Motivation: Line Depping is the winner of the Nova Award 2014 for her self-explanatory and esthetically assured design. Her design is minimalistic and clearly rooted in a classic Scandinavian tradition; and while the same can be said of many other contemporary Nordic designers, very few of them achieve the same mastery as Line. At first glance her pieces may seem simple, but the more you get acquainted with them the more expressive and intriguing they grow. To quote modernist Mies van der Rohe: “Less is more”. The Nova Design Award has been instituted by Formex, the leading trade fair for Nordic interior design.
“I feel happy and humbled that the jury chose me as the winner of the Nova Award. It means a lot that my work is seen and recognized”, says Line Depping
Line Depping is from Denmark and has run her own design studio in Copenhagen since 2007. For Line Depping, it is crucial to see a good reason to create a new piece of furniture; an opportunity to add something to an object that expands its usefulness. Her expression is simple, and her emphasis on function also involves making room for disorder in order to accommodate the messy and chaotic aspects of life. Line Depping has a special focus on materials. She mainly works with wood but often adds other materials to provide a counterpoint to the wood. By combining different materials she achieves a field of tension between the textural qualities of the materials.
The jury consists of Pascale Cottard-Olsson, producer and gallery owner, Lotta Lewenhaupt, journalist and author, Kerstin Wickman, Professor of the History of Design, Louisa Hammarbäck, Editor-in-Chief, Plaza Interiör, and Christina Olsson, Event Manager for Formex. The guest jury member is designer Petrus Palmér.
The prize consists of two parallel exhibitions in January, one at Formex and one at Gallery Pascale. The winner will also feature in an article in Plaza Interiör, take part in an activity, such as an all-expenses trip or a training course, worth up to SEK 50,000. The Nova Design Award is organized in collaboration with interior design magazine Plaza Interiör and Gallery Pascale.
Previous winners of the Formex Nova Design Award include Hanna Hedman and Simon Klenell from Sweden in 2011, Mari Isopahkala from Finland in 2012 and Mattias Stenberg from Sweden in 2013.
More of Line Depping:
Age: 35
Education: Designer from The Danish School of design 2007
A selection of previous exhibitions and awards:
2014 – Exhibition Mindcraft14, Milan 2014
2013 -Award for the project 'Wood box experience by the Danish Art foundation
2011- 1st prize in the Bodum design award together with Jakob Jørgensen
2007- 1st prize in competition Premio Vico Magistretti, arranged by De Padova and Designboom.
Can you describe your design?
I try to work in a direction where things are as simple and self-explanatory as possible, and at the same time have a human expression. So that it is obviously to be used by human beings.
It is important to me when I work that I have a clear idea of the situation that I'm making the product for. My goal is that my products will show that my starting point comes from how we are living. It is not just a finished shiny product, but that you get the feeling that this is a product you would really like to use in your daily life. That it doesn't force you to change anything but fits in, in the daily chaotic, messy, calm and ordered life.
How do you work?
It is important for me when I develop new design to use my hands. I always make prototypes either in the final material or in cardboard. In that way I’m sure to get proportions and details right.
Inspiration?
I am very interested in the qualities of different materials. I like to work with the tension between different materials, between rough and fine materials, cheap and more refined, the material color and artificial color.
To find out more, please visit www.formex.se or contact:
Christina Olsson,+46 8 749 44 28, christina.olsson@stockholmsmassan.se,
Lotta Signeul, +46 8 749 43 36, lotta.signeul@stockholmsmassan.se
