Gustav Ehrenreich

Hans Gustav Ehrenreich was a Danish wood turner. From the late 1950s he ran the small workshop "Ehrenreichs Trækunst" in Stilling, near Aarhus, where he made hand-turned bowls and dishes in woods from all over the world.

In the late 1960s he created the first prototypes of Bimble and Bumble, the original Hoptimists: cheerful bouncing figures with strong colours and round, harmonious shapes. His design idea was simple: every Hoptimist is drawn from a circle and an ellipse. The figures soon became more popular than his small workshop could keep up with, and earned their place in Danish design history.

Since the relaunch in 2009, new Hoptimists are still designed in Ehrenreich's spirit, starting from that same circle and ellipse.