A grey spiral-bound book sits beside six smaller booklets in various shades of blue and cream. The book cover features bold black graphic bars and a list of names under the title “Afgangsudstillingen 2010”. Each booklet displays a different artist’s name, such as “Alen Aligrudić” and “Mia Helmer”, alongside a page number and a black geometric shape.

Designbolaget is Denmark's best kept design secret, and it's wonderful

Words: James Cartwright
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Date: 3 September 2012; Work
Graphic Design
Publication

Every once in a while we come across a studio with such astounding creative prowess we can scarcely believe we’d not heard of them before. Danish design studio Designbolaget have a portfolio of such magnitude and quality we’re amazed they’re not the darlings of the graphic design world – though with a client list predominantly based in the Netherlands and Scandinavia it’s perhaps understandable they’re not better known abroad.

With ten years of experience behind them, the studio has a strong handle on all aspects of their creative practice – art directing fashion shoots, designing identities for top creative institutions and book design are all second nature to the Designbolaget team. If we’re being completely honest we love their publications best for the sheer breadth of sylistic, thematic and typographic diversity they employ. Whether exploring niche subjects like the history of Danish tattooing or promoting public funding, their bound printed works communicate beautifully and are rarely less than stunning.