Their paper towels match the quality of the better brands, not the cheap thin ones that fall apart instantly.

No matter how much cheaper they are, I’d buy these products anyways.  They are easy on the eyes, and you don’t feel like you are buying into the American consumer myth of brand – when generic is just as good or better. It feels more pure, more consistent, and focuses more on what the products are, not what their brand represents.

Generic product design come a long way.  I remember when generic products came out in the 70s and store shelves were full of plan labels “beer”, “peas”, “rice”.  I thought they were cool back then but they felt cheap – and they were indeed low quality.  I didn’t know why I liked them (being a kid), but looking back I think the simplicity and consistency of the package appealed to me.  The movie “Repo Man” painted a bleak future of generic products, but it seems that up&up has turned that around.

Now we’re at a point where many of the products that everyone uses everyday are commodities, all the same, and only differentiated by marketing. In cases where the “user experience” is vastly different between products (like cell phones or cameras or shoes) I say by all means choose the best of the best even if you have to pay a little more.  But when Advil is the same as generic ibuprofen, it’s time to simplify and decide what is really important, and see how these things fit into your life.

My collection started in the mid-to-late 90s when I was living in New York City, making very little, and getting interested in mid-century design.  There were a ton of cool stores in NYC and flea markets every weekend and I was able to get quite a collection going.  eBay was gaining steam, and Austin Powers coming out made the martini totally shagadelic again.  I got a few Eames chairs, a small bar with retro fish on it, and a bunch of cocktail shakers.

Since the shakers have been in a box for a few years, and my Dansk collection is taking up my current storage, it’s time to sell most of them off on eBay.

See the cocktail shakers on eBay here >

Don’t worry, I’m keeping a few for myself in case I get thirsty…

Here’s a few photos.

Of note from the first round of sales was a Nissen mill that sold for $300, perhaps a record for his mills (or at least near – I seem to recall one selling for more before).   This is a very cool one that I would love in my collection

Buy on Amazon >

Buy on eBay >

A few things you might want to know:

– The DVD includes the 36 minutes documentary film as well as 8 additional clips of Jens Quistgaard talking in detail about different designs from his collection. The extras total an additional 28 minutes of film.

– The beautiful slip-covered package includes a comprehensive full color 56 page booklet in Danish and English which features dozens of full color photos and illustrations.

– Imported from Denmark (works on US players)

– Subtitled

– Visit jensquistgaard.com for more information and to view a trailer

A good sized crowd came out for the event.  Some Quistgaard collectors, some mid-century modern buffs, some SF modernism dealers, and some who just wandered in off the streets.  It was great to have the filmmakers Stig Guldberg and Finn Mathiasen present for the event.  There was a display of Jens Quistgaard’s works (from my collection), a slideshow of Quistgaard design photos, and some nice wine and hours d’ouvres to kick off the night.  The Studio manager Eric Hildebrandt gave a nice introduction and after the film there was a talk by director Guldberg.

The film was very well received by all.  It’s a great slice of life of Quistgaard.  It’s not so much a survey of his career as it is a portrait of the man.  The viewer is invited into Quistgaard’s home – it really feels like you had a short visit with the man and you know him a little bit at by end.  It gets at his his personality more than his output.  It ignores time lines and details in lieu of philosophy and thought.  The film has great archival footage and well photographed “design porn” footage of many of JHQ’s best works.

A few weeks before the SF event the film made its premier in Quistgaard’s native Denmark and from all accounts went very well – they had to add a second showing to accommodate all the interest.  Since Quistgaard is better known here in the US, it is great to see the attention on his work so close to where he lived.

See below for some photos from the events.  Check back here for information on how to get the film in the US once distribution has been arranged.  You can learn more at http://jensquistgaard.com/default_uk.html

A free showing of the new documentary film:
The Designer Jens Quistgaard:
A Saucepan for my Wife

The filmmaker Stig Guldberg will be attending the event and hosting a short Q&A session after the film.  There will be an exhibition of Quistgaard’s work as well.  Refreshments will be served.

Design Within Reach Potrero Studio
2299 Alameda St (at Potrero Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 415.734.9172

Thursday February 11, 2009
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

More information:
The Designer Jens Quistgaard: A Saucepan for my Wife
www.jensquistgaard.com

Design Within Reach
www.dwr.com

Come see the free screening – this Thursday 2/11/21010 – at the Potrero Studio in scenic (and currently sunny) San Francisco.