Design has undergone a massive evolution in the past century. It’s given the world staple movements such as Bauhaus and mid-century modern, while continuing to redefine its role in the world as something purely functional and decorative. For now, contemporary design is the term used to describe the style of the present. It’s a broad-sweep label for a movement that isn’t easily defined, but it's that same fluidity which makes it interesting. We asked two Dutch designers – Thier & van Daalen and Simone Post – to talk to us about the focus of contemporary design nowadays, their work and what's next for the design scene.

In the next installment of our dedicated seller series, where we profile the exceptional creatives in our community, we spoke to celebrated French comic artist Didier Tronchet, to talk about his comics career so far, how he writes and why humour and surprise are the essence of his work. “You have extremely sombre decor compared to Bertrand’s. At Bertrand’s, there are knives everywhere”, Didier observes dryly. In the intimate environs of 2021, this conversation is happening where else but Zoom.

What does innovation mean in the Nordic context? The ideas changing the way we live, big or small, share a red thread – whether they’re coming from a huge multinational like H&M, a niche start-up with a vision to connect the world, like Mapillary, or even a beauty brand challenging the corporate norm. “It’s about equality, it’s about fairness, it’s about humanity,” replies Simon Caspersen, the co-founder of IKEA’s external ideas lab, SPACE10, when asked what characterizes new thinking in the north. Those shared values have been around long before tech start-ups and the circular economy – and it’s likely that whatever the new ideas to come, those values will still lie at the core of Nordic innovation.