Danish company Montana Furniture partnered with Camille Walala to envelop its Haarby, Denmark, factory in a large-scale mural commemorating 40 years of business.  

Key features

Known for its colourful storage and furniture solutions, Montana has been family-owned since its institution. Once CEO of Fritz Hansen, the late designer Peter J Lassen established the company in 1982, working with Verner Panton to put playful, functional products out in the world. Montana’s furniture still fully embodies Lassen’s ethos of creating tools that really enable the personalization of space. To celebrate its 40^th anniversary, the brand translated that philosophy into a collaboration with French artist-designer Camille Walala. The result is a large-scale mural that totally transforms the Montana factory in Haarby, a rural town in Denmark’s Funen region, where all the furniture is produced to this day. 

Lassen’s son and successor as managing director Joakim Lassen sees the graphic exterior as an investment of pride in its community of employees and the locale. ‘With this mural, we want to create a landmark, celebrating colours and putting our Danish production facilities on the map,’ he says. The varied palette now cladding the façade comprises hues developed by designer Margrethe Odgaard. Manufactured by AkzoNobel, the colours are representative of those that Montana products can be selected in today. Walala took the palette and wove the vibrant pairings into her characteristic design language, taking inspiration from Montana’s iconic modular shapes. She and Lassen aspire for the mural to turn the site into a true public space. 

Frame’s take

Colour is synonymous with the Montana Furniture brand, so what better way to kickstart a new chapter in company history than joining forces with one of the best-known names for using it? Camille Walala has lent her eye to organizations like Lego, London’s Design Museum and many more, using vivid interventions enabling spaces and experiences to leave bold stamps on one’s memory. Now more than ever it’s important for brands to verbalize their values to consumers, but that sentiment also applies on a more intimate level; it’s equally crucial that companies live up to those values for employees and their immediate communities. Using the mural as an opportunity to celebrate both is perhaps the most powerful aspect of the Montana Furniture x Walala project.