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Jacob Jensen was
born on 29 April 1926 in Vesterbro, Copenhagen, son of upholsterer
Alfred Jensen and Olga Jensen. He was admitted into the School of
Applied Arts in 1948 and left in 1952 with industrial design as his
specialized subject.
Between 1952 and
1958, he was employed at Sigvard Bernadotte and Acton Bjørn - the
first Danish industrial design studio where he became leader of the
studio in 1954. During this time he also worked in the U.S.A. In 1958,
he started his own design studio the name of Jacob Jensen Design. Jacob Jensen
has, during the past 50 years, designed more than 500 industrial
products and developed survival strategies, product families and form
language for numerous Danish and foreign companies, among them: Bang
& Olufsen A/S (developed form language and designed most of the
audio products during the period 1964 - 91); porcelain for Rosenthal
Studio; hearing aids for GN Danavox; hi-fi for General Electric;
office chairs for Labofa A/S; telephones for Alcatel-Kirk A/S; cable
reels for Jo-Jo A/S; watches, telephones, and "Jensen One"
car for Max René; wind turbines for NEG Micon A/S; modem for LASAT
Networks A/S as well as kitchen hardware for Gaggenau Hausgeräte
GmbH. He has
contributed to our understanding and appreciation of how things we are
surrounded by, can be. Through an original, simple, and today, classic
form language, Jacob Jensen has time and again shown people all over
the world that music systems, telephones, watches, cars, modems,
windmills, kitchen appliances, cable reels, bowls and numerous other
products used in our daily life, can contain a quiet beauty. It is
this innovative contribution that places Jacob Jensen Design among the
most recognized studios in the world. Jacob Jensen
has, through the years, received around 100 national and international
awards for his design. In 1996 he was honoured with the "Knight
of the Order of Dannebrog" issued after endorsement by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the cabinet secretary of Amalienborg.
In 1999, he was included in the "Great Danes", a list
compiled by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the 50 most
recognized Danes. He is
represented in a number of museums, among them The Museum of Modern
Art in New York with 19 products included in their Design Collection
and Design Study Collection. In 1978, Jacob Jensen was honoured with
an exhibition together with Bang & Olufsen under the title Bang
& Olufsen, Design for Sound by Jacob Jensem, only the third time
that the Museum had arranged a solo exhibition. Today he is recognized
as one of the leading creators of original form among industrial
designers of the 20th century. In 1972, he was
first represented in the Danish Museum of Decorative Art, which had
housed the School of Applied Arts where he had studied. The exhibit
was a product designed for Bang & Olufsen and in 1975, the museum
opened a special exhibition of his work. The museum was
used for the presentation of the "Jensen One" car in 1992,
unveiled by Danish Crown Prince, Frederik - an event which drew a
great deal of public attention and in the following year the Museum
opened the exhibition "Jacob Jensen Design" - a large
retrospective exhibition documenting Jacob Jensen Design’s
development from 1958 up to 1993. The exhibition was documented with a
selection of sketches, drawings, models and products, the working
methods which have been characteristic of his design. The Museum has
in store about 200 pieces of sketches, drawings and other renderings
of Jacob Jensen Design products. The "Jacob
Jensen Design" exhibition toured from Copenhagen to several other
cities in Denmark and travelled further to Groningen, Holland and
Marseille and Paris in France. The Museum of
Modern Art in New York is one of the world’s leading museums of
modern art. Along with art exhibitions, the museum also covers related
areas, such as architecture and design. The museum exhibited design as
early as 1934, five years after its foundation. The intention was to
document the design that was characteristic of the twentieth century.
As the museum puts it: “An object is chosen on the basis of its
quality, because it intends to attain, or has created a foundation for
the ideals of beauty which has been established as important in our
time”. In 1972, seven Bang and Olufsen (B&O) audio products,
designed by Jacob Jensen were included in the Design Collection of The
Museum of Modern Art. The Museum of
Modern Art has a total of 15 B&O audio products designed by Jacob
Jensen included in their Design Collection. Furthermore, 2
Kirk/Alcatel E76 & EX76 telephones designed by Jacob Jensen and 2
Jacob Jensen watches 6101 and 6201 designed for Max René by Timothy
Jacob Jensen are included in the Design Study Collection. To quote
Arthur Drexler, former director of The Museum of Modern Art, “In one
thousand years, the Design Collection, we hope, will be an invaluable
treasure containing some of the most beautiful cultural objects of our
time. Many of them rival for beauty and importance but represent the
best that has survived from earlier civilizations.” In 2000, Jacob
Jensen’s Weatherstation series was awarded the “RED DOT” award
by the reputable Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany. The
award is presented each year as a prize for high design quality to
industrial products in the course of the International Design
Innovations competition. In 2002 the same award was bestowed on the
Jacob Jensen Timer. Now, under the leadership of Timothy Jacob Jensen with Nigel Hopwood as Art Director, Jacob Jensen Design works according to the same methods today as those used since its establishment. The components applied every time are: perspective, creativity, innovation, understanding - and basically an almost infinite reworking. This intense work takes place in an atmosphere of creative dialogue which covers the technical as well as the psychological aspects. During this process the design manifests itself so evidently that the user recognizes the idea and function of the creation on sight. |
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