Richard Nissen Wine Rack for Nissen Langaa, Denmark, c.1965

Richard Nissen was born in Denmark in 1928. After graduating in 1943, he began working in the factory. Nissen became operations manager in 1952, and in the 1950s, he decisively changed the profile of the wood products factory in the direction of being a manufacturer of design items. In 1955, he began the production of applied art in collaboration with the sculptor Jens H. Quistgaard, and in 1957 he bought the factory from his father. Nissens Trævarefabrik came to play a major role in the Danish Design wave, and for several years Richard Nissen employed about 220 people In 1970, however, internal divisions arose in DANSK Design, and Richard Nissen interrupted the year after the collaboration and continued on his own.