Cecilie Manz

Background

Cecilie Manz is a Danish designer, born in 1972 in Odsherred on Zealand and based in Copenhagen. She graduated in 1997 from the School of Design at Copenhagen's Royal Danish Academy, after an exchange in Helsinki (Wikipedia names the Finnish School of Art and Design and adds that she worked briefly in Yrjö Wiherheimo's studio there). She founded her own studio in Copenhagen in 1998.

Signature Style

Her own site says the studio designs industrially manufactured products, experimental prototypes and sculptural one-offs, and quotes her: her work has always revolved around simplicity and the process of working toward a pure, aesthetic and functional object. On Muuto's designer page she adds that she designs things that have meaning to her, and that function is essential: if she cannot give a good reason for a new product to exist, she prefers not to make it.

Notable Works

Muuto's designer page lists the Workshop chair, bench, table and coffee table, the Compile shelving system and bookend and the Airy coffee table among her products. Wikipedia names the Caravaggio lamp for Lightyears and the Mikado table, which it says is in MoMA's design collection, and her speaker work for Bang & Olufsen. Her site names Fritz Hansen, Fredericia Furniture, Muuto, Nikari and Nils Holger Moormann among the companies she works with, along with Maruni, Duravit, Iittala, Georg Jensen Damask, 1616 Arita Japan, Hermès and Bang & Olufsen.

Legacy

Her site lists the Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal (2011), the Bruno Mathsson Prize (2009), the Finn Juhl Architectural Prize (2007), the Crown Prince Couple's Cultural Award (2014), Designer of the Year at Maison&Objet Paris (2018), the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (2019) and the Honorable Award of the Danish National Bank's Foundation (2021).