Dear guests, designers and design buffs

It gives me great pleasure to come to the annual DesignMarch ones again. In the last few years it has been firmly on my cultural to-do list in the month of March, a sure sign that spring is coming here in Iceland. I hope to get a change this year to enjoy some of the marvels that this year's design-harvest has to offer. To our ever-increasing group of foreign guests I would like to extend our warmest welcome.
It is said that in the post second world war US economy, seventy-five percent of the general public in the United States came into contact with one or more designs of a certain American industrial designer every single day. 

Some of you, well versed in the history of industrial design may be nodding in approval with a certain name or names in mind.

This was at least said to be the case with the designs of industrial designer Raymond Loewy, but some say that the high percentage mentioned here was connected to the fact that he designed bottles and cans for the Coca Cola Company in those years. Nonetheless Mr. Loewy's designs were all over: the American public rode his Greyhound busses or trains pulled by his classic locomotives or drove to work in his Studebaker cars. During coffee brakes at work they lit their cigarettes coming from Lucky Strike packs, shaved with his razors in the morning and so on. Many of these designs are the backdrop of the “Mad Men scenes” that have been romanticised ever since and still are.

Today it hard to imagine any such ever-present designers since there are so many of you designers nowadays – and since the mass-produced products of our times come from lots of different sources. But quality and good design still stand out and inspire us, although we sometimes take it for granted.

I was told that today's topic for DesignTalks here in the National Theatre is the mystery of Design-Magic. The magic of creative thought will be discussed, how sparks can suddenly begin to fly and the ideas pop up. This almost magical side of creativity is surely appealing, but one thing is for certain: nothing springs from not trying, not making an effort in the search for this magic. We all know that for every brilliant idea there are thousands of not-so-great ones.

Once in a blue moon an idea will become a hit and maybe influence or better the lives of many. Sustainability is an important mindset for the designers in today's world. Inspiration may come from just about anywhere and even though we live in a world full of both brilliant and bad designs and ideas, we still have to believe that a Eureka moment is possible. While there is always hope for the thunder of brilliance to strike, it is certain that labor and research make it all the more likely to strike. The magic of original creation is in the end based simply on labor, at least in part.

But let's not kill the magic just yet.

Dear guests.

Have a nice, fun and fruitful DesignMarch in Reykjavik and I hope that the following talks here today that start of the festival will shed some light on the magic of brilliant design.

Thank you very much