Dezeen Magazine

DesignMarch 2012: studio tours

Last month Dezeen visited a selection of Icelandic design studios as part of DesignMarch in Reykjavik. Here are some photos from the tour taken with the Pentax K-01 camera designed by Marc Newson, which was kindly given to us by Pentax for the trip.

The visit included a tour of Reykjavik Letterpress, a printing studio in the centre of Reykjavik.

The studio is run by graphic designers Hildur Sigurdardottir and Olof Birna Garðarsdóttir.

Both designers left their jobs in advertising to learn the skills of letterpress printing.

Reykjavik Letterpress use traditional methods and letterpress machines to produce their designs.

Their studio contains drawers full of original movable type...

...as well as more familiar letterpress machines such the classic type writer.

The second studio visited on the trip was Toppstodin, a disused power station that has been converted into artists' studios.

Toppstodin houses studios for a variety of creatives, including fashion designers, architects and industrial designers.

All the original machines and equipment of the power station remain in the building amongst the studio spaces.

The final stop on the visit was a lunch and tour of Grettisborg Studios & Apartments run by designers Róshildur Jónsdóttir and Snæbjörn Stefánsson of Hugdetta.

Jónsdóttir's collection of birch furniture was on display at the studio along with her toy construction kit made of fish bones that we previously published on Dezeen.

There are five designers who share the space at Grettisborg Studios, including Gardar Eyjolfsson who showed his Icelandic larch chair.

Read more about design in Iceland here and watch Marc Newson talk about his design for the Pentax K-01 on Dezeen Screen.