Ove Rogne
Ove Rogne is a Norwegian entrepreneur and product designer who plays an active role in the contemporary Scandinavian design scene. Since co-founding Northern Lighting in 2005, Rogne has commissioned and manufactured work from a variety of designers and revived interest in mid-century Norwegian lighting styles. [1] He has also designed several lighting products that were manufactured by Northern Lighting.
Rogne launched the Northern brand in 2018, a contemporary lifestyle concept that designs and produces furniture, lighting and several types of interior accessories. [2] The company was formed with creative input from designers Morten Skjærpe Knarrum and Jonas Norheim. Together, the three men identified the brand values that made many of Northern Lighting’s products unique, and expressed them through furniture, interior accessories and new lighting designs.
Rogne has stated publically that he has a vision for making good Nordic design more relevant to international markets. He is a strong advocate of Scandinavian simplicity and encourages designers to work with the natural materials that have characterised Nordic design throughout its long history. Rogne has created awareness around the need to preserve the region’s craft heritage. Rogne has also established design competitions intended to bring recognition to young Norwegian and international designers by promoting and manufacturing their works.
Early life and education[edit]
Rogne was born in Narvik, Norway on 7 October 1974. As an undergraduate student, he studied business, law and political science. Rogne worked internationally within the management consulting industry for eight years before co-founding Northern Lighting. He is an active venture capitalist, investing and co-funding a range of start-ups within the design sector and other industries.
Northern Lighting[edit]
The company was established in 2005 by Ove Rogne, Jørgen Halstensen Svendgård, Erlend Lappegard and Trond Svendgård. At the time, three of the men were successful management consultants and Svendgård The Flying Culinary Circus was an award-winning chef. They launched Northern Lighting with the classic Snowball lamp, a Bauhaus shape updated for the twenty-first century. Over time, Halstensen Svendgård, Svendgård and Lappegard stopped playing active roles in the company, and Rogne assumed full responsibility for Northern Lighting’s operations. Under his direction, Northern Lighting’s catalogue grew to include more than 45 products distributed in more than 50 countries. The products appealed to an ever-widening base of architects, interior designers and retailers. Rogne paid homage to Norway’s own design history by reintroducing classic Norwegian lamps from the 1950s and 1960s, such as Birdy by Birger Dahl and Butterfly by Sven Ivar Dysthe. Rogne commissioned products that broke away from lighting conventions. Several won awards and a few sparked new approaches to illuminating interiors. Northern Lighting ceased trading early in 2018, and Rogne announced that all new and existing products would be produced and distributed by the newly-established Northern brand in future.
Northern[edit]
On 8 January 2018, Rogne officially launched the new lifestyle brand Northern, having announced previously that Northern Lighting’s trademark style would be expressed in furniture, interior accessories and new lighting designs. Northern’s point of difference is its mandate to pioneer products that bring more creativity, flexibility and multi-functionality to public space interiors and individual homes.
Although Northern benefited from the working relationships and tried-and-tested supply chains established by Northern Lighting, the new brand was built from scratch. Rogne began by creating a mix of furniture and interior accessories that would establish Northern as a comprehensive lifestyle brand from the start.
Northern launched with a broad collection of products created by 16 designers from seven different countries. [3] Each product addresses the demand for understated luxury and the consumer need for multifunctional designs. Rogne encouraged the designers to challenge the status quo, resulting in a variety of product types made from a wide range of materials and production techniques. The 16 members of Northern’s first design team were Rudi Wulff, Morten & Jonas, Färg & Blanch, Mario Tsai, Gridy, Yonoh, Cecilia Xinyu Zhang, Kyla McCallum, Vera & Kyte, Elina Ulvio, Stine Aas, Mattias Stenberg, Ann Kristin Einarsen, Johan Lindsten, Johanna Forsberg and Sami Kallio. The designers operate in addition to the Northern Lighting design team, whose products are now part of Northern Lighting’s heritage portfolio.
Northern’s debut collection was launched at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in Sweden on 6 February 2018. The launch coincided with ‘Meet Northern,’ an exhibition of the company’s products and inspirations held at Magno Art in Stockholm. The exhibition was curated by set designer and interior architect Tekla Severin. [4]
Own designs[edit]
In 2006, Rogne designed the award-winning uplighter floor lamp Oslo Wood for Northern Lighting, which received a ‘Reader’s Favourite’ design award from Bo Bedre magazine in 2014. [5] In 2008, Rogne co-designed the Moo wall lamp together with former colleague Trond Svendgård. In 2016, Northern Lighting launched a new ‘anniversary’ version of Oslo Wood. Oslo Wood was cited again the same year when Northern Lighting received Bo Bedre’s Producer of the Year award. [6]
Creative director[edit]
Beyond his role as a designer at Northern Lighting and subsequently Northern, Rogne is pioneering a lifestyle concept that can be applied by other brands. The concept includes colours and textures. Rogne collaborated with designers Morten Skjærpe Knarrum and Jonas Norheim to develop a custom colour exclusively for Norwegian paint producer Jotun. The colour, named Northern Mystic (colour code 7613), was launched during the Stockholm Furniture Fair in 2018. [7]
Collaborations with Morten & Jonas[edit]
Rogne began working with designers Morten Skjærpe Knarrum and Jonas Norheim, the duo behind the Morten & Jonas design studio, in 2011. [8] Rogne initially acquired a table lamp created by the designers for Northern Lighting, then manufactured a variety of products from the designers in the years to follow. The close-knit, creative partnership between the three men continued as Rogne invited the designers to help mastermind the Northern brand. For two years, the designers worked collaboratively with Rogne to establish a new brand characterised by a bold interpretation of classic forms and a determination to innovate with natural materials. Skjærpe Knarrum and Norheim helped Rogne establish Northern’s first design team, becoming part of it when Rogne included four new products designed by the Morten & Jonas design studio in the debut collection.
Industry activist[edit]
Rogne claims that, despite the abundance of design talent in Norway, the biggest market shares for Scandinavian furniture are currently held by other Nordic nations. Rogne, and others, are lobbying the government to invest in Norway’s creative industries. ‘Product design is an industry where new growth could develop in real terms,’ says Rogne. ‘Denmark and Sweden have made their design industries integral to their national economies. Now it’s time for Norway to do the same,’ he told journalist Helle Tjaberg in 2017.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Ove Rogne - northern.no". northern.no.
- ↑ "Homepage - Northern". northern.no.
- ↑ "Samler 16 designere til ny kolleksjon". bo-bedre.no. 5 February 2018.
- ↑ "overview". TEKLA EVELINA SEVERIN.
- ↑ "Vindere af Design Awards 2014". bobedre.dk. 18 September 2014.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ "NORTHERN MYSTIC". www.jotun.com.
- ↑ "www.morten-jonas.no". morten-jonas.no.
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