DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 160
In the autumn of 1983, Drejet contacted the Danish Design
Centre in Copenhagen, which had been led since its establishment in 1976 by the mercurial Jens Berndsen, to solicit
advice with regard to the development of a system for the
outfitting of complete interiors within building carcasses,
much as was already done jointly with Rockwool in ship
interiors. Berndsen – who was very well connected in the
Danish design scene – suggested a competition among
architects and designers and this was instigated in the
spring of 1984 with a municipal building interior as the target
environment.
Its winner was the prominent Danish architect Knud
Holscher, who in the 1950s and 1960s had been one of
Arne Jacobsen’s close assistants. The jury admired
Holscher’s integrated wall and ceiling system, which they
found to be ‘a coherent, yet richly varied means of creating
attractive space, and, at the same time, solving the problems associated with installations … creating architectural
clarity and variation.’ DAMPA paid Holscher the 200,000
kroner prize money – but its own management were less
convinced of the attractiveness and marketability of his
solution, which was never put into production.
Drejet commented that ‘the search for new ideas is an
important part of our work. We are beginning to glimpse the
outline of what our business will be in the future. And we
make room for the unexpected.’
While the competition and rebranding were taking place,
Drejet decided that the whole of DAMPA’s factory site should
be given a thorough design make-over to become effectively a showroom for the new design-orientated business concept, a further worthy intention being greatly to enhance the
working environment for all staff. The entire factory – which
was of red facing brick – was painted in the new DAMPA
corporate colours of white with dark blue elements. Meanwhile, the renovated offices and corridors were adorned
with large, non-figurative artworks by the artist Rudi Olsen.
(These were comparable with the artworks in the Copenhagen Regional Hospital in Herlev and in the DSB ferries and
stations).
Berndsen used the opportunity of meeting Drejet also to
advise that Dæmpa’s corporate visual identity should be
entirely redesigned and he recommended the graphic
designer Ole Søndergaard to carry out the task. At the same
time, the company would be renamed from Dæmpa to
DAMPA to ensure clarity for international customers.
According to Søndergaard, he had a brief meeting with the
client in Tommerup and, while returning to Copenhagen by
train, he got the idea that the letters in the new logo should
illustrate the soundproofing effect of its products. Back in
his office, he designed the letters in the logo with a characteristic ’fading into raster points’, similar to the perforation of
the surface of DAMPA panels. The client was happy with
this solution, which was launched in the spring of 1984, concurrently with the announcement of the winner of the Danish
Design Centre’s DAMPA product design competition.
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