, ,

Stilleben Brand Guidelines: The Everyday Still Life

·

Brand Guidelines · Field Guide

Stilleben Brand Guidelines

The everyday still life.

FIG 1.0 — GLAZE (ABSTRACT HOMAGE)

FIG 1.1 — WARM GEOMETRIC
Aa

Two constants: a coral-and-teal palette and a warm geometric register. Abstract homage — not a Stilleben object or wordmark.

Palette
Coral and teal
Founded
2002Denmark
Where
Copenhagen, DK
Signature
Everyday still-life objects
01

The everyday still life

Stilleben designs its own colourful stoneware, glass and textiles as meaningful objects for everyday life.

Stilleben is a lesson in the still life as the identity. A Copenhagen house — the name is Danish and German for “still life” — it designs and produces its own colourful, everyday objects: glazed stoneware, mouth-blown glass, cutlery and linen, conceived as meaningful things for the table, and shown as carefully composed still lifes.

Its identity is the everyday still life. Stilleben’s colour-forward tableware and glass are the work it is known for. Objects, made compositions. A house that arranges everyday life.

(Honest notes, so the story stays precise. Stilleben was founded in 2002 by Ditte Reckweg and Jelena Schou Nordentoft, two product designers trained at the Danish School of Design, and it is independent and founder-led — the founders design all of its own products. It is a hybrid: a genuine maker with a substantial own-designed line, and also a flagship shop that sells a curated mix of other makers’ work — so we keep its own designs and its curation clearly separate. On making: while Stilleben is designed in Copenhagen, its own stoneware is made in Portugal, its mouth-blown glass in the Czech Republic, its linen in northern Portugal and its cutlery in China — an honest, split answer rather than a blanket “made in Denmark.” Two name traps: its “Memphis” tableware line shares a name with, but is unrelated to, the 1980s Memphis design group; and the founders’ separate design work for Kähler, Georg Jensen and Lyngby belongs to those brands, not to Stilleben’s own catalogue. Its objects and wordmark are its IP, and there is no official brand hex — these tones are an unofficial interpretation. This is design commentary and does not promote any product.)

02

Colour

Stilleben lives in a coral-and-teal palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Stilleben’s identity is colourful, composed and warm — a coral, an ink, a teal, a mustard, and a chalk. The palette leans coral and teal: the register of colour-forward, playful-yet-restrained Scandinavian tableware. It signals joy and composition over minimalism. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these values are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party colours.

The lesson is a coral-and-teal palette signals a colour-forward identity. Stilleben’s world is a colourful, composed, warm object. For designers, it is a reminder that a confident, colour-rich palette can carry a brand built on everyday objects — hues that make a table feel arranged and alive. Because bright tones can fail as small text, keep type dark and let the colour live in the discs, palette and band. The takeaways: design your own line; keep the palette colourful; compose it like a still life; and treat any single hex as unofficial.

Copy
Coral
#C24E6E
Copy
Ink
#161418
Copy
Teal
#3A8A82
Copy
Mustard
#C79A32
Copy
Chalk
#EEEAEC
03

Typography

The register is a warm geometric — friendly, composed, clear.

Stilleben’s identity carries a friendly, composed, clear spirit — a designed object, not a cold one. A warm geometric sans captures the mood: rounded, modern and approachable, the register of colourful everyday design. Set in a coral-and-teal palette, the warm geometric feels friendly and composed — exactly the personality Stilleben carries. It is clear rather than austere, mirroring colour-forward stoneware and glass. (Stilleben’s real objects and wordmark are things we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a warm-geometric spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: friendly, composed and clear.

Aa

A warm-geometric spirit — friendly and composed. (Specimen set in Outfit, a warm-geometric STAND-IN; NOT the Stilleben wordmark or any object design.)

Warm geometric · the registerCoral and teal · the paletteEveryday still-life objects · the signature

04

The still life as identity

Stilleben stands for the everyday still life.

Stilleben is a lesson in making the still life the identity. A coral-and-teal palette, a warm geometric and colourful, own-designed objects make the everyday still life the whole brand — colourful, composed and warm. The composition is the differentiator. The differentiator is a genuine own line — designed by the founders and produced to their spec — arranged and sold as considered everyday objects rather than one-off decor.

Put to work, the identity is objects as design. A house building in this spirit would design its own coherent family of everyday things and present them as compositions, keeping its own line distinct from anything it merely curates, so the customer buys into a whole designed world. The lesson Stilleben teaches is that a designed own-line plus a clear point of view can build a brand: the objects give it substance, and the still-life idea gives it a frame. The composition is the personality, and the own line is the proof.

For designers and brand-builders, Stilleben offers a clear takeaway: design your own line and compose it. The lessons: make your own products; keep the palette colourful; separate what you design from what you curate; and be honest about the story. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: Stilleben was founded in 2002 by Ditte Reckweg and Jelena Schou Nordentoft, is independent and founder-led, and — while designed in Copenhagen — has its own stoneware made in Portugal and glass in the Czech Republic, with its “Memphis” line unrelated to the Memphis group, and the palette here an unofficial interpretation. Stilleben made the everyday still life the brand — proof that designed objects can be the difference.

05

Explore & save

Keep Stilleben’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.

Stilleben identity set

Pin the coral-and-teal palette and the warm-geometric register to your own board.

Core Palette
Homage
Aa
Warm geometric
The register
Warm geometric
Gradient

♡ Save to a board

06

Source & notes

Editorial reference. This article reports publicly documented facts about Stilleben’s visual identity as design commentary; it is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Stilleben, and it does not promote the purchase or use of any product. The Stilleben name, wordmark and its object designs are trademarks/works of their owner — the graphics here are original abstract homages (colour discs and glaze-texture swatches); no object or wordmark is reproduced, and all specimen text is set in a Google-Font stand-in. Facts reported from public sources (stilleben.dk): Stilleben is an independent Danish house (founded 2002 in Copenhagen by Ditte Reckweg and Jelena Schou Nordentoft) that designs and produces its own stoneware, glass, cutlery and textiles. Honest notes: it is a maker-and-curated-shop hybrid (its own designed line is separate from the other makers’ work it retails); while designed in Copenhagen, its own stoneware is made in Portugal, its glass in the Czech Republic, its linen in Portugal and its cutlery in China; its “Memphis” tableware line is unrelated to the 1980s Memphis design group; and the founders’ separate work for Kähler, Georg Jensen and Lyngby belongs to those brands. No official brand hex is published, so the tones here are an unofficial interpretation.