Timothy Jacob Jensen (born 27 April 1962) is a Danish industrial designer. He was best known as CEO and Chief Designer of Jacob Jensen Design (

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

’s oldest design studio) from 1990 to 2018. Jensen was also the founder of the Scandinavian

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

JACOB JENSEN. He has created numerous well-known designs for timepieces,

jewellery Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

, communication equipment, houseware, furniture and kitchens. He has also been prominent within the automotive design, branding and value clarification fields.

Early life and career

Timothy Jacob Jensen was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, and was raised in Hejlskov ( Central Jutland). He is the son of the Danish industrial designer Jacob Jensen (born in Copenhagen) and Patricia Ryan (born in New York).

Early career

Jensen joined his father's design studio ( Jacob Jensen) in 1978. During this period, Jensen worked alongside his father, Jacob Jensen, and David Lewis, the chief designers of Bang & Olufsen. In 1982, he became chief designer of Jacob Jensen Design. In 1985, he opened his own studio in

called ''Voss Foerlev & Jensen''. The studio closed in 1988, at which time Jensen started collaborating with various international designers including Ross Litell. In 1983, he designed his first car name "Logicar". He later designed the Jacob Jensen Classic wristwatch, which was subsequently included in The Museum of Modern Art's design collection in New York.

Founding JACOB JENSEN

In 1985, he founded JACOB JENSEN. The company designs lifestyle products including

watches A watch is a Clock, timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another typ ...

clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...

, smoke alarms,

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

s, kitchen products, and other products. In 1985, Jensen designed wristwatches ''The Classic series models 510'' and ''520'', which were included at the design study collection in the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

). In 1996, the wristwatches were also awarded “Watch of the Year.” In 1990, he took over Jacob Jensen Design and became the company's CEO and chief designer. As both CEO and Chief Designer, he led the expansion of the JACOB JENSEN™ lifestyle brand into more than 30 countries. Jensen developed Jacob Jensen Design internationally, collaborating with numerous major companies including ECCO (Danish shoe manufacturer), Gaggenau Hausgeräte, Bang & Olufsen, Haier, LG,

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

, Steinway Lyngdorf ( Steinway and Sons),

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

, Vertu,

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

, and

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

. From 1991 to 1998, Jensen worked as chief designer for Gaggenau Hausgeräte’s design programme, where he designed ceramic hobs, built-in ovens, extractor hoods, dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers. A number of these products received awards including the EB900 Built-in oven and CK494 Glass ceramic hob. At 48 years of age, he became professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. Jensen's works have been featured is various museums, including the

(

), the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Strasbourg (Paris), the Danish Museum of Art and Design (now known as Danish Museum of Art & Design), the Museum für angewandte Kunst Frankfurt (

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

), the Danish Watch Museum (

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

), Het Kleine Veenloo Museum ( Veenendaal), Royal Library, Denmark (

), Kalmar Konstmuseum (Kalmar), the

Chicago Athenaeum The Chicago Athenaeum is a private museum of architecture and design, based in Galena, Illinois. The museum focuses on the art of design in all areas of the discipline: architecture, industrial and product design, graphics, landscape architecture ...

(

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

), Bauhaus Museum, Weimar (

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, also known as the Louisiana, is an art museum located north of Copenhagen, Denmark. Attracting over 700,000 guests annually, the Louisiana is Scandinavia's most visited museum for Modern art, modern and contempor ...

(

Die Neue Sammlung Die Neue Sammlung is one of the leading design museums in the world, with the largest collection of industrial and product design. Founded in 1907 with the ideas of the German Werkbund, Die Neue Sammlung became an official state museum in 1925 ...

(

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

), and others. In 2011, Jensen founded his first subsidiary, the ''Jacob Jensen Design / DeTao Shanghai'' studio. The studio was created in collaboration with the DeTao Group at SIVA Campus in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. In 2014, ''Jacob Jensen Design'' established its second subsidiary studio named ''Jacob Jensen Design / KMUTT Bangkok''. The studio was founded in collaboration with King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. Jensen terminated his position and sold all of his shares from Jacob Jensen Design May 2018 and stopped working for the company in October 2018. He left Jacob Jensen Design to start new businesses includin
Timothyjacobjensenstudios.com
(2019)
DesignersTrust
2021)
Bytimothy
2022). In 2020, together with investors and collaborators, Jensen initiated the creation of Designers Trust, which launched in March 2021. The platform is designed to give creators access to projects, accreditation, and equitable pay.

Other work

Timothy Jacob Jensen was appointed as Master of the ''DeTao Masters Academy'' in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

in 2011. He was later appointed as Honorary professor at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art (SIVA),

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Jensen was subsequently awarded the title of High-level Expert by the ''China Industrial Design Association'' (CIDA). He currently also serves as a lecturer at universities, companies, and other institutions. He also served as an advisor to the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Danish government. Timothy Jacob Jensen was appointed by the iF International Forum Design to be jury member of iF design Award 2019 in the 'Discipline Product’ category. He founded Timothy Jacob Jenson Studios. As CEO at Jacob Jensen Design, he founded the Scandinavian lifestyle brand Jacob Jensen, which is currently represented in 30 countries. In 2017 Jensen was named Designer of the Year in China, and in 2019 he was selected as jury member for the iF Product Design Award. Jensen is considered the most awarded Danish designer, heading the most award-winning design family in the world.

Jacob Jensen Design

In 1990, Jensen became chief executive officer and chief designer of ''Jacob Jensen Design'', and expanded the company internationally. The studio focuses on design, and has branches in

, and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. In 2018, Jensen left his positions as chief designer, CEO and board member, and is currently working under his own name. In 2019 he founded Timothy Jacob Jensen Studios, and in 2021 he launched digital

SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike oth ...

platform Designers Trust. In June 2022 the

Skive Municipality Skive Municipality () is a municipality ( Danish, '' kommune'') in Mid Jutland Region on Salling Peninsula, a part of the larger Jutland Peninsula in northwest Denmark. It covers an area of 688.09 km2 (2013) and has a population of 44,328 ( ...

gave

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

and his family the gift of four wrist watches by the Timothy Jacob Jensen Studios. The watches were designed by Timothy Jensen and his daughter.

Design Style

Timothy Jacob Jensen developed his father's design works, which involved the merging of the

International style (architecture) The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

and

MAYA Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

style. Jensen turned his father's

two-dimensional A two-dimensional space is a mathematical space with two dimensions, meaning points have two degrees of freedom: their locations can be locally described with two coordinates or they can move in two independent directions. Common two-dimension ...

graphic works into

three-dimensional In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position (geometry), position of a point (geometry), poi ...

designs, applying this to multiple major brands including Gaggenau, Vertu, Steinway Lyngdorf ( Steinway & Sons), and JACOB JENSEN. Jensen's maxim is "Form follows feeling." Works by the Jensen family are known to have played a notable role in European design. The MAYA approach, initiated by Raymond Loewy, involved integrating new design elements with familiar features. Jacob Jensen evolved MAYA to create innovative yet recognizable archetypes. Jacob Jensen employed the MAYA approach through his minimalist and functional designs for Bang & Olufsen and later his own studio, with designs such as the Beogram turntables, which fused advanced technology and intuitive use. Jensen continued his father's approach by integrating contemporary technology and design with simplicity and practicality.

Monogram

The Timothy Jacob Jensen monogram is based on an early assignment his father gave him when he began as an apprentice in 1978. This involved drawing vertical lines representing "life", horizontal lines representing "death", and circles representing "life’s cycles". This exercise formed the basis for Jensen's brand signature.

Gaggenau Hausgeräte

From 1991 to 1998, Jensen was served as designer for Gaggenau Hausgeräte’s design programme. This comprised several ranges of products including ceramic hobs, built-in ovens, extractor hoods,

dishwasher A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike dishwashing, manual dishwashing, which relies on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot wat ...

washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a machine designed to laundry, launder clothing. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water. Other ways of doing laundry include dry cleaning (which uses ...

s, and tumble dryers. A number of these products received awards, primarily in Germany. These include the EB900 Built-in oven and CK494 Glass ceramic hob. In 1995, Gaggenau Hausgeräte was acquired by Bosch-Semiens Hausgeräte (

BSH Hausgeräte BSH Hausgeräte GmbH (; stylized as B/S/H/) is the largest manufacturer of home appliances in Europe and one of the leading companies in the sector worldwide. The group stemmed from a joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity ...

Works

Timothy Jacob Jensen’s best known works include the '' Bang & Olufsen Beocenter 9000'' (1986), Bang & Olufsen ''Beowatch'' (1993), ''Jabra JX10 Bluetooth headset'' (2005), ''Vertu Aerius Bluetooth headset'' (2006), ''Gaggenau EB900 Built-in oven'' (1993), '' Gaggenau CK494 Glass ceramic hob'' (1993), ''Rosti Mepal Victoria Bowl'' (2008), ''Steinway Lyngdorf Model D Music System'' (2007), ''Toshiba WL768 flat screen television'' (2010), ''Tommerup Kister Diamant 32 Coffin'' (2010), ''Lufthansa First Class Aminety Kit'' (2016), ''Danzka The Spirit'' (2016), ''Phicomm K3 Router'' (2017), ''Classic Watch'' (Model 510), ''JACOB JENSEN Strata Watch 270 and 280'' (2014), ''JACOB JENSEN Smoke Alarm'' (2001), ''Telephone T3'', ''JACOB JENSEN Air Quality Monitor'' (2016), ''JACOB JENSEN Weather station series '' (1999), and others. File:TommerupKister Diamant32.jpg, Tommerup Kister Diamant 32 Coffin, 2010 File:T3 Phone.jpg, JACOB JENSEN T3 Telephone, 1994 File:GagenauEB900.jpg, Gaggenau EB900 stove, 1993 File:Toshiba_748.jpg, Toshiba VL748, 2010 File:Classic510.jpg, JACOB JENSEN Classic 510, 1986 File:Vertu headset.jpg, Vertu Aerius Bluetooth Headset, 2006 File:Vestas_wind_Turbines.png , Vestas wind turbines File: Aalborg_Jule_Akvavit.png , Aalborg Jule Akvavit File: 11_Stars_of_Skive.png , 11 Stars of Skive File: Beocenter_9000.png , Beocenter 9000 File:Bagside watch.tif File:Hvid watch.tif

Awards

* Red Dot Award (1993–2017,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) * China Red Star Design Award (2013–2017,

) * IF Award (1990–2018,

) * German Design Award (2012–2017,

) * Designer of the Year (2017,

). * Design Plus Award (1988–2016,

) * IDA Awards, (2016,

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

) * Plus X Award (2006–2016,

) * German Design Award (2012–2018, Germany) * Good Design Award (1985–2012,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

)

Personal life

Timothy Jacob Jensen has two daughters, Toko and Freja.Timothy Jacob Jensen er ikke bitter efter brud med livsværk: »Jeg er lykkelig og fri«
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References

External links

www.timothyjacobjensen.com

www.oobject.com/category/10-classic-jacob-jensen-gadgetsWork-partnerships-FORMA-MARINE

https://timothyjacobjensen.com/timothy-jacob-jensen/

issuu.com/worldofjacobjensen/docs/jacobjensendesign
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Timothy Jacob Living people 1962 births Danish industrial designers