Maria Berntsen is a Copenhagen-based Danish designer who established Maria Berntsen Design Studio in 1992. Since then, she has worked independently with a wide range of Danish and international clients, including Rosendahl and Holmegaard. Her basic design philosophy is about creating designs that bring joy to everyone every day.

Maria Berntsen

Maria Berntsen graduated from both the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the I'Ecole d'Architecture de Bordeaux, and over the years, her in-depth knowledge and extensive experience in design has resulted in the development of many successful products within lighting, furniture, product design and home decor. Over the years she has also received several awards for creating outstanding design solutions.

As a designer, Maria Berntsen spends a lot of time thinking about intuition and learning processes through her studies and work. And it's particularly important t her that her work appeals to all five human senses. The shape should adapt to human physics, but also be visually appealing and spark reflection.

Maria Berntsen finds her design inspiration in architecture, nature, fashion and current trends and has a special love of glass as a material due to its visual lightness and its ability to catch and reflect light. A love that is clearly expressed in Holmegaard’s successful Design with Light series and the Rosendahl Soft Spot series, which she has also created.

The Design with Light lanterns include a number of stylish lanterns with a distinctive leather strap as a carrying handle, which converts them to mobile light sources in both transparent and frosted glass, ideal for use both indoors and outdoors.

For Rosendahl, Maria Berntsen has created the Soft Spot series, which consists of cordless lanterns and LED lamps, all of which provide soft, evocative light everywhere in the home and are easy to move around to place exactly where you need cosy lighting. All series for Holmegaard and Rosendahl have been created based on Maria Berntsen’s design philosophy, which is first and foremost about creating designs that create reflections in glass and spread joy.