Sweden and Denmark are well-established on the international design scene, and the minimalistic and timeless Scandinavian style has proven to be immensely popular around the world. Norway has now joined the party and is receiving praise and attention from far and wide, thanks to a young and ambitious furniture company in Hellvik. Morten Hippe, Frode Tingbø and Jørgen Tengesdal share a passion for Norwegian design, and the three friends decided to collect the best of Norwegian furniture design from the 1950s and 1960s under one brand. Their ultimate goal is to create classics that can be handed down through generations, and a few years in they’re definitely on the right path.
Treasure hunting in dusty attics
It was an extensive project which they knew would require hard work, plenty of patience and a whole lot of dedication. In 2015, they started going treasure hunting in dusty attics and spent hours and hours ploughing through filing cabinets, interior magazines and all the literature they could dig up in search for the perfect designs. They also needed detailed drawings or produced originals in addition to the rights to use the designs, which resulted in many visits to family members of the designers and other persons with the intellectual property rights of the designs. Among the designers in their impressive collection we find names such as Fredrik Kayser, Sven Ivar Dysthe and Sigurd Resell. One of their best sellers is the lounge chair “Krysset”, for which they were awarded the design award “Klassikerprisen” by Designindustrien in 2019. The chair was designed by Fredrik Kayser in 1955 and was one of the first relaunches Eikund introduced to the market.
That was a proud moment for Eikund and Kayser’s daughters.The three friends were met with nothing but positive attitude towards the project, and roughly a year after the pursuit started, they were quite simply spoilt for choice and ready to enter the next stage of the project. Eikund was registered and founded as a business in 2016, and the furniture factory was officially opened in 2017. After a challenging start, the ball was now rolling smoothly.
The importance of being comfortable
They have one clear rule at Eikund: they will never produce a piece of furniture that isn’t comfortable. The Scandinavian style is famous worldwide for its simplicity, functionality and style, but the comfort is equally important for the young furniture company. Jørgen explains that “You’ve failed if the furniture isn’t comfortable”, and they make sure every single furniture that leaves the factory ticks all the boxes. It’s also important for Eikund to be faithful to the original designs, which means they don’t allow themselves to be creative with alterations and modifications. “These designs are so great they deserve not being tampered with”, Jørgen tells us. They do, however, make use of modern technology to ensure perfect quality and durability. In addition to it being a fun concept to work with, Jørgen also stresses that it’s a concept that’s easy to understand: Eikund is a Norwegian furniture company which is producing Norwegian classics for a contemporary audience. They simply want to give new life to great design that otherwise would be gone and forgotten.
The brand has already found its way into a number of homes as the list of retailers keeps growing, but their largest market is the professional market. They have furnished places such as Grand Hotell Egersund, the Michelin restaurant Re-Naa in Stavanger, the Foreign Office in Norway and the hotel At Six in Stockholm.
Eikund has already achieved a respectable name and reputation both domestically and across Norway’s borders, but they don’t make a secret of the goal to grow even bigger and establish themselves as a leading furniture brand both nationally and internationally.
Keeping it local
The brand name origins from the island Eigerøya, located just outside Egersund. It was originally named Eikund, which is one of the oldest place-names in Norway and mentioned in Heimskringla, the famous collection of sagas about Norwegian kings dating back to 1230. The island used to be full of oak trees (“eik” in Norwegian), which is where the name Eikund comes from.It’s the perfect name for a furniture company in Egersund. They like to keep things local in as many aspects as possible, and that includes the work force and production. The western coast used to be an important area for furniture production from around 1850 until the mid-1900s, so they’re bringing back more than just Norwegian design heritage – they’re also relaunching what used to be an important industry in the area.
