Hashira Portable Table Lamp

From lighting and furniture, tabletop to bath, the wide offerings of Menu speaks to this Copenhagen-based company’s guiding quest for functional originality. “It’s about creating aesthetically pleasing designs that evoke true feelings as well as improving processes in people’s daily lives,” says Menu founder Bjarne Hansen. This is also reflected in its stable of influential creatives including Norm Architects, Afteroom Studio, Jonas Wagell and Krøyer-Sætter-Lassen among others standouts.

Menu is just as dedicated to responsible manufacturing as innovation. Working to locate new partners in developing countries around the world, the company searches out local factories or small private co-operations to turn out high quality goods and also provide a better economic foundation for the people involved in that production.

“Norms aren’t boring,” Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen of Norm Architects says, reflecting on the name of his Copenhagen-based design studio, formed with fellow architect Kasper Rønn. “On the contrary, the firm wants to make use of all that centuries-old wisdom that we now know as design.” Norm encompasses furniture, dinner service, kitchenware and lighting fixtures as well as architecture projects with third partner Linda Korndal.

“There’s something in our design culture that’s born out of our connection to the Nordic climate, to the crafts and the natural materials that surround us, and that 'something' makes us stand out,” Jonas says. Norm Architects has garnered numerous prestigious awards such as Red Dot, IF Design Award and Design Plus Award. Jonas focuses on aesthetics and Kasper concentrates on technology but the lines are often blurred on any offering, says Jonas. “You should be able to look at it in 10, 20 years’ time and still find it useful and beautiful.”