Great Danes: Lindberg

Nestled within a residential street of the suburbs of Aarhus, Denmark, is the unassuming headquarters of eyewear design behemoth, Lindberg.

The roots of the company go back to Lindberg Optik, a practice in the centre of Aarhus established by Poul-Jørn Lindberg and his wife, Hanne, in 1969.

Lindberg’s deteriorating sight over the course of the following decade meant he needed glasses, but nothing in the shop was to his taste – they were either too heavy or too cumbersome. His solution was to create ultra-light glasses and in 1983 enlisted the help of Hans Dissing, from architectural firm Dissing & Weitling.

One single piece of titanium wire was the catalyst for Lindberg and Dissing. After two years of painstaking research, development of special tooling and cast off material, the result was the Air titanium rimless frame, launched in 1985 and lauded for years to come. Shortly after the release, HM Queen Margrethe II and HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark both took delivery of Air rimless frames. Some 25 years later, the company was issued with a royal warrant.