COLLECTION CHECK
Ø R GRE E N
QUANT UM
C O L LE CTION Danish Eyewear Brand Envisions the Future t e x t D IRK V OGE L, photos R A S M US D EN G S Ø , re touch RAP HAEL S CHMIT Z
At Danish eyewear brand ørgreen, the design team is not asking what the future of eyewear design is going to look like – they’re inventing it, one prototype at a time. The latest innovation will arrive in Fall 2017: The Quantum Collection – or “Q” in short – will launch at Silmo tradeshow in October with an initial offering of 20 to 24 models featuring radical innovations. “This collection is different from what we have done so far. It’s a new look, and a departure from designing only in titanium with a new material combined with beta titanium temples. The DNA is, as always, all about the quality and finish. But these are very technical frames,” said Henrik Ørgreen. The timing for launching a technology-driven collection is ideal. ørgreen is at the cusp of its 20th brand anniversary and ready to inno-
vate their way forward. “In this period of our company history we like cleanness, which is also a large part of Danish architecture and eyewear design,” said Henrik Ørgreen, while putting the quintessentially Danish approach into perspective. “The main difference between Danish and Japanese design is that in Japan, you come up with 20 great ideas and
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they all go into one product. In Denmark, we also come up with 20 great ideas – but only one makes it into the product!” The Technology In the Quantum Collection, that single great idea is the hinge of the frame; or better yet, the entire principle of connecting the front of the frame to the temples. ørgreen co-founder Tobias Wandrup came up with the basic technical concept a few years ago. The goal was to create a fundamentally simple design that solves the problem of attaching the individual components of the frame without resorting to screws, wires, magnets, glues, and the like, while also keeping the number of individual parts at an absolute minimum. “We wanted to do it simple. But then again, simple is always harder,” said Henrik Ørgreen. As a solution, the team decided that the temples of the frames should do all the work in the Quantum Collection. The unique design consists of two components: The front end of the titanium temples includes an asymmetrical ball that fits right into the second part, a polyamide front with a channel on each side, precisely built to encompass the ball tip ever so snuggly. Once the ball is secured into the 8-10mm deep channel, a third element snaps everything tightly into a place: A so-called puzzle piece locks in the connection between 33