Happy Halloween

Emmo Homes alternative use of Rubbervases for Halloween Night.

Need a centerpiece? We offer four modern solutions...

The Menu JW Mini Lamp by Jacob Wagner offers both a classic and contemporary centerpiece. The lamp consists of a clear outer glass and an inner smoke-hued glass allowing form, color and vivid lighting to interact with one another.

The Menu Galerie Candleholder allows for a customizable centerpiece. A couple of fresh flowers immersed in water, dried rosebuds, stones gathered on the beach...create a new atmosphere, week after week.

Designed after ocean-front lighthouses, the Menu Lighthouse Hurricane lamps offer a sea-inspired centerpiece. Contemporary and unique, they come in two sizes.

The Menu Simplicity Vase offers a fresh take on floral centerpieces. Add one or two long-stemmed flowers for a delicate and contemporary look.

Want Something Different?

Gense's Appetize series is characterized by its soft, wavy lines and elegant simplicity. This flatware is perfect for both everyday use and special occasions.

5 piece place Setting

Appetize is known for its great emphasis on having a function, which must fit well in the hand, but at the same time must have a beautiful visual design that is inviting. The combisticks pictured below are great for cocktail parties. One side is an appetizer fork, the other side is a spoon.

Appetize Combisticks

The appetize collection of flatware is one of the best-selling series by Gense and is used e.g. in the VIP Dining Room at the New York Marriott Marquis. The oval shape of the Japanese tea plant leaf inspired the design. The Appetize Dessert Set features a picking fork and spoon.

Dessert Set

MENU : New Black Contour Products

Menu has added a fine little salt and pepper set to the popular Black Contour series. Made of porcelain of the finest quality, this stylish salt and pepper set with soft, flexible and tight-fitting rubber lids makes it easy to fill with salt and pepper.

Small Black Contour bowls are perfect for quick everyday breakfasts, to be used as a candy dish, or single dessert dishes and are freezer and oven safe. The stylish design is suited for parties, but simple and practical for everyday use.

Menu's new Black Contour jars are fit for a variety of purposes. The "built-in" label is a creative idea that makes it easy to see what is inside.

Below a presentation of Menu's black contour line

Mizu Prime Steak and Sushi chooses Menu

Mizu Prime Steak and Sushi, a world class restaurant located in the hills of West Austin recently opened within a new $4.5 million dollar building.

Mizu features prime steaks with a full sushi bar and innovative new American cuisine. With both an award winning chef and sommelier, the food and wine shine and are the focus in a beautiful space with miles of breath-taking views of the Hill Country.

General Manager and Sommelier Brian Phillips picked a number of Menu items for the new restaurant. Brian Phillips says “We wanted the restaurant to be special and once I saw the beautiful items from MenuÒ, I knew I’d found what I was looking for. MenuÒ’s products help us deliver a functional and unique service experience to our guests and help differentiate us from any other restaurant in Austin.”
You can see more about Mizu on http://www.mizuaustin.com/

The Ritz-Carlton Chicago (A Four Seasons Hotel) puts Menu® on the table

The Greenhouse in the Ritz-Carlton Chicago is set atop Water Tower Place, high above prestigious North Michigan Avenue, featuring exquisite decor and intuitive service in an atrium setting, with a striking view of Chicago's lakefront and downtown.

The Cafe that over looks the Hotel Lobby provides a casual setting for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night fare, as well as providing specialty coffees and award-winning desserts.

Director of Food and Beverage Mohamed EL Banna, who has been with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts for 8 years, has chosen Scandinavian Design by Menu® as part of his table arrangement for these two excellent restaurants at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago. Mohamed EL Banna says about his choice of Menu®: “I like the contemporary, stylish Scandinavian design that these items represent. That’s why I chose Menu®”.

MENU - Cafe Fokus Copenhagen

Maybe it's because I haven't been home (in Denmark that is) in more than 1½ year, that all the images from IOC meeting in Copenhagen made me a little homesick? The fact that even Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey combined in beautiful copenhagen couldn't win the olympics to my other hometown Chicago didn't help!

Anyway I remembered times in the Copenhagen cafées, when I was a student in a country where education is free (paid by the taxpayers) and I actually received $1,000 each month from the government to attend those free universities, then you can easier accept that a beer is $10....

Below a couple of images from Café Focus in Copenhagen featuring Menu's black contour thermocups.



Read more about Menu's black contour line http://www.creativedanes.com/menu/?cat=8

MENU TOP 10 UPDATE

What is right for some customers might not be right for others. However, we find that 95% of customers that continues to expand their Menu selection with the TOP 10 Menu items, increases their turn of Menu products and therefore are happier customers. Below the Menu Top10 from January to September 2009.

NEW Menu Jewelry Tree Now Introduced in Larger Size!

Same Great Product, Now in a Larger Size... MENU's Red Dot Design Award winning Jewelry Tree is available in a now larger version of the previous feature. This new design now allows for a larger collection of necklaces, rings and earrings. It's increase in height, preventing your necklaces from bunching and tangling together at the bottom, also allows for more room for ear stud rings (a new feature: ear stud rings...3 pairs of earrings per ring, which can be placed on the "branches" as well).

Top 5 Most Popular GENSE Products...

Below are the 5 new GENSEproducts which received the best reception at the New York Gift Show in August 2009:

AMUZE Tapas, Cheese and Corn Holder Sets Designer Mattias Mikaelsson created this Amuze line to add attitude and playfulness to your next hour of hors d'oeuvres. Now you can serve your finger foods with flair and fun!

Childrens Sets Your mom no longer tells you not to play with your food...With these playful childrens cutlery sets, meal time is fun everytime!

Focus deLuxe Listed by the “New York Times” as one of the “100 best designed products in modern time,” this particular set of silverware has a stylish, retro-classic look that has made it one of the most popular selling sets of the Gense collection. The sleek black finish of the Acetal plastic coated handle, paired with the matte stainless steel finish will add a touch of modern excellence to your next meal time!

MENU TOP 10

With consumers holding back and tight cash flow in stores it is now more than ever essential to have the right products in stock. Are the most succesful Menu items right for you too?

Gense in Japan

Gense was invited to decorate five tables at the 150 years anniversary of the port opening in Yokohama Japan:

Below Figura and Appetize Below Figura

Below Gammal Fransk Silverware

Below Indra

Below Victoria Silverware

Help the press to help you

When we started Creative Danes we were clueless about getting press coverage. Quickly we were swamped with offers from PR agents wanting huge retainers to pitch our products to the press. Luckily Menu won the "Best collection award" at our very first New York gift show, so we weren't tempted to hire outside help. From the press section on our website you can see that we are getting pretty good coverage.

http://www.creativedanes.com/press/?c=pubs

Like with everything else the key to working with the press is to
a) deliver the service they need
b) continue to maintain a relationship once a contact is established. Here are five easy steps to free coverage:

1) Identify the appropriate editors, bloggers and other press writers in you local area.

2) Make sure they are signed up for your mailing list, or if you haven't got one make sure that you have a distribution list so you can e-mail news to the entire group. If you already have an newsletter, add the editors to the list (they won't mind, they want your news)

3) Make sure to e-mail your press contacts once every 4-6 weeks.

4) Forward relevant info from your vendors to your press contacts, but be sure that your business is mentioned in the write-up.

5) When the editors ask you for samples, images or other information act like if this is your best customer ever - usually they are on a deadline and need you help - help them immediately.

With these easy steps you should be able to get free press for your business on a regular basis - good luck.

CREATIVE DANES SALES "WAY UP" IN FIRST HALF OF 2009

The first six month of 2009 has passed and to our great pleasant surprise our sales are up significantly compared with the same period last year.

As we sat down and celebrated this over the 4th of July weekend, we were naturally both claiming that our individual efforts was the reason, but after we sobered up (Monday or Tuesday) we decided to see if we had a better explanation.
This is our “non-biased” analysis:

1. Menu offers more than 250 unique and beautifully designed items and most of them have clever and practical features to them as well. In our current assortment 150 items are priced between $30 and $70.

2. More than any other design brand Menu continues to modernize the brand by introducing more than 40 new products every 6 month. You might not like them all, but usually there are 2-3 new bestsellers among each batch of new products.

3. For in-store presentation the Menu items come beautifully packaged and thus strengthen its uniqueness. For on-line sales Menu offers numerous professional photos, that facilitates strong web sales.

4. Menu’s bestselling items are Decanting Pourers, Trivets and Rubber-vases. Over the past couple of years 10,000 of these items have been sold in the US alone. Each piece is a conversation piece in itself and every day new people across the US are introduced to the Menu items. The host likes the attention (and wants to buy more Menu) - and the visitor wants a Menu products of her own….and so on.

5. Lastly the fact that Creative Danes has been almost solely focused on promoting Menu for more than two years (instead of carrying 10 different brands) may also have helped a little J


This is our humble opinion – please let us know your thoughts!

Updates to the Menu website

Menu is implementing video on their site. The cool thing about Menu products is that there is always something extra besides the beauty.

Check the links below!
http://www.menu.as/en/collection/dining/wine
http://www.menu.as/en/collection/dining/cb-line
http://www.menu.as/en/collection/outdoor/lighthouse

MENU Boogie Woogie Finally here!

And they say that it's only Christmas once a year?

We've been waiting impatiently for the Menu Boogie Woogie salt and pepper shakers. Pass me the salt please.

Arne Jacobsen Revisited

dkVOGUE is doing a lot for Scandinavian design in the US. This video shows how they both helps re-interpretate a classic (we had these chairs in my childhood home) and benefit a worthy course.

See video
http://www.dkvogue.com/video/download/hi-res/aids/aids-event.wmv

Menu be inspired

We love this video from Menu



See the video http://www.menu.as/frontalternatevideo.html