Words: Micha van Dinther and Magnus Wittbjer

Established in 1993, Designtorget, is undoubtedly a deep-rooted and iconic brand on the Swedish retail scene. Often picking up young, up-and-coming designers, it has acted as a driving force behind the Swedish design phenomenon by facilitating a more wide spread distribution of fun, innovative and often quirky furniture, objects and useable trinkets. The stock is sourced through an original selection process in which the goods are judged by a jury, before they are commercialized in the retail space. We have yet to find out what gets the jury’s juices flowing, but considering the amount of dish cloths with printed messages or unnecessary “book shelves” that can only carry one book, we can only assume that they are very particular in terms of what gets their motor running.

22 years in the making, the design object retail chain has realized that it is time to step up a gear to deal with the fierce competition they now face. This year, all of the 13 stores (11 in Sweden and two in Norway), along with the web shop, will receive a complete makeover. The revamp has been a year-long process, carried out in a joint effort between local architect firm Boys Don’t Cry (that, incidentally, also employ girls) and design studio Kurppa Hosk.

Together, the two have created a new retail concept, a new platform for the Designtorget online store and a new brand identity in order to create a coherent style, clearly reflecting what Designtorget stands for.

The new corporate identity and logo for Designtorget aim to better illustrate the company’s core values of form, function and materials and will reach further and communicate more clearly to the public. The core of the redesign is the “DT”-logo – a symbol that can be viewed as a scale, a table with a bowl placed on it, or a smiley. The unveiling of the new Designtorget profile started in April and it will continue to be rolled out in all of the stores around Sweden and Norway over the coming months.