Danish Design Award is Denmark’s national award for outstanding design. The annual event brings together the design industry, businesses, and the general public to celebrate the difference design can make.

The award categories range from job-creating and cost-cutting design over health solutions and resource sharing to visionary concepts that demonstrate the diversity of design and its value to both companies and society.

The Pelikan flies high

A large stuffed bird marks the entrance to Pelikan Design's premises in Vestergade in Copenhagen. A pelican, of course. It hangs above the counter from Duba Møbelindustri A/S, which Pelikan Design, alias Lars Mathiesen and Niels Gammelgaard, are themselves the creators of.

This also applies to the other furniture that furnishes the 250 m² upper floor with a view over Vestergade's old tiled roofs.

The pelican has been on the wings for 20 years - only interrupted by a break between 1986 and 1992, when Mathiesen and Gammelgaard looked for other fishing grounds.

"Pelicans fish in flocks," says Niels Gammelgaard. "They beat the surface of the water with their wings to lure the fish up. Fishing is a joint project. In the same way, our tasks are solved together." "That is the symbolic meaning of the name line. But there is also a commercial one," adds Lars Mathiesen.

"A company name should always appear in combination with an image mark. This distinguishes it from other companies and facilitates identification."

"Good design is good business". However, the reason for Pelikan's success lies not only in the name, but in the two architects' talent for creating functional and aesthetic solutions within several design genres - from children's bicycles and medical equipment to IKEA bestsellers and Fritz Hansen design. Over time, it has become several prestigious design awards, most recently the Danish Design Council's Annual Award.

by /Ida Engholm