Johannes Torpe

Johannes Torpe (born 5 January 1973 in Skanderborg) is a Danish designer and musician.

Johannes Torpe was born on 5 January 1973, in Skanderborg, Denmark to Danish artist Birgitte Elfrida Torpe and musician Patrick David Reilly.

His morther, Birgitte, home-schooled Torpe until the fourth grade.

Growing up in the hippy commune Thylejren in Thy, he learned to harness his creativity at an early age and became an avid drummer.

Torpe eventually grew tired of the commune's lifestyle and asked his mother for permission to move in with his aunt in Copenhagen at the age of 12.

By 1986, he had gotten his first job in Copenhagen at DrumStick, a drumming store, to avoid going back to school.

He worked there for five years, until the age of 19.

In 1989 Torpe founded the lighting design company Fatfish which provided lighting for music festivals and concerts.

After seven years in the lighting business, he sold the company.

During this period, Torpe bought his first Mac computer and entered the graphic design business, creating flyers and posters for nightclubs and record covers.

From 1994 to 1999, he was co-owner and designer of several Copenhagen nightclubs, including: NASA Nightclub, X-Ray, Le Kitch, Coffeeshoppen, Fever, and Pub Elvis.

His work designing nightclubs in the 90s launched his design career.

The NASA Nightclub was Torpe's first major interior design project, and came to define his style.

Since 1997, he has been the CEO and creative director of his eponymous design company, Johannes Torpe Studios, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The studio's design philosophy takes an multi-disciplinary approach, and is concerned with creating, adaptive, open-minded, and mood-driven spaces.

As a designer, Torpe works in interior design, product design, furniture design, industrial design, and architecture.

Torpe has received awards for several of his interior design projects such as NASA Night Club, Restaurant Levi in Copenhagen, and the United Cycling Lab & Store for ARGON 18 in Lynge.

Projects outside Denmark include Restaurant South Beauty in Taipei, Restaurant Jing Yaa Tang in Beijing, and the Bucherer Store concept in Düsseldorf.

The success of the nightclub's design, lead Torpe to found the studio Turbo2000 Kunstkontrolle, which has since been renamed Johannes Torpe Studios.

In 2000, he sold off the nightclubs and bars to his partners.

Soon after establishing his design studio, Torpe partnered with the creative agency Avenue20 in Padova, Italy.

The all-white interior is a futuristic ode to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, a movie that left a deep impression on Torpe as a child.

NASA Nightclub has been featured in more than 150 publications worldwide.

In 2001, his restaurant design for Supergeil in Copenhagen achieved some fame.

In 2005, he was appointed External Industrial Design Director for Skype.

In 2007, he received a Royal Danish Design Award together with his half-brother Rune Reilly Kölsch for the design of the sofa "Mormor", created for Danish design brand Hay.

In 2009, he designed Danzka Vodka's rebrand, including a new logo and an aluminium bottle.

From 2011 to 2015 he was the creative director of Bang & Olufsen.

He has also worked with several international companies, such as Nike, HAY (company), Haier, LG Electronics, Roberto Cavalli, Dolce & Gabbana and Skype.

Torpe has also worked as a keynote speaker, giving talks about his design philosophy and the intersection between business and design.

He has spoken at events held by Design Indaba, MIPIM, the New York Times, Savannah College of Art and Design, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, and the Kennedy Space Center, among others.

In 2011, Torpe was appointed the first ever Group Creative Director of the high-end consumer electronics brand Bang & Olufsen in an effort to add new energy around the brand.

During his time with the company, he introduced the sub-brand B&O Play.

In 2011 he had also designed the 500 kg seating system for Italian spHAUS, which was featured in magazines for its light design.

He also opened the WangTorpe Studios in Beijing with Chinese entrepreneur Xiaofei Wang.

In 2012, he designed the Space Enabler series for the American company Haworth.

Their work eventually leads Torpe to receive a nomination for Architectural Digest’s Top 100 Talents in Architecture and Interior Design operating in China in 2013.

Torpe relinquished the role in October 2015.

In 2015, he was awarded a Fellowship at the Department of Architecture at Westminster University, and RMIT University in Melbourne.

In the following year, he explored the different drivers of change within a creative practice and the challenges and strengths of a relationship-based business model.