How do you create a brand?

Danish furniture label Please wait to be seated is a prime example of how to go about creating a brand that is able to hold its own on a hotly contested market. And every piece in the collection bears witness to founder Thomas Ibsen’s occupational background: Ibsen used to work as an interior design photographer for magazines such as Wallpaper. He thus knows exactly what is needed in order for an object to look great on photographs – an essential aspect of getting one’s label noticed in an image-driven era such as ours.

It is hardly surprising then that many of the objects seem highly graphic, in some cases even as though they could have been created by graphic designers: for example the “Triptych Nesting Tables” and the pin board “Nouveau Pin”, both of which were conceived by design studio “All the way to Paris”. The color spectrum of Please wait to be seated is also characteristic: The label makes do with less than a handful of colors, all of which may of course be combined with one another in subtle ways.

Some of these objects are real centerpieces. “Spade Chair” by Faye Toogood brings together a traditional three-legged milking stool and the handle of a spade in a single piece of furniture. “Planet Lamp” by Mette Schelde has an interactive facet: the colorful steel disks are held in place by magnets and may be moved or changed as desired. The armchair “The Keystone”, designed by OS & OOS, is also a real show-stopper. Laced with a good dose of likeable Memphis-era nostalgia, it will imbue any interior shot with a special character – and thankfully, it is anything but “hygge”. Talking of “hygge”: “Please wait to be seated” do not want to be pigeonholed as either “Nordic” or “New Nordic”. Thomas Ibsen and Peter Mahler Sørensen simply want to create the new classics of tomorrow.