Cecilie Manz (born 1972) is a Danish industrial designer. In November 2017, Manz was awarded designer of the year in the Design Awards by Bo bedre, Costume Living, Nordic Living and Boligmagasiet. In September 2014, she won the Danish Crown Prince Couple’s Culture Award (Kronprinsparrets Kulturpris) for her contribution to design.
Her work of includes furniture, jewellery, lamps and sculptures. Her Mikado table has been included in MOMA’s design collection.
Micado
Micado, the well known game with wooden sticks, was the inspiration for the three-legged construction of the Micado table. A table top and three legs nothing fancy, but the result is great. Micado is available in ash, oak or cherry – and the tabletop is also available in black lacquered MDF. The simple, three-legged construction is assembled without hardware and supports itself. The striking simplicity of the table is typical for the discrete and aesthetic philosophy of designer Cecile Manz.
“I like to emphasize spontaneity and simplicity. I let my ideas run wild in the beginning but then as they begin to take shape, I begin to minimize as much as possible.” Cecilie Manz – the designer of Micado – explains.
Cecilie Manz has been proclaimed one of the great new talents in Danish furniture design, and in 2004 she was awarded the Danish Design Prize and a grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.
Cecilie Manz’s designs are at once sensuous, breathtaking and very usable. She is the designer who opens our senses to the everyday things we often bypass without a second thought. Why can’t our clothes hang on a tree (Clothes Tree, 2000), or why don’t we sit on a ladder (Ladder Hochacht, 1999)? Cecilie Manz’s aim is not just to create a new product, but to find out the cause and function of the product itself. It is in the care for simplicity that the new design emerges in a combination of sculptural beauty, surprise, humour – and not least high design quality and usability.
Cecilie Manz’s design engages the user in dialogue and encourages pleasure and activity, for example when the user has to assemble the Micado Table, which was awarded the Danish Design Prize in 2004 and is also part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.
In awarding her the Crown Prince Couple’s Culture Prize in 2014, Prince Frederik commented: “The fascinating thing about Cecilie Manz’s design is that despite the diversity of her work, there is a clearly discernible tone. The basic idea is always strong in Manz’s design, evoking associations with historical realisations in design while clearly reflecting the present.