Nordic Quarters

Category: People

For more than 40 years, Danish design label Montana has shown that storage can be playful, personal and anything but boring. CEO Joakim Lassen shares how there’s still plenty of room for fun

This year marks the centenary of Danish-born architect and designer Verner Panton, best known for his succinct use of colour. From exhibitions to special editions, many design brands are revisiting Panton’s bold, avant-garde approach to colour and form.

For Danish design company Montana, however, the occasion feels more personal. Rather than seeing Panton as a reference point, the brand has long worked with his legacy in a more direct way and, in many respects, embodies that same playful spirit and unapologetically bold approach to colour.

This connection is far from accidental. While Montana’s modular storage and spatial organisation were originally developed in close dialogue with Panton himself – he saw interiors as flexible spaces that could be rearranged over time – the company has long known Panton not only as a design icon, but also as a family friend.

In fact, Danish designer and former naval officer Peter J. Lassen, who founded Montana in 1982, struck up a close friendship with Panton in the early years of his career. ‘Verner Panton was pushing the boundaries in design, in his use of colour and materials,’ says Joakim Lassen, who now runs Montana. ‘What he did was something entirely new by using the room as an installation.’

That thinking has remained central to Montana’s thinking ever since and forms the starting point for the latest release from the brand: Colour Archive Limited – Three Colours.

Reintroduced from the Montana archive and presented for the first time last week, the limited edition brings three shades – Montparnasse, Boulevard and Extreme Lilac – back into the Montana System 1112 module for a defined period of one year.

‘I think Verner Panton understood the idea behind Montana,’ reflects Joakim Lassen. ‘He saw that you could create a long line of different colours, almost like a sculpture made from boxes. You could tell a story just by using colours and shapes.’

“He saw that you could create a long line of different colours, almost like a sculpture made from boxes. You could tell a story just by using colours and shapes”

That same idea of colour as a way of building narrative within a space is carried through in the latest Colour Archive Limited release, with each of the three tones bringing its own distinct character.

While Montparnasse is deep and composed, Boulevard feels warmer and more complex, with a mustard base lifted by subtle green undertones. Extreme Lilac is playful and expressive, introducing a brighter note that lifts the mood of its surroundings.

‘I still see Verner Panton reflected in some of these products,’ says Joakim Lassen. ‘I think it comes through in the confidence to use such a wide range of colour. We work with a broad palette because we want people to be able to express their personality through what they create.’

montanafurniture.com

Photography courtesy of Montana Furniture