How The Hays Changed Danish Design

You can’t talk about Danish design without referencing HAY. Since the brand was founded 24 years ago, it’s not only become wildly successful, but it’s also shifted the perceptions of what “good” design should look like, and – crucially – who can afford it.

The brainchild of husband-and-wife duo Rolf and Mette Hay, the eponymous brand began in Copenhagen, where its headquarters remain. Design was already a huge part of their lives: Rolf had spent years working across Danish design companies, while Mette had grown up with it entirely, her parents having run a design store. The two met as colleagues at furniture brand GUBI, in 2002, they brought HAY to life.

Speaking to the pair ahead of 3daysofdesign requires almost as much coordination as launching a collection. When we finally connect, they’re in different countries. Mette is travelling between appointments, while Rolf is pacing through Munich Airport, apologising for the terminal backdrop behind him after what he insists was a surprisingly good airport curry.

Upon speaking to them both individually, it becomes evident that the original dynamic that built the company remains remarkably intact. Mette talks about intuition, colour and the emotional pull of everyday objects. Rolf gravitates towards questions of production, affordability and scale. One speaks about creativity through feeling, the other through systems. Seemingly, an approach that works, given that they’ve built one of the most influential Danish design brands of the past two decades.

Yet the Copenhagen that shaped HAY looked very different when the company was founded.

“When we started HAY 25 years ago, it was actually a relatively poor period in Danish design,” Rolf says. At the time, the conversation was still dominated by the country’s mid-century masters, he says, leaving relatively little room for younger designers to break through. Over the following decades, architecture, food, art, and design evolved together, transforming Copenhagen into the creative powerhouse it is today. “I think HAY was also part of that movement,” he adds.

HAY’s arrival in 2002 happened at exactly the right moment. Its simple mission to bring contemporary design to a wider audience resonated. Over the next two decades, the company expanded far beyond furniture, building a global business spanning lighting, accessories and homeware, with stores across Europe, Asia and North America. In 2019, Herman Miller acquired a majority stake in the business, bringing HAY into what is now the MillerKnoll portfolio – a significant milestone for a brand built on the idea that good design should be accessible, not exclusive.

For Mette, however, scale has never altered where ideas originate. “It’s never a forced process for me,” she says. “Products come to life in the meeting of people, in noticing a gap, in identifying a need for something new.”

Sometimes the starting point is surprisingly mundane, and the smallest observations often prove the most valuable. “It can be as simple as reaching for a dishcloth and thinking: this could be better, or more beautiful, or more joyful. If you lose your sensitivity to the everyday, you stop seeing what actually needs designing.”

This sense of attentiveness to daily life has shaped much of HAY’s output, particularly its accessories, and colour, more than anything else, has become Mette’s signature. “It is my most important tool,” she says. “I like a colour simply because I like it.”

Driven by this ideology, HAY helped popularise the idea that everyday household objects could be colourful, playful and expressive rather than purely functional. Storage crates, chopping boards and kitchen textiles became vehicles for experimentation. The industry eventually caught up.

“What’s interesting is that placing an unexpected colour on an everyday object was once genuinely surprising. Now it’s become part of the design industry’s shared language. I’m glad we helped push that,” Mette says.

Ask Mette what inspires her about Copenhagen and she immediately talks about people. Friends working across food, art and design provide a constant source of ideas. The city’s creative community, she says, remains unusually open and generous.

Yet she is equally quick to praise the benefits of distance. “We live outside Copenhagen, and I’ve come to really value that,” she says. “When you step back from the buzz, creativity has more room to grow.”

Rolf’s relationship with the city is slightly different. Where Mette talks about individuals, he talks about ecosystems – the sheer concentration of talent now working across architecture, graphic design, galleries, hospitality and design.

“Copenhagen is right now a powerhouse,” he says. But success brings its own challenges, and creative cities can become trapped by their own formulas. “We need people who dare to do things differently if we want to stay relevant,” he says.

The same thinking informs how he views the wider industry. Looking back over the last quarter century, he identifies a significant shift in priorities. “The big change is from design to lifestyle,” he says, adding that products risk becoming secondary to branding, storytelling and image-making. The observation isn’t a criticism of exhibitions or installations – HAY invests heavily in both – but a defence of the object itself. “I say this because I’m still in love with our industry, and I’m still in love with what we do,” he adds.

His affection is most evident when the conversation turns to affordability. Throughout the interview, Rolf returns repeatedly to the idea that good design only matters if people can access it. “It’s not going to have any impact if you claim to have the most sustainable chair in the world and charge €1,000 for it,” he says. For him, accessibility isn’t separate from sustainability – it’s fundamental to it.

The philosophy has informed HAY since the beginning. Collaborations with designers including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison have helped build the company’s reputation, but neither founder talks much about aesthetics when discussing partnerships.

“It’s always about chemistry,” Mette says. “I look for people whose work I deeply respect and who can bring something to HAY that we couldn’t arrive at ourselves.”

Those relationships take centre stage during this year’s 3daysofdesign. HAY is presenting across multiple venues, including a retail-focused exhibition at HAY House and a large-scale museum presentation dedicated almost entirely to products.

Among the highlights is a new chair by Jasper Morrison retailing for less than €200 — a project that neatly encapsulates everything HAY has been arguing for over two decades.