For the second year in a row we are behind the design concept for the Carlsberg Foundation’s annual that was published last week. The 191 paged annual is written in the customized typeface "Carlsbergfondet" that we designed for the foundation. The typeface is inspired by the way the legendary Danish artisan Thorvald Bindesbøll employed the thorny and twisting hop in Carlsberg's original label design. The typeface was awarded a gold medal at this year’s Creative Circle Awards. Read more about the foundation's visual identity and custom typeface.

Last week, Funen Art Museum and the Carl Nielsen Museum opened two separate exhibitions that celebrate Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen's artistic works. Both exhibitions mark her 150th anniversary and shed light on her ever-passionate approach to both sculpturing, portraits and sketches. We are behind the visual identity and the design of the communications material for the celebratory exhibitions. Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen was a female pioneer within sculpturing in Denmark and became a role model for her generation – partly as a result of her position as one of the only female professors at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Read more about the exhibitions here here.

This Friday Danish children and their families can literally take a run through history when the experience race ‘Jagten’ (The Hunt) mixes history and sport. We have been responsible for Jagten's visual identity and designed all communication materials, including banners and signs that now decorate our streets and squares. The race takes both children and childish souls to castles, forests and hidden bunkers in twelve different places in Copenhagen and suburbs. Read more about the race here.

Yesterday, thousands of dedicated F.C. Copenhagen fans celebrated winning their 10th Danish Superliga championship. At the match it was announced that a special F.C. Copenhagen championship beer would be handed out after the game - free of charge. Brewed by Carlsberg – designed by Kontrapunkt. During the game this movie also made by us was screened several times. Also have a look at these photos, where fans celebrate their team.
(Kontrapunkt has also been in charge of the SuperLiga logo. But that’s a completely other story).

The renowned Danish thinker and birthday boy Søren Kierkegaard is celebrated throughout the month of May because of his 200th anniversary. We joined the tribute and designed the visual identity for KIERKEGAARD 2013. As part of the design we created posters that quote Kierkegaard’s existential thinking. The posters now decorate the walls and streets of Denmark and call on us to think about our self, our time, our conformity and our choices. Heavy stuff. Read more or join the celebratory activities here.

From today the municipality of Lyngby-Taarbæk never sleeps. This morning they launched their new website that makes it possible for the citizens of Lyngby-Taarbæk to handle their municipal affairs whenever it suits them – day or night. We created and designed the new website. The aim has been to create logical and easy accessible self-service solutions, fast search functions and user-friendly digital communication. Have a closer look at the new website here. Also, to launch the new website, we created a media campaign that literally puts the writing on the wall - in this picture the walls of the town hall.

Today Tuborg celebrates their 140th birthday. Congratulations! On this special occasion we walked down memory lane with Tuborg and created a special celebratory design. We reawakened the iconic Rød Tuborg bottle, Henningsen’s thirsty man, the tramps of Storm P and “Den Gyldne Dame” (The Golden Lady). Read more about the design and campaign here. And watch the old characters come to life here.

We have developed a new visual identity for the prestigious old lady as part of the renovation. It embraces the idea of pleasure and indulgence, the pulse of Copenhagen and the exquisite experience of privacy that d’Angleterre represents. The new identity contains a revitalized logo and a customized typeface. Also, d’Angleterre now only goes by its surname. ”Hotel” has been erased as part of the name emphasizing that d’Angleterre is so much more than a hotel.
Have a closer look here or read how Politiken rates the return of d’Angleterre.

We are proud to announce that Kontrapunkt’s renewed brand identity for Andersen Bakery is nominated for a FAB award. Just fabulous. The design arises from mixing customs and design ingredients from both Denmark and Japan. The result is a unique and balanced visual narrative – a fusion of Danish tradition and Japanese precision. We now await the final verdict that falls in London by the end of May. Read more about the award here: www.fabawards.com
FAB Awards received more than 3000 entries from 60 countries. Kontrapunkt is the only danish bureau that is nominated for an award.

We are proud to announce that Fie Hansen-Hoeck will be joining the Kontrapunkt board. She will help strengthening the strategic focus on our growing business within retail and FMCG.
Fie Hansen-Hoeck has more than 25 years experience in retail. She is former CEO of ISO Supermarket and as Vice President of Netto for 12 years she has played a central role in developing the largest supermarket chain in Denmark. Currently Fie joins 10 boards within retail and food, and in addition to her work as a professional board member she manages the company Retail Network.

Our Creative Director, Mads Quistgaard identifies a new politeness trend when he - once again - participated in Meningsmaskinen. Mads and three other opinion formers debated the tone, language and quality of the reviews in the Danish media.
Today there are several examples of companies and projects that advocates a more friendly and polite tone and manner. For example the Danish mobile company 'Call me' that encourages us to speak in a proper tone, the TV program 'Høflighed på 100 dage' that examines the danes politeness, and the book ‘Fucking Flink’ inciting us to be more friendly. Mads sees this as a backlash on a hard tone and brutish reviews.
Watch the program here.

Blue is the new black. Northern Europe’s largest aquarium, Den Blå Planet, just opened. We helped them develop their visual identity, including brand platform, web and communications concept. The visual identity is implemented on promotional materials, posters and web. Our idea is simple, yet impactful: The typography has been dumped into the ocean and floats through whirls of water creating a quirky, playful and flexible expression. 

Our event team is right now preparing for the Novo Nordisk Global Medical Affairs Meeting (GMAM) that takes off in Copenhagen March 21st - 22nd.
We have made the creative concept and are responsible for the design development, implementation as well as production and handling on site. We can’t wait to see our design in action the next two days. 
In spring 2012 we did the creative concept for the Novo Nordisk Global Sales, Marketing and Medical Meeting (GSMM) – a three-day event in London.

We are proud to present our new website. It has been a long time coming and we are proud to reveal it to the public, our customers and friends.
The coming weeks and months we will continuously add new features, content and cases. So stay tuned for more.
Mads Quistgaard, our Design Director, comments on the launch: “We design brands and make them thrive. For us a brand is the melody, the tune, the core idea that holds it all together - creating a strong, appealing and dynamic universe. We express and explore that universe in design, words, digitally and even in branded space. That’s what we trying to show with our new site.”

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) - an independent, licence-financed public service organisation - marks the launch of new television programs and channels with an updated visual identity. Kontrapunkt is behind the design of 12 of the 14 new logos for the new TV and radio channels. The graphic design profile has been tightened up and is now ready to put DR in the global, digital reality. The ambition has been to develop a more simple and functional line inspired by DR’s logo history and the Danish design tradition.

Yesterday Svante Lindeburg, Head of Brand Strategy, participated in DR2's debate programme 'Smagsdommerne' where death was a recurring theme.
They discussed Christopher Hitchens' book Mortality, the new thriller movie The Hypnotist and the popular computer game Assassins Creed 3.
Watch the programme here.

On December 8th our creative director and founding partner will give a lecture on typography and design challenges in modern brands at BODW.
BODW – Business of Design Week – is Asia’s leading event on design, innovation and brands. Through forums, seminars and exhibitions BODW frames discussions between designers, business leaders and educators on present design challenges. Each year, BODW partners with a country that contributes to the content of the event. This year Denmark is the partner country. Bo was invited to talk at the event, because of his impressive experience in creating cross-media brand identities for companies worldwide.

Communication is an important factor in the strategic and practical preparatory work when applying for prequalifications. Architects often give a low priority to communication as it steals time and energy from the drawing board. Our brand strategist, Beate Bernhoft, and architect, Jennifer Dahm Petersen, have developed the course “PQ and PR – Communications in architecture firms”, helping architects and architectural companies improve their communication work. The course takes place twice a year at the Danish Architects’ Association in Copenhagen. Next course is the 7th and 8th of May 2013 in Aarhus.
Find more information here.

“The New Wave in Danish Architecture” receives good reviews and is discussed on several blogs.
The last couple of days the book has attracted considerable interest. Fastcodesign.com runs a feature on the book and archdaily.com (the world’s most visited architecture website) mentions the publication. The publicity has been very positive and is now spreading to blogs.
Also Danish media including - Weekendavisen, Politiken, Information, Berlingske and Bo Bedre - have reviewed or mentioned the publication.

Systems and Scenarios is the first monograph about the Copenhagen based American artist Yvette Brackman’s work. Her complex and evocative work takes many forms such as installations, sculptures, performances, videos and text.
Our graphic designers, Peter Folkmar and Lars Bjørnstad, have made the graphic design of the book (published November 14th). 
The book contains a series of interviews with Brackman, conducted over several months in the fall of 2011 by the independent curator and writer Helle Lundby Petersen, and a comprehensive essay by Heike Munder, director of the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich.

Over the last decade we have built up a distinct line of business focusing on consumer brands. This area constitutes half of our total business. Handling 3.000-6.000 products a year, we are one of the country’s largest agencies within packaging design.
SuperGros has chosen a combination of two agencies consisting of the advertising agency Sunrise and Kontrapunkt. “We look forward to cooperating with both SuperGros and Sunrise. The tendency is that private labels to a greater extent set the agenda across categories. Together with SuperGross and Sunrise we have great ambitions to strengthen the position for Dagrofa Group’s private labels”, says Managing Director Thomas Gamst.

Kontrapunkt proposes new strategy and visual identity for King Abdullah Financial District. The identity marks the position of the district as the new financial hub in the Middle East.
The strategy is founded on the tagline 'Grow with us' followed by a graphic and spatial concept that highlights the visions of economic and cultural growth, as well as personal fulfillment in the new district. Through a flexible system of triangular shapes and soft colors the design adapts to different communication platforms. It all compliments the master plan of Henning Larsen Architects.

Assistens cultural centre launches a new project that brings the cemetery into the digital era. Twenty-five videos tell visitors about the area and its forever resting inhabitants as well as the life that exists there today. A vital part of this project is a new website and mobile site.
The new sites are designed to communicate Assistens as a cultural institution with events, exhibitions and knowledge-sharing activities. They allow visitors to view maps of the graves, plan sightseeing routes, get location-based information and watch storytelling videos. Kontrapunkt updated the visual identity, created the information architecture as well as the design for the two sites www.assistens.dk.

Seven Danish Red Cross ambassadors have designed their own cut-out Christmas ornaments. The sales will generate a total of 500.000 DKK for the organization's humanitarian work. Kontrapunkt has again contributed with the layout and design of the eight cut-out sheets and assisted the seven ambassadors in the design process. The seven ambassadors are Niels Olsen, Lotte Heise, Master Fatman, Christian Bitz, Annette Heick, Uffe Buchard and Alberte Winding. The cut-outs can be purchased in Kvickly, SuperBrugsen, and online at Red Cross' website, and consists of seven designer sheets + one template for your own artistic expression to make a total of 48 different ornaments.

A new book for art students in Japanese high schools presents Kontrapunkt's redesign of the Danish Crown. The crown was redesigned for ministries, railways and cultural institutions, each crown having its own unique trait.
The book is published by the Japanese Ministry of Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and describes the different movements in art and design history. Kontrapunkt's work has been used to illustrate an outstanding example of icons that are easy to interpret, as well as how the use of iconography can become an important element in a country's identity.

Kontrapunkt is proud to announce of Morten Gade as new Head of Digital. Morten comes out of a position as Digital Director of FDB, the biggest democratic membership organizations in Denmark. Before FDB, he was Head of Communications at Bysted. He will now lead Kontrapunkt’s digital team and focus on the development of digital concepts that help build brands through innovative end-user involvement.
The recruitment of Morten is part of the company’s growing commitment to the design of digital services. Other newcomers are the two highly skilled digital designers: Halei Liu and Peter Urban, specializing in programming and digital visual identities.

After three years as managing director, Jasmi Bonnén passes on the baton to senior partner Thomas Gamst. Jasmi will continue as senior partner and director, and will focus on business development and on advising clients on brand strategy.
Thomas Gamst has held various management positions in Kontrapunkt since 2006. His latest role has been as director of Kontrapunkt’s implementation business area. Thomas assumes his new position as of today.
As part of this management re-shuffle creative director Mads Quistgaard joins Kontrapunkt’s executive management team, which also include Thomas Gamst and founding partner Bo Linnemann.

Svante Lindeburg, Head of Brand Strategy, once again visited the Danish debate programme "Smagsdommerne". This week's subjects included the new romantic comedy by Oscar recipient Susanne Bier starring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm, and the largest exhibition ever by the american sculptor and artist Tony Martelli. Was it all it was blown up to be or did it fall completely flat?

“They were celebrated as architectural superstars before they had turned 30. Words like hip, funky and other terms from the 00s were thrown at them and the media devoted as much attention to their dress style as they did to their projects…”
Svante Lindeburg, Head of Brand Strategy contributes to a new book on Danish architecture. In his essay “The BIG bang” he examines the BIG-generation (PLOT, EFFEKT, TRANSFORM, COBE etc.) and analyses what this group of talented architects will be remembered for. The book is edited by Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss and Kjeld Vindum and has just been published. The book is available for order through Arkfo.dk.

Time to Design is an award given to young talents within the field of design. The award was founded in 2008 and is a collaboration between The Danish Art Workshops, Normann Copenhagen, Dansk Dynamit, Danish Association of Wood and Furniture Industries (TA) and OeO. This year, British textile designer Catherine Aitken was the happy recipient of the award which includes residency at The Danish Art Workshops, coaching by OeO, exhibition of designs at the Normann Copenhagen Flagship Store, and 50.000 DKK to cover material costs. Design Director Mads Quistgaard represented Kontrapunkt in the jury.

Mads Quistgaard, Kontrapunkt’s Design Director, discusses the new products and features introduced at the WWDC 2012 Keynote, Apple’s worldwide developers conference. Among others the new feature Maps which seems to be a spectacular rethink of Google maps, in an Apple version. Furthermore, Mads discusses the world of Mac without Steve Jobs and how Apple is changing from revolutionary to market leader.
Watch the program here.

In times when competitors such as Spanair and Cimber Sterling files for bankruptcy no-frills airline Ryanair reports an all time annual profit. Kontrapunkt’s Head of Brand Strategy, Svante Lindeburg was up with the early birds to discuss Ryanair's success and their controversial CEO, Michael O’Leary on Go’morgen Danmark, the Danish morning television.
Watch the clip here.

On the 5th of May 2013 it is the 200th birthday of Søren Kierkegaard, one of the greatest philosophical thinkers in Europe. Denmark celebrates the anniversary by a long row of cultural activities during all of 2013.
To mark this event Kontrapunkt has designed a logo inspired by ancient writing methods represented by a seal consisting of symbol, name and description. The historical references in the logo are incorporated in today’s modern context matching the ambition of presenting a historical character in a way that is relevant today.

Bergen Bybane receives "Vakre Vegers pris 2012", which is the design award for infrastructure in Norway. Last time someone was given the award was in 2008. Kontrapunkt is behind all design elements from overall branding to visual identity, and the winning design functionally supports the new and brilliant transportation system.
The jury applauds the design for its aesthetic qualities and the fact that it levers the experience of the light rail.

Svante Lindeburg, Kontrapunkts Head of Brand Strategy, debuts on the debate programme “Smagsdommerne” on Danish Television, where he will be part of a panel of cultural personalities commenting on literature, art, theater and films. In this programme Svante applauds Julian Barnes “The Sense of an Ending” for its philosophical, existentialistic and entertaining narrative and loathes the new Sean Penn movie “This Must Be the Place”. And “Oops!” – did he mention the cartoon crisis?

For two weeks Kontrapunkt has had the pleasure of housing a team from the design agency Kan & Lau in Hong Kong.
Kontrapunkt and Kan & Lau join forces on the project of PMQ, which are two buildings in Hong Kong facing a future as South East Asia’s new and largest creative design hub. The PMQ buildings were previously used to house married policemen, which explains the name “PMQ” (Police Married Quarters). The ambition is for PMQ to become an incubator where young and upcoming talents within design, architecture, fashion, art etc. can develop their creativity.
Together with Kan & Lau, Kontrapunkt is behind a new visual identity creating the right surroundings and atmosphere for the PMQ.

Kontrapunkt has redesigned the well-known Danish brand’s most famous trademark “The Matas stripes” to fit into a modern and contemporary context. Besides re-designing the iconic stripes of Matas’ product line of vitamins and minerals, Kontrapunkt has updated Matas’ typeface, colours and general packaging on these products as well.


The new design resembles a step towards high quality and knowledge, meeting the needs of the demanding consumer of today’s Denmark. The design also shows an intention of Matas moving towards a field of expertise within health, but at the same time maintaining some functional qualities of a supermarket.

Kontrapunkt releases its second public typeface for download free of charge. The new typeface Bob is now ready to travel the world. Kontrapunkt’s previous typeface has been downloaded over 200.000 times and spotted all over the world. Kontrapunkt releases typefaces for free use and download to give everyone a chance to choose from a diverse range of high-quality fonts, and through these fonts illuminate identities. 

Please feel free to download the typeface yourself at kontrapunkt.com/type and share your experiences via Twitter #kptype.

Kontrapunkt is behind BankNordik’s visual identity, signage and new façades.
The Faroese bank BankNordik took over Amagerbanken in the summer of 2011. Today the bank’s new visual identity lights up the streets of Copenhagen.
Through an extremely smooth and compressed process Kontrapunkt designed and implemented signage and façades for 12 affiliates in Copenhagen within 3 months. The Faroe Islands’ largest ad agency Sendistovan led the marketing campaign and Lysiplex, Denmark’s largest signage manufacturer, produced the signage. On street-level the transformation from Amagerbanken to BankNordik happened overnight.

Bo Linnemann receives Denmark’s National Bank’s Anniversary Foundation’s Grant of Honour and opens exhibition in the National Bank’s lobby.

We are proud to announce that our colleague, architect, graphic designer, founding partner and creative director Bo Linnemann is honoured with a prestigious prize, Denmark’s National Bank’s Anniversary Foundation’s Grant of Honour.
Member of the foundation’s board, architect and former recipient Lene Tranberg presented the prize, which Bo receives for his artistic achievements and longstanding efforts to develop the graphic design tradition – in Denmark and abroad. The exhibition takes place from October 27 to November 25, 2011.


Kontrapunkt designs new unified look and logic for public transportation in Copenhagen. The new design system helps travelers navigate transportation hubs and facilitates services across transportation providers.


Users of public transportation have been demanding better information on how to plan their travels across multiple services such as bus, train and metro. This demand has been accommodated by a close cooperation between Movia, Metro, DSB, DSB S-tog, Danish Rail, Rejseplanen, Danish Transport Authority and The Danish Road Directorate.

Invest in Denmark asked Kontrapunkt to conceptualize and design a booklet to promote Denmark as one of the top creative hot spots in the world. Packed in an enticing red design and filled with strong, bold headliners the message is manifested: Copenhagen is the hottest design cluster in the world. Why? Great design heritage, most prestigious design award (Index), best test market, international innovators are setting up their businesses here, one of the most liveable cities and the happiest people in the world – to name a few from the long list of reasons.

Kontrapunkt is happy to announce that architect and graphic designer Mads Quistgaard will join Kontrapunkt as new Design Director and senior partner.
Mads is founder and owner of the design agency PLEKS, which for the last 7 years has created admirable design for DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), Bang & Olufsen, Banedanmark (Danish railway enterprise), Tate Modern and Frieze Magazine in London, to name a few. All activities in PLEKS continue in Kontrapunkt.

The 4 companies in the Kontrapunkt Group will be merged into one company as of June 21. This is done in order to offer a more seamless service to our larger accounts and to optimize the utilization of resources and skills across the organization - to the benefit of all of our clients. The merger will have no consequences for any of our ongoing projects or contractual agreements.

Kontrapunkt has developed a new visual identity for the Danish national beer Tuborg Green. Almost every element has been redesigned including the Tuborg logo and the characteristic label shape. Right now the new identity is being rolled out onto all elements, from dice cups to taxis.
The design for Tuborg Green is created specifically to the Danish market but in a way, so that other Tuborg brands such as Red, Classic, Easter and Christmas can adopt the same graphical logic over time.

Creative Circle Award 2011 turned out to be nothing less than amazing for Kontrapunkt. One year of uncompromised focus on creativity was rewarded, when Kontrapunkt won the honourable title 'Design Agency of the Year'.
Knowing that Creative Circle Awards is the most prestigious award in Denmark honouring outstanding work within advertising, design, and digital communication, we are truly flattered by the result of this year,

For the second year in a row at the Creative Circle Award, Kontrapunkt has won the type design category. This year for the typeface created for the world's best restaurant, Noma. A typeface which once again proves the high standard of Kontrapunkt's team of typeface aficionados headed by creative director Bo Linnemann.
Furthermore Kontrapunkt conquered new land from traditional advertisment agencies when we took home a bronze award for the packaging design created for the Japanese jewellery company Tasaki.

For the second year in a row Kontrapunkt has won a Creative Circle Award for one of our customized typefaces. Creative Circle Award is the most prestigious award in Denmark given to creative standards and outstanding work within advertising, design and digital communication. We got a silver award – the highest price that was awarded in the category Type Design - for 'Movia Display', a digital typeface designed for the public transport company Movia.