| “If you cannot create functional furniture | | | | earned him another scholarship from the Danish |
| then you had better turn your hand to something | | | | Arts Foundation the very next year. He went on |
| else.” These are the famous words of | | | | a winning streak by being awarded the ID prize in |
| one of the most visionary designers of | | | | 1987 for the futuristic X line chair. This once again |
| Europe’s furniture trade. He was born in | | | | helped him win a scholarship from the Danish |
| 1936 in the town of Vivild. This small town in | | | | National Bank’s jubilee foundation. |
| Denmark had great plans for young Niels. In 1956, | | | | In the year 1988, he won the first prize at the |
| after years of mainstream schooling, he began to | | | | Danish Forest Association’s furniture |
| undertake training in the art of cabinet making. In | | | | contest. His winning streak continued as he went |
| a space of five years, he graduates from the | | | | on to win the Danish Furniture Industries’ |
| prestigious Copenhagen College of arts and crafts | | | | Design prize the next year. 1990 saw him win a |
| in 1961. After a few years of testing waters, he | | | | scholarship from the prestigious Non Nobis |
| was hired by a professor and architect Arne | | | | foundation. At this point of time, he slowed down |
| Jacobsen in 1966. The capability to keep on strive | | | | his work to take a break for his family. In 1996, |
| until a work is completed is a skill he learnt when | | | | he received the Danish Furniture award. But the |
| he was a part of Arne Jacobsen’s design | | | | crowning achievement of his distinguished career |
| studio. He spent five whole years here. He | | | | came when he was awarded the lifelong Artist's |
| absorbed all that he could which concerned | | | | Grant by the Danish State Art Fund. His work has |
| furniture design, proportioning and interior | | | | been displayed in the Danish Museum of applied |
| decorating. Even today, Arne Jacobsen is one of | | | | art, the Louisiana modern art museum, the |
| his most revered idols. | | | | Stendelijk organization, The Louvre museum in |
| After proving his mettle, he earned a scholarship | | | | Paris, the Munich and Trapholt modern art |
| in 1969 from the Danish National Bank’s | | | | museums and the museum of modern art in New |
| jubilee foundation. Using his experience, he starts | | | | York. |
| design studio in Copenhagen at the age of thirty | | | | This genuine attitude mentioned in the beginning |
| five. But he did not keep this experience to | | | | come from one of Danish design’s biggest |
| himself. In two years, he started teaching at | | | | icons and abide an example to the high values |
| Denmark’s design school at Copenhagen | | | | that Niels Jørgen Haugesen applies to the |
| where, eleven years later, he would win a | | | | high quality finishes of his furniture pieces. There is |
| scholarship from the Danish Arts Foundation. His | | | | little or no doubt at that he does live up to these |
| first piece of furniture was a table conceived by | | | | rigorous standards, however. The international |
| him in 1986. It was a table named after him in | | | | furniture company GETAMA has produced |
| honor and it was well received. Later the same | | | | furniture designed by Niels Jørgen |
| year, he won the ID prize for the design. This | | | | Haugesen since 2008. |