Connecting the Dots #5

Connecting the Dots showcases all Dutch presentations

at the London Design Festival 2012

thedots

article

Socially Responsive Design

p.42

interview

Max Bruinsma and Pao Lien Djie

about the future of Items magazine

p.52

interview

Deyan Sudjic about the Dutch

p.12

column

Ineke Hans and the RCA

p.17

interview

How Droog can it get?p.18

#5 September 2012 London

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the dots #511 content

forewordFrom networking to collaborating

David Heldt

11

interviewA view on Design, Dutch design,

Research and the Museum: Deyan Sudjic

Deyan Sedjic interviewed by Anne Bates

12

columnDesign Faces

Ineke Hans

17

interviewHow Droog can it get?

Renny Ramakers and Agata Jaworska interview by Daniela De Lorenzo

18

articleWaste Mountain as Arm Accessory?

Heleen Willemsen

22

indexDutch Design London 2012

25

Guide Dutch presentationsMoooi

Ineke HansBolefloor

SabicMint

Social-UnitVij5

PastoeBo Reudler

ProoffStudio Lambert Kamp

NgispeNMosa

Van Rossum MeubelenAnon & Co.

Bathroom Mania!Dennis Parren

Imme van der HaakJólan van der Wiel

Studio-Re-CreationStudio Rik ten Velden

Teun FleskensThe Cottage Industry

Tiago Sá da CostaVersaflex Systems

26 – 31

Maps London

32 – 37

Program

38

Index

39

articleSocially Responsive Design

Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye

42

columnLondon – Olympic Games and Design

Jan van Weijen

50

interviewItems, the conscience of Dutch design

Max Bruinsma and Pao Lien Djie interviewed by Tracy Metz

52

portraitsTen portraits of Dutch designersPhotographed by Judith Jockel

4 – 8, 57 – 61

Favourite everyday object of Julius VermeulenAdvisor visual communication PostNL, The Hague

the dots #513

From networking to collaborating

Cultural entrepreneurs and institutes in the Netherlands have to defend their raison d’être and adapt to the new economic reality whenever necessary. It can be a painful but often healthy development. Whereas five years ago the new creative class met each week for sponsored network drinks, radiating success and armed with a stack of business cards wrapped in rubber, now it has become more modest, is open to far-reaching collaboration, and meets by appointment. The trendy jackets are back in the wardrobe awaiting better times. In the interview with the design magazine Items on page 52, managing director Pao Lien Djie has this to say on the present economic conjuncture: ‘It does mean that we have to become more creative in forging collaborations with partners who share our stance on the cultural importance of design and the arts in general.’ Networking has given way to collaborating. This is as true of magazines as it is of government bodies such as Premsela, which is on the eve of a merger, and certainly of designers as well. The design sector is redesigning itself, and that is a job we will have to do together.

I dare not say whether the financial situation has anything to do with it, but the meaning of the word design is also changing. When we talk about design, we increasingly have to explain which part of the spectrum we are referring to, because it is growing broader and broader. In the article Socially Responsive Design on page 42, the London-based design researchers Anette Lundebye and Hannah Jones go into what we mean by the term Social Design. They explain: ‘In line with societal changes, we are seeing designers that are forging new roles as facilitators, mediators and change agents. Design thinking is moving out of the box and into the world.’ So collaboration is not just confined to the professionals, but the public seems to be playing a crucial role in the design process too. Lundebye and Jones continue: ‘Rather than looking at people as mere passive consumers, they are included as active participants and offered a chance to co-design the lifestyles and livelihoods we want.’ We have to find out what we need before we start to make it.

Once again Connecting the Dots is full of articles and photos. We have deliberately opted for shorter articles but more of them. As in previous editions, the magazine is illustrated by 10 portraits of Dutch designers, this time photographed by Judith Jockel. Besides the articles mentioned above, we have invited the director of the Design Museum in London Deyan Sudjic for his opinion on Dutch design, we interviewed Droog design about their striking presentation in Milan, and both the designer Ineke Hans and the Head of Public Diplomacy, Press & Culture at the Dutch Embassy in London Jan van Weijen have each written a column. You will have seen that the design of Connecting the Dots has been completely renewed. Design studio Haller Brun has carried out the graphic design of this edition with great care and precision, as well as providing Connecting the Dots with a new housestyle and website.

Of course it is not so much design thinkers but design makers who will be present at the London Design Festival. No less than 25 Dutch companies will present themselves on various locations in the city. For the first time, Connecting the Dots will itself present a selection of 12 companies at Tent London. Please come and see our presentation, and make use of the maps on the inside of the magazine to view all the other exhibitions as well.

David HeldtEditor-in-Chief

foreword

14the dots #5 interview

This year, eight Dutch design studios were nominated for the Designs of the Year prize at

the Design Museum in London; among them a land mine detonator, a conference exploring

‘What Design can Do’, and a speculative project that imagines a present without oil, through a series of vessels made of natural polymers.

Anna Bates spoke exclusively for Connecting the Dots to Deyan Sudjic, the museum’s

director, about the changing landscape of Dutch design. Or, at least, she tried to. Is it relevant to speak of ‘Dutch design’ or ‘British design’

today? Do these terms actually mean anything?

A view on Design,Dutch design,

Research and theMuseum:

Deyan SudjicDeyan Sudjic interviewed by Anna Bates

Photography by Hege Saebjornsen

Deyan Sudjic, director Design Museuem London


Anna Bates · How do you choose what is ‘good’ design? How do you decide what goes on a pedestal?Deyan Sudjic · We are in an agnostic era. People are anxious of using terms like ‘good design’ and ‘bad design’. But when you show something in a magazine or museum, it is seen as an endorsement. So how does one introduce a nuance there? It’s difficult. I think that this is not a museum of ‘good design’, but a museum that tries to look at contemporary design – in particular massproduced design – to make sense of it. I keep repeating a phrase, which I think Paola Antonelli first used: ‘design is a way to understand the world around us’. I think this is a very powerful idea.

AB · Is this your ethos as director of the museum?DS · Yes, I wrote a book called ‘The Language of Things’ around the same time that I became director of the Design Museum, and it’s a manifesto of sorts: a bit of the intellectual knowledge that goes into the museum. But the Design Museum is not mine; it’s a platform for many viewpoints. I always think of the museum as being like a multiplex cinema, it needs to have different shows and qualities: you need arthouse and blockbuster.

AB · One of the nominations for the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year prize was a conference in Amsterdam: ‘What Design Can Do’. The designers that organised the event claim ‘design thinking’ can be used as ‘a response to the challenges of today’s world’. Do you agree?DS · I took part in the conference and I sort of enjoyed it. It seemed a little innocent in its beliefs. Deep down there is a system idea that if you analyse a problem carefully enough, there is a design answer to it. But I never really believed that, because some things are intractable. There are not solutions to everything. It’s a bit like the idea of psychoanalysis: if you put a problem into words, that somehow solves the problem, but I don’t think this is true. Would I go again? Probably not, it’s a theatrical event. The really great conferences they had in Holland about design were in the 90’s, when John Thackara was doing ‘Doors of Perception’; that was amazing. He was really thinking about the subject before it became mainstream, and he really understood it.

AB · Designers in the new generation are increasingly interested in the claims of the conference; that design can be socially and politically motivated. The output of this line of enquiry is more often systems than things; will you address this work in the museum, and if so, how?DS · The museum is not only about exhibitions. We have a teaching programme here from primary to postgraduate; residencies; talks and other diff erent ways of looking at things. The worst thing a museum can do is become predictable, and what interests me about design is that it keeps on changing its shape. Fifty years ago a design museum could have told a story in a selection of well chosen chairs, which would trace the history of technology; people’s approach to the act of sitting; the architectural languages expressed through the chairs. I still have a collection of chairs – personally and here – but design is about much more than just these things.

I always think of the museum as being like a multiplex cinema, it needs to have different shows and qualities: you need art-house and blockbuster.

•

The Design Museum in London.

the dots #517 deyan sudjic

If design didn’t keep changing its definition it would become as marginal as bookbinding.

AB · What do you think is lacking in design discourse now? DS · I think we need more research. On the one hand we know that an iPhone lasts eight months and depends on strip-mining lithium from the high deserts in Chile. On the other hand it does away with a telephone, music system, camera, GPS. It does away with packaging, transport, shipping etc. So we need to work out whether this could be the guilt-free consumption Reyner Banham and the Independent Group were interested in or whether it is really an evil. There was a very strong piece at the Design Biennale in South Korea last year, which was doing exactly this; it presented how an iPhone is made and sourced. But really this kind of research is beyond the scale of an individual; it requires the effort of universities. Unless we get to the root of things we might be doomed to make a huge effort to recycle without much purpose.

AB · Do you think it should be part of the work of the designer, to pay as much attention to the process of how things are made, as the final outcome? DS · I think the good ones do. Vitra doesn’t want to put poisonous pigments into its supplies so it chooses to make things in different ways, but of course if you manufacture in eight different factories around the world, how do you keep track?

AB · How would you compare design values in the UK and the Netherlands?

DS · I am always cautious about seeing national characteristics in design, it can quickly degenerate into stereotyping. Look, for example, at how inap-propriate it is to describe what Jonathan Ive does as ‘British design’ simply because he is British. It’s equally problematic to call it American design. Apple puts it well when it prints the words designed in California on the side of the box. What is inside is assembled in Shenzhen from components made in a dozen different factories all around the world.

To British eyes the Netherlands is a country which initially seems very familiar; both have a queen as a head of state; both are beer drinking and football loving; both have lots of 18th century brick terraces with sliding sash windows. But in fact the superficial similarities conceal utterly dif-ferent characteristics. The Netherlands depends on an almost Japanese social cohesion that the British have trouble with. They live very close to-gether with big windows; you see your neighbours all the time, which is rather un-British.

AB · Do you think this characteristic is reflected in Dutch design?DS · What has come to be called Dutch design is better called design in the Netherlands, which is the product of some well publicised educational experiments, and the residual afterglow of a state that once felt obligated to reflect certain cultural values for example, through the design of the PTT, and the Pre Euro banknotes.

•

Deyan Sudjic in Museum bookshop.

Favourite everyday object of Anouk VogelLandscape architect, Amsterdam

the dots #519

In 1995 I graduated from the Royal College of Art. Two years earlier I had made a very conscious choice to go to London and study there. London was tempting and my impression was that design in the UK was more focused on industrial thinking. Coming from Dutch education that taught conceptual thinking and having graduated there with one-off pieces (limited editions avant-la-lettre, you could say) this seemed a very wise and interesting move to me.

This year I was external examiner at the RCA for Design Products. In 1997 I had my RCA exams myself and – unlike my main reason to study in the UK – I graduated with mainly one-off pieces, exploring designed objects, their functional visuals and sculptural powers. Not very industrial but very con-nected to the more artistic work I made in the Netherlands before.

It’s interesting to hear that recent Dutch RCA graduate Imme van der Haak still experiences this similar difference in design attitude between the UK and the Netherlands: “My impression is that the background of English design is more based on industrial design history and Dutch design is more conceptual and artistic.” Imme made impressive and per-sonal work: She printed photos of her own body, her mother’s and grandmother’s on trans-parent robes. Persons wearing these garments become laden by the body of someone else. According to her own description you could say Imme’s work is very Dutch.

Marjan van Aubel, another Dutch RCA grad-uate in Design Products, also recognizes: “The Netherlands has a rep u tation for an inno-vative and storytelling way of design. English design is very to the point, is well made and uses high-quality materials. In general it remains quite male-dominated and is more

traditional.” Marjan explores the potential use of new and high-tech technologies for our lifes now and in the future. In her field she certainly is an outcast as a woman, but equally Dutch in her storytelling way of confronting us with technology and getting us acquainted with it.

What is experienced as Dutch still seems to be part of them and me after two years of the RCA. Do London and the UK make any sense for Dutch Designers, you might ask?

You could also say that design has many faces. The storytelling, conceptual part is perhaps not just a typically Dutch phenomenon but one of the faces of design. To me it seems that the UK’s educational system just embraces more designers with different faces in the courses and this might perhaps be the real eye-opener for Dutch Designers!

According to Marjan and Imme: “The design world in the UK is bigger and more varied than the Dutch one, which means more possi-bilities.”

Personally I believe that the future of design lies in where these different faces of design meet: if the worlds of one-off experiments, high technology, storytelling, asking questions and industrial production get together, it pro-vides us with great and interesting things. Designers have to be aware of all these worlds to make that happen. And London is a great melting pot to make you aware of this.

• Ineke Hans has a Studio in Arnhem, the

Netherlands and had her first self-initiated design presentation in The Tramshed, East London, in 1997. (www.inekehans.com; www.immevanderhaak.nl; www.marjanvanaubel.com)

column

Designfaces

Ineke Hans

380 chairs for Ahrend by Ineke Hans

The Energy Collection, by Marjan van Aubel.

Graduation show RCA, London 2012.

Beyond the Body (film) by Imme van der Haak. Graduation show RCA,

London 2012.


Daniela De Lorenzo · What was the Milan Design Week 2012 audience reaction to the Droog presen tation? People expect to see brand new objects, instead you brought an idea, a concept.Agata Jaworska · We had quite a mixed reaction. While some passed it by, looking for the next show that would feature new objects, others stayed, often for quite a long time, examining each company and discussing their thoughts with us. Many people told us it was refreshing to come to a presentation that was not about the latest product launches. It seems there is a need for presentations that reflect upon the design industry at large, and also upon the furniture fair in Milan as its Mecca.

NI · What were the criteria for your selection of the design projects?AJ · It was a combination of finding existing initia-tives by designers, incorporating some of our own past and present initiatives, and inventing new ones. We wanted a broad range of business propositions, ranging from the realistic, like We Fix, a company that specializes in creative repair, to the entirely fictional, like the 10kg Institute, an institution that rations 10kg ‘polyblocks’ that can be endlessly re-printed in different shapes. The 10kg Institute came from a speculative scenario by Justin McGuirk in an article he wrote about Material Matters, which was recently published by Domus.

NI · What are the main features of the business models you are trying to offer?AJ · There is no singular over-arching feature of the business models. Some focus on developing alter-native new materials, some on finding alternative material sources, on enabling people to share things, on designing things that last longer, on satisfying our psychological addiction to material goods, on reuse, repair and upcycling. The imaginary fair is an illustration of what is already happening in the real world – designers are reacting in very different ways.

NI · This model goes completely against the flow of the whole current system. Do you think that we will have to wait for new generations to fully develop this ‘maximizing’ mentality? Who is most likely to follow this brand-new model?AJ · If you provide a good experience with very simple means, there is no reason why it can’t exist now. Every generation has its own dynamics and urgencies. Perhaps the issue of material scarcity might not be so relevant many years from now.

NI · How do you relate the early Droog products to this new approach to design? What do they have in common?AJ · Material Matters frames some of the earlier initiatives within a context that is relevant today. Droog in the early days was very much about improvisation and making use of existing things as a reaction to design that aimed at formal and material perfection. Rag chair by Tejo Remy of 1991 is a classic example, which was featured by the imaginary company Scraps.

Material Matters shows a broader range of possible alternatives to making new products from scratch. The imaginary company Waste Watchers

Palazzo Clerici in Milan looks like a piece of design itself, with its frescoed ceilings and

ancient golden-framed mirrors. This glimmering location became just the surroundings

for a simple at-a-glance installation by Droog at the Milan Design Week 2012, as part of

Domus Open Design Archipelago.Driven by curiosity about this unusual presen-tation made me get closer; paper panels placed

around the room revealed powerful concepts for a revolutionary view of design. With ‘Material

Matters’, Droog presented 20 imaginary design companies which introduce innovative

forms of economic systems that draw attentionto material scarcity. Droog showed

design through ideas, not objects. Is this a U-turn in the Droog approach to design?

Not according to Agata Jaworska, content and project manager at Droog.

How Droog can it get?

Renny Ramakers and Agata Jaworska interviewed by Daniela De Lorenzo

Photography by Ilco Kemmere

Renny Ramakers (co-founder and director of Droog) and Agata Jaworska (content/project manager at Droog)


teaches you how to furnish your house without buying stuff. One of its ‘products’ is Calorie stairs, which proposes using the stairs instead of buying a work-out machine. This idea came from the ex-hibition Hotel Droog of 2002, which was all about maximizing experience without the need for more stuff. Material Matters also presents digital and other service-based alternatives to consuming tangible goods.

What is also noteworthy is that the formation of Droog was curatorial. Renny Ramakers and Gijs Bakker put existing developments within a common framework which made a statement about design. Material Matters also brings together existing initi-atives as a curatorial act, but I would say this time that the focus is more on a structural level – on the impact of a policy shift, on the need to propose alternative business models.

NI · Clearly the tasks of designers are changing. As designers used to be trained to design products, what is the approach they should have now? Will they need to have new abilities? What sort of skills make someone a designer nowadays?AJ · As an industry, but also like most industries, we are at a point in which reconsidering our methods – of production, of financing, of communicating, of interacting with our audience – is particularly necessary. Some designers are reconsidering the various parts of the supply chain, proposing new ways of sourcing, producing and distributing.

The great thing about the (fictionally named) company Sea Treasures by Studio Swine is that the plastic is fished from the sea. The company Solar Sinter by Markus Kayser Studio similarly is intriguing because it brings a self-sustaining machine to the desert where there is an abundance of material and energy from the sun. Crow Works by Joshua Klein is fascinating because it turns crows into material collection agents that gather material wealth while cleaning our streets at the same time. Joshua Klein happens to be a hacker, but I think his way of thinking is also design think-ing at its best. It’s about reconsidering the full chain and redesigning the process, which is part of the designer’s scope.

NI · Some of the fictional design companies of Material Matters lease or rent objects for daily use. Therefore the public, and not only designers, are directly involved and have a main part in your project. Do you think that consumers are ready to change their attitudes towards this new concept of ownership?AJ · Renting makes a lot of sense at a time when we change neighbourhoods quite frequently, not knowing how long we will stay in any given place. Renting homes and sharing cars are all quite ac-ceptable notions. It can be the same for furniture, and eventually maybe even for clothes.

If tax on raw material is increased, it changes the value of existing material. People are likely to treat existing material more carefully, they will be more versatile with what they have, they will be less likely to throw things away, they might be more open to renting things, and so on. With changed incentives, people’s behaviour and even-tually attitudes might also change.

It’s about reconsidering the full chain and redesigning the process, which is part of the designer’s scope.

•

Top: Wild Goods, Wild bone china by Christien Meindertsma for Droog.

Bottom: UP by Droog, offers a range of goods made with dead stock. Snack set designed by Studio Droog. Material: glass (supplied by Royal Leerdam / Libbey Europe), coating, spoons.

the dots #523 how droog can it get?

NI · Are reuse, repair, reboot the new words to identify progress?AJ · Regress can certainly play a role in progress. Repairing – bringing something back to a previous state – will never go away, but our incentives to repair things fluctuate over time, becoming especially relevant when resources become scarce and the alternative of buying something new becomes less attractive. Raising tax on materials artificially increases their scarcity, thereby artificially raising the incentives for repairing, reusing or rebooting them.

Material Matters presented a myriad of possible reactions to material scarcity. There is no single direction that the industry – and that progress – should take, but ultimately the show has a progressive and optimistic tone. Part of progress is rethin k ing business models and not blindly sticking to the same strategy and expecting the same results when everything else around you is changing.

NI · Was the Saved by Droog (2010) presen tation of items saved from liquidation sales and leftovers the core and starting point of Material Matters? What do you think Droog has achieved in the last few years by taking this challenging path?AJ · Saved by Droog is part of a trajectory that started in the ’90s, when Droog was dealing with leftovers. At that time, the main objective was to make a statement about a different approach to design, which manifested itself through new products. We still have that ambition, but now I think we’re

also interested in making statements on structural levels, which means proposing alternative business models and scenarios.

NI · The DNA of Droog consisted of a Dutch approach to problem-solving, and a dry sort of humour. Is Material Matters something that fits with that picture?AJ · Material Matters presents a relevant framework for the design industry, speculating about a possible state of affairs in the future. There is some humour or perhaps caricature involved, in the sense that each response quite literally took on a ‘branded’ approach. Within the framework, we essentially presented a series of logos with oneline business propositions, in order to convey the message that businesses will react to a topdown policy shift, turning the limitation into a market opportunity. The playful and naïve tone of the logos designed by TD (Theo Deutinger) made them seem as if they were part of another time.

Whether or not this fits with the DNA of Droog we’ll leave you to decide.

•

UP by Droog, offers a range of goods made with dead stock. Shoes designed by Studio Droog. Material: carpet (supplied by 2012Architecten/InterfaceFlor), leather laces.

24the dots #5 article

It seems as though hardly a week goes by without the eco blogs reporting on a new waste product that designers are converting into a trendy handbag. It is a persistent trend in which the bag designers are increasingly opting for industrial or other rough waste materials. For instance, the Dutch company Kazmok recently won a Red Dot Design Award for its line of stylish, classically designed and robust- looking briefcases and suitcases made from indus-trial transport belts. If the Kazmok bags are not entirely your thing, as a hip, environmentally-minded consumer you can also choose a bag made from discarded fire hoses, banners, lorry canvas, army tents, men’s suits, parachutes, safety belts, bicycle tyres, sheets, plastic bags, benches, sails, or rice sacks. Most suppliers offer not only various bag models but also purses, belts and protective sleeves for mobile phones and iPads.

FreitagThe trend started in 1993 when the Swiss company Freitag introduced its first line of bags made from lorry canvases. Freitag was also one of the first com-panies to cater to the demand for unique consumer products, since as each canvas is printed differently, every bag is different. Freitag is a big international brand that processes 390 tons of lorry canvas, 36,000 bicycle inner tubes, 220,000 safety belts and 1,200 square metres of recycled airbags a year.

SlumsSome ten years later, but still as one of the first, the Dutch designer Siem Haffmans introduced his Ragbag bags. These bags are not only made from waste material such as plastic foil, but they are produced by slum dwellers in India into the bargain. The company has won many prizes in the last ten years and sales in various countries have increased to a couple of thousand pieces a year.

EasyBoth Freitag and Ragbag have been imitated several times. But why is designing bags made from recy-cled material so popular? Haffmans: ‘Sustainability is attracting a lot of attention. Socially responsible enterprises are enormously popular. And the poten tial of recycled material is limited, of course. A bag is an easy item to make something of and it is conspicuous in the street.’ So a bag is an easy and eye-catching product when it comes to the in-corporation of recycled material. All the same, many of the designers behind the bag labels also have big environmental ambitions with their products. Take the mission of the British firm Elvis & Kresse, which makes fantastic bags from fire hoses: ‘Save the world from waste’. Still, it remains debatable whether you can save the world from waste by re-cycling it in a product. Elvis & Kresse prevents the discarded hoses from ending up on the scrap heap or in the incinerator. Instead, the waste material is flown over the world to trendy design and clothing stores in the form of bags, to be worn on someone’s shoulder for a couple of years. In the end the bag will wear out too, and will then still end up on the scrap heap or in the incinerator. In the meantime the hose manufacturers carry on using new raw materials to make new fire hoses, which will also be bound to be discarded at some point.

There is no waste material that designers cannot turn into a bag line. Why are so many bag

designers turning to discarded material? And will this save the planet?

Waste Mountainas Arm

Accessory?Heleen Willemsen in collaboration with

Vormberichten, magazine by BNO – Association of Dutch Designers

the dots #525

So saving the planet with a bag line is a rather tall order. What Elvis & Kresse and all the other designers of bags from recycled materials do achieve, of course, is to save on raw materials for new bags.

PalletsSiem Haffmans is more realistic about the environ-mental effects of his own Ragbags and other bags made from recycled material: ‘The environmental effect is relatively limited. A bag is more of a sym-bolic product, something that communicates. It contributes to awareness of sustainability, but it won’t save the world. We recycle maybe five hundred grams of plastic per bag and the number of bags is not so large. It would be better to make pallets from recycled material, hundreds of millions of them are made. But people simply find recycled pallets less interesting.’

Perhaps that is a bright new challenge for the designers of bags made from recycled materials to devote their creativity and ecological awareness to. Who is going to make the first pallet from recycled handbags? And who will design the first fire hose made from discarded purses, or the first car tyre from used iPad sleeves?

• Heleen Willemsen is a freelance journalist and consultant in the field of ecodesign

waste mountain as arm accessory?

1 Cyclus (inner tubes), 2 Freitag (lorry canvas), 3 Italian Coffee Hand-bags (coffee packaging), 4 Edson Raup (men’s suits), 5 Ragbag (cotton saris), 6 Feuerwear (fire hoses), 7 Doybags (soft drinks packaging), 8 BELT! (safety belts), 9 Anne van Dijk (army tents and jackets), 10 Demano (banners), 11 Doreen Westphal (inner tubes), 12 Elvin&Kresse (fire hoses), 13 Kazmok (transport belts)

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Favourite everyday object of Irma BoomGraphic designer, Amsterdam

27 presentations the dots #5

DutchDesignLondon

2012

01Moooi

02/10Ineke Hans

03Bolefloor

04Sabic

05Mint

06Social-Unit

07Vij5

08Pastoe

09/18Bo Reudler

11Prooff

12Studio Lambert Kamp

13NgispeN

14Mosa

15Van Rossum Meubelen

16Anon & Co.

17Bathroom Mania!

19Dennis Parren

20Imme van der Haak

21Jólan van der Wiel

22Studio-Re-Creation

23Studio Rik ten Velden

24Teun Fleskens

25The Cottage Industry

26Tiago Sá da Costa

27Versaflex Systems

28presentationsthe dots #5

06Social-Unit

LocationGallery House19 Greek StreetLondon W1D 4DT

DesignersWouter Kalis, Corinne de Korver

ContactCorinne de KorverMaasstraat 160-31079 BK AmsterdamNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 340 249 80corinne@social-unit.comwww.social-unit.comwww.19greekstreet.com

map E p. 36

05MintMint | A Spatial Surprise

LocationMint2 North TerraceLondon SW3 2BA

DesignersDaniel Hulsbergen, Daphna Isaacs, Mieke Meijers, Dirk Van Der Kooij, Kirstie Van Noort, Jetske Visser

ContactNadia Chin2 North TerraceLondon SW3 2BA United Kingdomm +44 20 722 522 [email protected]

map D p. 35

04Sabic

Location100% Design LondonEarls Court Exhibition CentreStand E40Warwick RoadLondon SW5 9TA

ContactMichael SmitsPlasticslaan 14612 PX Bergen op ZoomNetherlandsm +31 (0)16 429 29 11www.sabic.com

map C p. 35

03Bolefloor

Location100% Design LondonEarls Court Exhibition Centre Stand E112Warwick RoadLondon SW5 9TA

ContactPrinsengracht 131015 DK AmsterdamNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 205 545 [email protected]

map C p. 35

02Ineke HansSCP

LocationSCP West87 Westbourne GroveLondon W2 4UL

DesignerIneke Hans

ContactINEKEHANS|ARNHEMBurgemeester Weertsstraat 1326814 HT ArnhemNetherlandst +31 (0)26 389 38 [email protected] www.scp.co.uk

map B p. 34

01MoooiThe Unexpected Welcome

LocationMoooi London – The White Building555 Harrow Road London W10 4RH

ContactLaura Ramos Bello-KluitMinervum 70034817 ZL BredaNetherlandst +31 (0)6 388 231 [email protected]

map A p. 34

Dutch Design Presentations London 2012


LocationSuper Brands LondonStand 13 – 14Old Truman BreweryHanbury StreetLondon E1 6QR

DesignersAxia Design, Ben van Berkel (UNStudio), Jurgen Bey (Studio Makkink & Bey)

ContactAntoinette VenemanP.O. Box 340953005 GB RotterdamNetherlandst +31 (0)10 211 00 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutPROOFF is about creating innovative products whose every last detail has been refined and refined again. PROOFF involves spatial furniture elements for the pro-gressive office, communication areas and public spaces. From consultation furniture, in which unconscious behaviour can naturally occur, creating conditions for concentration, to the simple functionality and creativity of meeting places.

PresentationPremiere of PROOFF #006 at SuperBrands London: at stand 13 – 14 PROOFF’s newest product development, designed by Studio Makkink & Bey (NL) will be exhibited for the first time ever. Of course, you can experience #001 to #005 as well.

11PROOFFHello London, this is PROOFF

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Pim

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07Vij5

LocationMilk Concept Boutique19 Greek StreetLondon W1D 4DT DesignersFramed: Breg Hanssen together with Vij5NewspaperWood: Mieke Meijer together with Vij5

ContactArjan van RaadshoovenDebussystraat 25654 SC EindhovenNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 245 275 [email protected] [email protected]

map E p. 36

08Pastoe

LocationViaduct Furniture1-10 Summers StreetLondon 1R 5BD

DesignersPierre Mazairac & Karel Boonzaaijer, Studio Pastoe

ContactRotsoord 33523 CL UtrechtNetherlandst +31 (0)30 258 55 [email protected]

map F p. 36

09Bo ReudlerBathware for SUSHISAMBA’s bathrooms

LocationSushisambaHeron Tower, 38th and 39th floors110 BishopsgateLondon E1 6QR

DesignerBo Reudler

ContactBo Reudler StudioKrelis Louwenstraat 1-B291055 KA AmsterdamNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 455 264 [email protected]

map H p. 37

10Ineke HansSCP

LocationSCP Design Department Store135-139 Curtain RoadLondon EC2A 3BX

DesignerIneke Hans

ContactINEKEHANS|ARNHEMBurgemeester Weertsstraat 1326814 HT ArnhemNetherlandst +31 (0)26 389 38 [email protected]

map G p. 37


AboutAnon&Co.’s journey began with a vision to create luxurious objects of desire by engaging the global com-munity to take timeless concepts to reality. Fashioned by you the design voyeur, Anon&Co. is truly ‘designed by everyone’. As purveyor of design, you, are empowered through our voting portal to elevate extraordinary designs to iconic status, and engage in balanced consumption.

PresentationBlurring the line between art and product, Anon&Co.’s bold and energetic work utilises various medium to creatively convey a sculptural allure, exploring line, colour and form in objects derived from recyclable and naturally renewable resource.

LocationTent London – Shop 25Old Truman Brewery25 Hanbury StreetLondon E1 6QR

DesignerBryan Steendyk

ContactAnon & Co.Billie Holidaystraat 172066 HA Amsterdam [email protected]

map H p. 37

16Anon & Co.Connecting the Dots Presentation

Connecting the DotsPresentations

15Van Rossum Meubelen B.V.

LocationSuper Brands LondonStand 28Old Truman BreweryHanbury StreetLondon E1 6QR

ContactHogeveld 86617 KR BergharenNetherlandsm +31 (487) 53 12 [email protected]

map H p. 37

14Mosa

LocationSuper Brands LondonStand 8 – 9Old Truman BreweryHanbury StreetLondon E1 6QR

DesignersMosa Design Team

ContactP.O. Box 10266201 BA MaastrichtNetherlandst +31 (0)43 368 92 [email protected]

map H p. 37

13NgispeNPlaying with Tradition

LocationSuper Brands LondonStand 25Old Truman BreweryHanbury StreetLondon E1 6QR

DesignersMaarten Baas, Claesson Koivisto Rune, Dick van Hoff, Richard Hutten, James Irvine, Iris Janssen, Jerszy Seymour, Wim Rietveld

ContactCharly Jongejans Parallelweg West 23 4104 Culemborg Netherlandsm +31 (0)6 510 028 [email protected]

map H p. 37

12Studio Lambert KampBe Seated

LocationMilk Concept Boutique118 1/2 Shoreditch High StreetLondon E1 6JN

DesignerLambert Kamp

ContactLambert KampP.O.Box 11579701 BD GroningenNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 482 733 16 [email protected] www.lambertkamp.com

map G p. 37



DesignerImme van der Haak

ContactImme van der Haak31A Fonthill RoadLondon N4 3HZm +44 (0)7 733 84 40 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutMy work is playful, yet subtle in its approach. I constantly strive to question and challenge our perception of what is ‘normal’, focusing on the everyday, which we might take for granted.

PresentationMy interest has a strong relation towards the human body and its appearance, function, and behaviour. ‘Beyond the Body’ focuses on altering the human form by affecting its figure with just one simple intervention. Photos of the human body are printed onto translucent silk, which will create the possibility of physically layering different bodies, generations, and identities.

20Imme van der HaakConnecting the Dots Presentation


DesignerDennis Parren

ContactDennis ParrenFuutlaan 455613 AA Eindhoven Netherlandsm +31 (0)6 143 556 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutStudio Dennis Parren is engaged in the design of furniture and lamps.

PresentationColorful mysteries of light. You can’t really say “that chair is red”. Actually, the chair is reflecting red light while absorbing green and blue light. It is light that colors the world. My CMYK lamp plays with the mystery of light and color casting an elusive network of lines of cyan, magenta and yellow light on the ceiling.

19Dennis ParrenConnecting the Dots Presentation


DesignersBo Reudler in collabo-ration with Olav Bruin

ContactBo Reudler StudioKrelis Louwenstraat 1-B291055 KA AmsterdamNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 455 264 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutBo Reudler Studio designs and realises products (furniture and objects) and interiors commissioned by both private clients and companies. Alongside, the studio initiates and self-produces furniture collections in limited editions.

PresentationThe aim of the Bamboo Windsor Chair is to re-examine the reputation and aesthetic of bamboo furniture, and to use the inherent qualities of the natural material to create mass products that are all individual. The design is a contemporary interpretation, of the all-time western classic windsor chair, made with Asian craftsmanship and materials: in this way east merges with west.

18Bo ReudlerConnecting the Dots Presentation

17Bathroom Mania!Connecting the Dots Presentation

LocationTent London – Shop 25Old Truman Brewery 25 Hanbury StreetLondon E1 6QR

DesignerMeike van Schijndel

ContactBathroom ManiaBrigittenstraat 23512 KK Utrecht Netherlandsm +31 (0)30 214 52 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutBathroom Mania! is an innovative Design company, from Dutch designer Meike van Schijndel, that focusses on reviving the bathroom experience. By using images and stories in their designs they introduce a colorful fantasy world in the conservative white bathroom.Bathroom Mania! received so many positive responses to their Kisses urinal design, that led in 2003 to the decision to start their own production and market the products worldwide!

PresentationThe Kisses urinal, also known as the ‘mouth urinal’, transforms a daily event into a blushing experience.



DesignerTeun Fleskens

ContactTeun FleskensSt. Annaplein 185038 TV TilburgNetherlandst +31(0)6 300 664 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutTeun Fleskens is an industrial and interior designer, graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven. He has worked for companies like: Douwe Egberts, RIZZ, Habidrome, Design Academy Eindhoven, Commune Veldhoven, Province Noord Brabant, Shoesme Inter-national and chyczy.“In a few words my style could be described as experi-mental, pure, natural versus industrial and clearly present but not demanding”.

Presentation The V roots bank can ‘grow’ through their environment because they are modular. Whit 7 different element in various colors you can create many options varying in size and form. All plastic components are produced from recycled bottle caps. The steel parts from recy-clable (renewable) materials. Produced by Fiberplast.

24Teun FleskensConnecting the Dots Presentation


DesignerRik ten Velden

ContactRik ten VeldenCaeciliastraat 77 A2312 XB LeidenNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 108 994 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutBy experimenting with material and manufacturing techniques Studio Rik ten Velden tend to create a base for its form statements.

PresentationI started my ‘Single Knotted Wire’ project with a visit to the harbour museum in Rotterdam. I was fascinated by all those different kinds of objects knotted. So I asked the Museum’s employees if they could teach me some techniques. I knotted for three months to per-fect the technique. Then started to work on my designs. For the lamps and chair only a single wire is used and knotted in a form reflecting its maritime inspiration. The combination of knotting technique and the applied material results in unique constructive features in these designs.

23Studio Rik ten VeldenConnecting the Dots Presentation


DesignerNikola Nikolov

ContactNikola NikolovKrommenieerpad 881521 HB MaastrichtNetherlandst +31 (0)6 270 466 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutWhile functioning on the grey borders of interior design and art, Studio-Re-Creation does more than re-cycle or re-use materials, it helps to preserve belongings and memories, that would otherwise be neglected or thrown away, by transforming them into iconic sculptural objects.

PresentationFor Connecting the Dots 2012 Studio-Re-Creation will be presenting a new series named ‘The Scrap Staffies’:‘The Scrap Staffies’ are sculptural English Staffordshire Bullterriers snapping at light objects. They symbolize the playful relation between man, nature and design and remind us to treat this symbiosis with love, respect and responsibility.

22Studio-Re-Creation

21Jólan van der WielConnecting the Dots Presentation


DesignerJólan van der Wiel

ContactJólan van der WielNassaukade 369-21054 AB AmsterdamNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 339 747 [email protected] www.jolanvanderwiel.com

map H p. 37

AboutI admire objects that manifest the experimental discovery where natural phenomena are translated into functional design. In my design studio the production process through which products are produced is investigated. This led to the development of new forms of craftmenship I develop production techniques inwhere a natural force is the designer of the obejct.

PresentationDeparting from the idea that everything is influenced by gravitation, a force that has a strongly shaping effect, Jólan van der Wiel intended to manipulate this natural phenomenon by exploiting its own power: magnetism. The positioning of the magnetic fields in the machine, opposing each other, has largely determined the final shape of the Gravity Stool.



ContactVersaflex Systems BVArrestruwe 396218 BE MaastrichtNetherlandst +31 (0)45 785 12 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutVersaflex Systems takes great care to select materials from readily available and sustainable resources. With the invention of the Versaflex, a sustainable and adhesive-free modular flooring system with porcelain top surface has become a reality.

Presentation Versaflex is the new flooring system with a push, clip and go feature. Unlike other clip tile systems, Versaflex allows for vertical tile lifting giving immediate access to under floor cables or quick tile changes. No grouting, no cementing and no messy drying time make instal-lations typically 6 times faster to lay than traditional wet lay porcelain floors.

27Versaflex SystemsConnecting the Dots Presentation


DesignerTiago Sá da Costa

ContactTiago Sá da CostaOrthenstraat 2825211 SX Den BoschNetherlandsm +31 (0)6 344 600 [email protected]

map H p. 37

AboutSmall studio of Portuguese designer Tiago Sá da Costa based in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. Presently its work is focused on ecological design, more specifically using cork (one of the most sustainable materials) as a core subject. This resulted in the Corkmatters series.

PresentationIn the Corkmatters series, cork is crafted in a way you have never seen before. It explores the physical properties of cork to an utmost aesthetic use. The combination of laser cutting technology with a unique non-pollutant handmade technique unfolds 2 dimensional sheets into 3 dimensional almost sculptural objects with organic lines. Eco-design at its best with all natural, sustainable and non-pollutant materials.

26Tiago Sá da CostaConnecting the Dots Presentation


DesignerCharlie Guda

ContactDamian O’SullivanBurg. Meineszlaan 109 A 3022 BE RotterdamNetherlandsm +31 (0)10 842 73 64shop@the-cottage- industry.comwww.the-cottage- industry.com

map H p. 37

AboutThe Cottage Industry products are less about form and more about content. What at first glance seems ordinary, will, upon closer inspection, turn out to be quite unique. Not too witty, not too clever, just simple products that are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.Why the name? The origins of the term ‘cottage industry’ date back to the days before the industrial revolution. In those days, artefacts were made in people’s homes in limited supply, and it is precisely this which we have in common with our namesake, namely, industriously made goods with special attention to care and quality.

PresentationEver wished you could see what the bee sees? Nestle in close to those petals and see all of the flowers’ fine intricacies in much greater detail. Now you can, as the Big Blossom will greatly enlarge any flower due to its flat magnifying lens. Whether it’s a rose you received from your loved one or a flower plucked from your garden… this vase knows how to make the best of it.

25The Cottage IndustryConnecting the Dots Presentation

36mapthe dots #5

01 Moooi

The White Building555 Harrow Road London W10 4RH

Kensal Green Bakerloo London Overground

02 Ineke Hans / SCP

SCP West87 Westbourne GroveLondon W2 4UL

Royal Oak Circle Hammersmith & City

Bayswater Circle District

37 map the dots #5

03 Bolefloor04 Sabic

100% Design LondonEarls Court Exhibition Centre Warwick RoadLondon SW5 9TA

Earl’s Court District Picadilly

West Brompton District London Overground

05 Mint

Mint Gallery2 North TerraceLondon SW3 2BA

South Kensington Circle District Picadilly

38mapthe dots #5

06 Social-Unit

Gallery House19 Greek StreetLondon W1D 4DT

07 Vij5

Milk Concept Boutique19 Greek StreetLondon W1D 4DT

Tottenham Court Road Central

Leicester Square Picadilly Northern

08 Pastoe

Viaduct Furniture1 – 10 Summers StreetLondon 1R 5BD

Farringdon Circle Hammersmith & City Metropolitan

Chancery Lane Central

10 Ineke Hans

SCP Design Department Store135-139 Curtain RoadLondon EC2A 3BX

12 Studio Lambert Kamp

Milk Concept Boutique118 1/2 Shoreditch High StreetLondon E1 6JN

Old Street Northern

Shoreditch High Street London Overground

39 map the dots #5

09 Bo Reudler

SushisambaHeron Tower, 38th and 39th floors110 BishopsgateLondon E1 6QR

11 PROOF13 NgispeN14 Mosa15 Van Rossum meubelen B.V.

Super Brand LondonOld Truman BreweryHanbury StreetLondon E1 6QR

16 Anon & Co.17 Bathroom Mania!18 Bo Reudler19 Dennis Parren20 Imme van der Haak21 Jólan van der Wiel22 Studio-Re-Creation23 Studio Rik ten Velden24 Teun Fleskens25 The Cottage Industry26 Tiago Sá da Costa27 Versaflex Systems

Tent London – Shop 25Old Truman Brewery25 Hanbury StreetLondon E1 6QR

Liverpool Street Circle Hammersmith & City Metropolitan Central

Shoreditch High Street London Overground

40programthe dots #5

Program

01 Moooi

02 Ineke Hans

03 Bolefloor

04 Sabic

05 Mint

06 Social-Unit

07 Vij5 4

08 Pastoe

09 Bo Reudler

10 Ineke Hans

11 PROOFF

12 Studio Lambert Kamp

13 NgispeN

14 Mosa

15 Van Rossum Meubelen

16 Anon & Co.

17 Bathroom Mania!

18 Bo Reudler

19 Dennis Parren

20 Imme van der Haak

21 Jólan van der Wiel

22 Studio-Re-Creation

23 Studio Rik ten Velden

24 Teun Fleskens

25 The Cottage Industry

26 Tiago Sá da Costa

27 Versaflex Systems

1 Moooi: Press Breakfast, 19th September 09.00 – 11.00, Marcel Wanders & Casper Vissers will host the event (invitation only)2 Mint: Cocktail, 20th September (invitation only)3 Social-Unit: Wallpaper launch party, 14th September (invitation only)4 Vij5: Cocktail, 12th September (invitation only)5 NgispeN: Cocktail, 20th September, 20.00 – 23.00 (invitation only)6 Connecting the Dots: Cocktail, 21 September, 18.00 – 22.00

Friday14th

10.00 – 18.00

09.30 – 18.00

09.30–20 .00

Saturday15th

11.00 – 17.00

10.30 – 18.30

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

10.30 – 16.00

11.30 – 03.00

09.30–18 .00

11.00 – 18.00

Sunday16th

11.00 – 17.00

12.00 – 17.00

12.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

10.30 – 16.00

11.30 – 24.00

10.30 – 18.00

Monday17th

10.00 – 18.00

09.30 – 20.00

10.30 – 18.30

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

09.30 – 18.00

11.30 – 01.00

09.30–20 .00

11.00 – 19.00

Tuesday18th

10.00 – 18.00

09.30 – 20.00

10.30 – 18.30

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

09.30 – 18.00

11.30 – 01.00

09.30–20 .00

11.00 – 19.00

Wednesday19th

10.00 – 18.00 1

09.30 – 20.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.30 – 18.30

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

09.30 – 18.00

11.30 – 01.00

09.30–20 .00

11.00 – 19.00

Thursday20th

10.00 – 20.00

09.30 – 20.00

10.00 – 21.00

10.00 – 21.00

10.30 – 17.30 2

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

09.30 – 18.00

11.30 – 02.00

09.30–20 .00

10.00 – 19.00

11.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00 5

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

Friday21th

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 19.00

10.30 – 18.30

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

09.30 – 18.00

11.30 – 03.00

09.30–20 .00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

10.00 – 22.00 6

Saturday22th

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 17.00

10.00 – 17.00

10.30 – 18.30

10.00 – 18.00

10.00 – 18.00

10.30 – 16.00

11.30 – 03.00

09.30–18 .00

10.00 – 20.00

11.00 – 19.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

10.00 – 20.00

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AA Spatial Surprise · 05 p.26, map DAnon & Co. · 16 p.28, map HAxia Design · 11 p.28, map H

BBaas, Maarten · 13 p.27, map HBathroom Mania · 17 p.29, map HBathware for Sushisamba’s bathrooms · 09 p.27, map HBe Seated · 12 p.27, map GBen van Berkel · 11 p.28, map HBerkel van, Ben · 11 p.28, map HBey, Jurgen · 11 p.28, map HBo Reudler · 09/18 p.27, p.29, map HBolefloor · 03 p.26, map CBoonzaaijer, Karel · 08 p.27, map FBreg, Hanssen · 07 p.27, map EBruin, Olav · 18 p.29, map HBryan Steendyk · 16 p.28, map H

CCharlie Guda · 25 p.31, map HClaesson Koivisto Rune · 13 p.27, map HConnecting the Dots · 16 – 27 p.28, p.29, p.30, p.31, map HCorinne de Korver · 06 p.26, map E

DDaniel Hulsbergen · 05 p.26, map DDaphna Isaacs · 05 p.26, map DDennis Parren · 19 p.29, map HDick van Hoff · 13 p.27, map HDirk Van Der Kooij · 05 p.26, map D

FFleskens, Teun · 24 p.30, map HFramed · 07 p.27, map E

GGuda, Charlie · 25 p.31, map H

HHaak van der, Imme · 20 p.29, map HHans, Ineke · 02/10 p.26, p.27, map B/GHanssen Breg · 07 p.27, map EHello London, this is PROOFF · 11 p.28, map HHoff van, Dick · 13 p.27, map HHulsbergen, Daniel · 05 p.26, map DHutten, Richard · 13 p.27, map H

IImme van der Haak · 20 p.29, map HIneke Hans · 02/10 p.26, p.27, map B/GIris Janssen · 13 p.27, map HIrvine, James · 13 p.27, map HIsaacs, Daphna · 05 p.26, map D

JJames Irvine · 13 p.27, map HJanssen, Iris · 13 p.27, map HJerszy Seymour · 13 p.27, map HJetske Visser · 05 p.26, map DJólan van der Wiel · 21 p.30, map HJurgen Bey · 11 p.28, map H

KKalis, Wouter · 06 p.26, map EKamp, Lambert · 12 p.27, map GKarel Boonzaaijer · 08 p.27, map FKirstie Van Noort · 05 p.26, map DKoivisto Rune, Claesson · 13 p.27, map HKooij Van Der, Dirk · 05 p.26, map DKorver de, Corinne · 06 p.26, map E

LLambert Kamp · 12 p.27, map G

MMaarten Baas · 13 p.27, map HMarcel Wanders · 01 p.26, map AMazairac, Pierre · 08 p.27, map FMeijer, Mieke · 07 p.27, map EMeijers, Mieke · 05 p.26, map DMeike van Schijndel · 17 p.29, map HMieke Meijer · 07 p.27, map EMieke Meijers · 05 p.26, map DMint · 05 p.26, map DMoooi · 01 p.26, map AMosa · 14 p.27, map H

NNewspaper Wood · 07 p.27, map ENgispeN · 13 p.27, map HNikola Nikolov · 22 p.30, map HNikolov, Nikola · 22 p.30, map HNoort Van, Kirstie · 05 p.26, map D

OOlav Bruin · 18 p.29, map H

PParren, Dennis · 19 p.29, map HPastoe · 08 p.27, map FPierre Mazairac · 08 p.27, map FPlaying with Tradition · 13 p.27, map HPROOFF · 11 p.28, map H

RReudler, Bo · 09/18, p.27, p.29, map HRichard Hutten · 13 p.27, map HRietveld, Wim · 13 p.27, map HRik ten Velden · 23 p.30, map H

SSá da Costa, Tiago · 26 p.31, map HSabic · 04 p.26, map CSchijndel van, Meike · 17 p.29, map HSCP · 02/10 p.26, p.27, map B/GSeymour, Jerszy · 13 p.27, map HSocial-Unit · 06 p.26, map ESteendyk, Bryan · 16 p.28, map HStudio Lambert Kamp · 12 p.27, map GStudio Makkink & Bey · 11 p.28, map HStudio Pastoe · 08 p.27, map FStudio Rik ten Velden · 23 p.30, map HStudio-Re-Creation · 22 p.30, map H

TTeun Fleskens · 24 p.30, map HThe Cottage Industry · 25 p.31, map HThe Unexpected Welcome · 01 p.26, map ATiago Sá da Costa · 26 p.31, map H

UUNStudio · 11 p.28, map H

VVan Rossum Meubelen B.V. · 15 p.27, map HVelden ten, Rik · 23 p.30, map HVersaflex Systems · 27 p.31, map HVij5 · 07 p.27, map EVisser, Jetske · 05 p.26, map D

WWanders, Marcel · 01 p.26, map AWiel van der, Jólan · 21 p.30, map HWim Rietveld · 13 p.27, map HWouter Kalis · 06 p.26, map E

Legend00 number of the presentationp.26 page number presentationmap A/B p.34map C/D p.35map E/F p.36map G/H p.37

Index


Favourite everyday object of Menno TeurlingsCivil service, Amsterdam


What happens when designers shift their focus from satisfying consumer desires, to

facilitating new social possibilities? In recent design history, different labels have popped

up to describe design research practices that engage with social issues. These include

participatory design, service design, transformative design, metadesign and social design.

This article explores the notion of socially responsive design, a term coined by design

researchers Adam Thorpe and Lorraine Gamman based in the Design Against Crime Research Centre, London, UK. It describes design that

makes a social impact, is driven by social issues and delivers social change. Design researchers

Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye attempt to ‘connect the dots’ between a range of socially

responsive design approaches taking place in the UK, Netherlands and Norway. They set out

to interview six design experts from their network to discover how they define socially

responsive design, what it feels like to be involved in this practice; and how it’s likely

to impact on design in the future.

Socially Responsive

Design

Hannah Jones and Anette Lundebye

What is Socially Responsive Design?We kicked off our interviews by asking our different design researchers, educators and practitioners if they consider themselves as socially responsive designers and how they understand this term.

Maziar Raein · All design has social consequences. I think the difference between socially responsive design and other kinds of design is that it chooses to actively and consciously engage with these issues. Designers have always had an ethical respon-sibility but quite often they’ve ignored this, as in the case of Philippe Starck. In my eyes, over the past five or six years there’s been a dramatic increase in younger designers really driven to engage with social issues. As an educator, I believe that socially responsive design has come to the fore because of the death of modernism. Since that dominating ‘grand narrative’ has died and the reaction after-wards of the playful or deconstructive approach has come and gone, there are different ideas, energies and motivations surging through design.

Adam Thorpe · In 1971, Victor Papanek said, “Design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments (and, by extension, society and himself)”. He proposed that designers who engage with market led activities (that have a negative impact on both society and environment) should contribute either 1/10 of their time or 1/10 of their income to socially responsible projects whilst continuing with their jobs. More recent notions of social design are less dismissive of the market and economic imperatives. Socially responsive design is not oppositional to market con-siderations but prioritises social considerations over those of the market.

Sanneke Duijf · Socially responsive design is about using social situations as a starting point of an investigation. Rather than being locked in the design studio you need to get your hands dirty in the field. Design should bring about social develop-ment and it can act as a force for change. Socially responsive design does this.

Clare Brass · Socially responsive design needs to cover all the three bases, the environmental, the social and the economical. It is about identifying societal and environmental problems, thinking about specific problems in detail but also zooming out to see what other problems might be connected and then to join the dots. The main thing you end up designing is relationships. It’s design with people not for people.

Duncan Kramer · I’m not big on design terms or titles as they rarely reflect my experience of designing, which foremost is collaborative. We most often talk about ‘good work’. It’s not very articulate, but WE know what we mean.

Marco van Hout · I see an increasing interest in soci ally responsive design within the context of experience-driven design. In fact, I believe they are interdependent and they share the concept of emotion. Emotions are the drivers behind (social) behaviour as well as behind the experiences we

the dots #545 socially responsive design

have in general. Something that is becoming more important in experience design is the impact of products on people’s general health, well-being and happiness. In the past decade or so, the Internet and developments in mobile technology have com-pletely changed our perspectives of the world and our social environment. Take the recent events in the Middle East for example. It made us feel closer to the people actually fighting for change far, far away and made us feel a shared responsibility.

Can you give us a practical example of socially responsive design?Each of our experts were asked to come up with examples of socially responsive design from their own practice or inspiring examples from the work of others.

Duncan Kramer · Okay, so if you take PlantLock, to me it’s a piece of political design. I say political because it’s supposed to affect the way people perceive the world around them and how they act. It’s encourag-ing people to cycle and to grow things in urban areas. These are two activities that have been made difficult because they don’t fit the dominant models. For example, loads of infrastructure is provided for driving and that in turn that creates jobs etc… fuel-ling a self-perpetuating system. Cycling isn’t like that. It’s a much wilder more elementary thing. It’s hard to control and it’s hard to make money from. Our Green Roof Shelters is an attempt to get real biodiversity-supporting green roofs onto small buildings and structures in the city. It’s a gap the

big green roof companies are not interested in. But to us it’s a real opportunity to spread things at a grass roots level.

Sanneke Duijf · I led a group of second year Graphic Design students from AKV | St. Joost Academy as part of a SlowLab research programme in a neigh-bourhood in Amsterdam•. Working in teams, they were developing prototypes for a Slow Loket, a mobile information point to capture the expertise and potential of that area. This was a local platform for interaction and dialogue, a place to share and exchange ideas, obstacles, opportunities, resources and more. The challenge for the students was to find the right strategies to make contact, inform, gather stories and make connections between the Lloyd Hotel – the centre of the project – and the neighbourhood. (www.socialdesignresponse.com/ 2011/10/19/slow-loket/)

Maziar Raein · There are so many things happening at the moment. On our blog we have surveyed a range of examples. I’m inspired by the brilliant Dutch traffic engineer, Hans Monderman who took away the traffic light system. He showed that instead of giving information, you take away information and put responsibility on the road users and this has increased road safety. (www.socialdesignresponse.com/archive/)

Clare Brass · The organisation I set up is called the SEED foundation, which stands for Social Environ-mental Enterprise with Design. We have been

Anette Lundebye and Hannah Jones


working on a project over the past couple of years called the ‘Food Loop Project’ asking if it is possi-ble to create a design-led enterprise that addresses the issue of food waste in urban environments? We thought that picking food waste would be a big enough problem to generate an income from it. So we tried to design a way of capturing the value of food waste, which is very valuable. It is actually worth right now at least £165 per tonne and this will rise to about £225 per tonne in the next couple of years due to EU legislations. We started looking at people’s attitudes and behaviours towards waste and to services and set about changing people’s perspective on waste. So, it is about helping the community to take owner ship of its own waste streams and to turn them into value streams (http://foodloop.org.uk/).

Marco van Hout · An example that immediately comes to my mind is a prototype concept for an app that we created some years ago called ‘Snapje’. This app engages both parents and children with autism. The Snapje concept has been developed to enable children to get skills in emotion recognition in rela-tion to the context. A parent can take photos of situations that have an emotional meaning. Photos can be taken of familiar people, but also from the child itself. On the one hand it is very useful to learn from emotions of others in relation to the context. On the other hand, it is useful to learn the relation between the context and an emotion through own experiences of the emotion. (www.emotiondiary.com/snapje/)

Adam Thorpe · Designs against crime like the M stand designed by Bikeoff (an initiative of the Design Against Crime Research Centre, University of the Arts London), are the result of thousands of obser-vations of cyclists parking their bikes and over a year of cycle theft research investigating the most secure way of parking to resist common bike theft techniques. The main design driver for the stands was increasing the security of cyclists locking prac-tices to reduce cycle theft and increase cycling. In addressing this societal concern new product innovation was achieved. (www.bikeoff.org/)

What does it feel like to participate in socially responsive design?We wanted to understand from our interviewees how being involved in socially responsive design is different to traditional design in terms of the emotional feedback from the process.

Sanneke Duijf · Doing socially responsive design feels inclusive. Design is part of our lifestyle and part of the world we live in so therefore we should include this world actively in our design processes. Next to that, it is quite satisfying engaging with users and receive responses from them, to acquire an insight into their situation to empower them to take action.

Maziar Raein · It feels more meaningful. There is a sense of satisfaction, a sense of learning and a sense of being part of something bigger. It’s also fun and con-fusing and playful. There is a lot of experimenting that goes wrong. It’s very active, fast and messy. The designer moves from a monologue to a dialogue

Socially responsive design is not oppositional to market con siderations but prioritises social considerations over those of the market. Adam Thorpe

•

the dots #547

Duncan Kramer – PlantLock, Front Yard Company. www.frontyardcompany.co.uk

Duncan Kramer – Green Roof Shelter, Green Roof Shelters Ltd. www.greenroofshelters.co.uk

socially responsive design


Sanneke Duijf – Slow Lloyd Parade project, fortune-telling www.socialdesignresponse.com/2011/10/19/slow-loket

the dots #549 socially responsive design

Adam Thorpe · Socially responsive design activity feels relevant and contemporary. But it’s not always easy and clear cut. Complex and contradictory might also be relevant descriptors at times. What designers are responsible for are the decisions they make and they should at least understand as much as they can about the likely impacts of their proposals and even consult with those affected by the proposals to try and ensure that their proposals have the desired impacts.

Can you give us a scenario for socially responsive design in 2020?What kind of futures do our interviews predict for this approach to design?

Maziar Raein · Paola Antonelli said, “In 25 years designers will be at the nexus of things”. More and more design will be focused around social needs (e.g. water). There will be more diversity in design, with designers working alongside business people. There’ll be many more design thinkers. We will be questioning systems and situations. Designers will have to take stronger lines and take more direct stands. The days for the bigger agencies with moral ambivalence will go and we’ll move towards net-work based, smaller firms with people working together around ideas they share. Because we have become saturated with products around us, my students say, “I’ve got enough things I don’t need more”. They’ve grown up with ‘more’ as teenagers and they now seem to want less and to do more. I think this will spill into the way they work.

with other stakeholders and the world around them. What is unnerving for the designer is that aesthet-ics take a back seat. In graphic design, many young designers now say that they don’t care about style. The issue isn’t about colour or fonts but it’s about the idea behind it, which is unnerving but exciting. It’s about aesthetics serving a concept.

Clare Brass · I’ve always had good fun. Part of the fun has always been working with people, now it’s an even more critical component. When you are doing a traditional design project where a product is at the end of the line, you know where you’re going and what your end role is. But with this kind of work, you know what you want to achieve, but the goalposts are moving all the time, things change. For example, when there was an election every thing changed for the food loop project. It’s really scary. The other dif-ficult thing is earning a living with social innovation.

Marco van Hout · Engaging people, making things more pleasurable is one thing, making a change in people’s social context, wellbeing and even happi-ness is a completely different story and obviously rewarding. I am extra proud that my fellow board member (of the Design & Emotion Society, ed.) Pieter Desmet has initiated the Delft Institute of Positive Design, which aims to stimulate the devel-opment of knowledge that supports designers in their attempts to design for happiness, for human flourishing. (http://studiolab.ide.tudelft.nl/diopd/)

Duncan Kramer · It feels normal.

Clare Brass – Food Loop diagram, SEED Foundation. www.foodloop.org.uk

Residents and staff benefit from food produced

Residents collects food waste

Caddies from the estate are collected by staff

Waste composted on site

Compost is seasoned

Seedlingsare planted

Fruit and vegetables planted on the estate


Sanneke Duijf · In the future socially responsive design will be an integral part of design education. I think schools are starting to expose students more and more to society by placing projects in real life con-texts, often working together with (commercial) businesses but also with governmental institutions. Yet better would be to work more socially. The organisation Design in Society is a good example for that; it’s an interdisciplinary program for stu-dents using design strategy as a method to tackle complex urban issues. (www.designinsociety.nl)

Clare Brass · Our traditional economic model doesn’t work and we’re finding it out and it’s painful. I think there’s an appetite, there’s a lot happening here, not only in the design field, there’s a lot happening in every walk of life. There is a spirit of unrest and because we know now much better how the system works and that there is a lot of unfairness, we are in a much better position to change things. I think today’s generation of design schools are starting the ball rolling, people are launching, new principles, new ideas, new concepts and we’re getting there.

Duncan Kramer · Hopefully there will be fewer designers twatting around. There’s so much that needs doing. Everyone should ask more questions of the people living around them. And listen to the answers. For socially useful design to succeed, I sometimes think it’s best for it to find new ways of using existing commercial frameworks. Maybe borrowing the tools of the mainstream and carving a radical niche alongside it.

People are increasingly looking for products and services that fulfil life goals that go beyond material wealth and are more valuable for social cohesion, health and general well-being. Marco van Hout

•

Marco van Hout – Snapje Phone App, Copyright 2012 – Pascal Karthaus – SusaGroup BV www.emotiondiary.com/snapje

the dots #551

London-based Hannah Jones is programme leader of MA Design Futures and a metadesign researcher in the department of design at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her doctoral research explores awkward space in cities. (www.gold.ac.uk/design/staff/jones/; http://metadesigners.org/)

London-based Anette Lundebye is a design strategist, researcher and facilitator. She is a lecturer at Regent’s College in London, and lectures on design for sustainable futures, Socially Responsive Design (SRVD) and Metadesign at various institutions in the UK and in Scandinavia. (www.lundebyetham.com; http://metadesigners.org)

London-based Adam Thorpe is a Reader in Socially Responsive Design and Innovation at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, London and Co-founder Vexed Generation and Vexed Design Ltd. (www.csm.arts.ac.uk/research/staffresearchprofiles/adamthorpe/)

London-based Clare Brass is a service designer and social entrepreneur. She is founder of SEED Foundation and currently developing the Food Loop project. She is Head of SustainRCA, at the Royal College of Art, and is Senior Design Tutor in IDE (Innovation Design Engineering). (www.seedfoundation.org.uk/; www.foodloop.org.uk)

London-based Duncan Kramer is a designer with long experience of design solutions for public space, and director at Material, a co-founder of the Front Yard Company, a design-led UK manu-facturing enterprise as well as a director at Green Roof Shelters Ltd. (www.frontyardcompany.co.uk; http://greenroofshelters.co.uk/)

Oslo-based Maziar Raein is a graphic designer and Associate Professor and Head of MA Design at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. (www.socialdesignresponse.com/archive/)

Utrecht & Oslo-based Sanneke Duijf is a Socially Responsive Designer and researcher. She is founder of ‘Solution Office’ and teaches at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway as well as AKV St Joost in the Netherlands. (http://cargocollective.com/sannekeduijf/Solution-Office)

Netherlands-based Marco van Hout is creative director of SusaGroup. He works with companies and organisations such as: Bic, Energizer, Fidelity, KLM, Microsoft, Philips and Unilever. Marco is a board member of the International Design for Emotion Society and a frequent public speaker, visiting lecturer and work-shop facilitator. (www.design-emotion.com; www.marcovanhout.com; www.susagroup.com)

socially responsive design

Marco van Hout · I like the description on the website of the Delft Institute of Positive Design: “Since the industrial revolution, all of our society – our work-places, homes, transportation, and communication, have increasingly become infused with design... Research has shown that our dishwashers, com-puters, radios, cars, and other products we are sur-rounded with, do not make us particularly happy.”

People are increasingly looking for products and services that fulfil life goals that go beyond material wealth and are more valuable for social cohesion, health and general well-being. I believe in the future a lot of designers will want to be part of a group of change-makers. We won’t be designing anymore for the sake of designing, we will only be designing for a purpose, such as meeting real needs. Between now and 2020, it is design’s time to shine. I think socially responsive design and related approaches will have to be leading in this movement. Luckily, I see lots of signals that illustrate exactly that.

Adam Thorpe · Much of what we perceive as ‘future’ issues are visible in the present. We are preparing for ‘more of the same’ as far as social scenarios to be addressed by design, perhaps with more intensity and urgency. Design scenarios that address issues linked to an ageing population, zero oil scenarios and rising population numbers and increasing population density. The changes in climate and weather will also likely result in changing environ-mental scenarios.

ConclusionSo to connect the dots, what is socially responsive design? In line with societal changes, we are seeing designers that are forging new roles as facilitators, mediators and change agents. Design thinking is moving out of the box and into the world. Practices are shifting away from previous industrial design models that were primarily market-led towards purpose-led ways of intervening and offering solu-tions for specific issues. Rather than looking at people as mere passive consumers, they are included as active participants and offered a chance to co-design the lifestyles and livelihoods we want. Design is therefore becoming entangled in the lives of its users and collaborators.

Since context and stakeholders seem to be so central to these design processes, the outcomes might not be so easily recognisable as an Eames chair or a Koolhaas building. It is more likely to be an unassuming community garden, a collaborative toolkit or even an intangible form of collective knowledge. As such, these designs might not nec-essarily be ‘beautiful’ in a traditional design sense. But as design approaches they enable empathy, belonging, exchange and engagement – all impor-tant ingredients for social cohesion. We might therefore say that it’s design that champions the empathetic over iconic. Meeting real needs, being involved in something bigger, feeling that one’s work is meaningful and having fun seem to be strong drivers for socially responsive designers. The question is how can we make this an accessible and viable route for more designers to pursue?

•

52the dots #5 column

London Calling2012 is a big year for London, with the cele-brations of the Diamond Jubilee of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, followed by the Olympic and the Paralympic Games. As I write, Hyde Park has been transformed into a pop temple where Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Madonna – to name but a few – attract tens of thousands of fans. The BBC Proms have just started and opposite the Royal Albert Hall the Sochi Experience 2014 – an authentic ice-skating rink – is under construction. The Olympic Africa House is also springing up in Hyde Park. While with the Holland Heineken House in the gigantic Alexandra Palace – Ally Pally for Londoners – the Netherlands can present the biggest Olympic party venue.

Immediately after the Paralympic Games day-to-day life will continue with the London Festival of Design and, simultaneously, the London Fashion Week starting on 14 September. They will be followed by the contemporary art fair FRIEZE on 11 October.

London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world. That is not surprising given that until sixty-five years ago the British Empire encom-passed a quarter of the globe. People come here from all over the world to do business, look up relatives, work, study, or just as visitors. Besides the permanent attractions such as the Tower and Buckingham Palace, there are above all the many shows, museums, con-ferences, exhibitions, res taurants, concerts and festivals that work like a magnet. More than 30 million tourists arrive in London every year. According to Tripadvisor, London is the top tourist attraction in the world.

Olympic GamesThe Olympic Games as we know them go back to the nineteenth century. That was the era of La Belle Époque that celebrated la joie de

vivre, at least for those who could afford it. The first cars appeared on the roads. Elegant liners transported the wealthy in luxury and the poor in straitened circumstances over the oceans. Trains crossed continents, following the example of the Orient Express. It was also the era of Art Nouveau with Jan Toorop and Gustav Klimt. Arts and Crafts held sway with a romantic, almost anti-industrial attitude.

The Olympic Games were first held in London in 1908. They were actually supposed to be held in Rome in that year, but the eruption of Vesuvius in 1906 had put an end to those plans. If you look at photographs of the time it is hard to avoid the impression that, to judge from the participants, sport was a passion for the rich: made to measure instead of ready to wear.

The Olympic Games were held in Amsterdam in 1928. In the intervening twenty years the world had changed considerably. The First World War had put an end to the established order. The Russian and Chinese revolutions

had caused the status quo to shake even more. A weary Europe allowed the United States to rise to prominence. The world was ready for new ideas for a good many more people. De Stijl, Modernism, Art Deco, Bauhaus, the radio, the cinema were far more geared to mass consumption. Design appeared every-where: cars, radios, airplanes, electrical devices, but also architecture. It was the era of Metropolis, the science fiction film by Fritz Lang, of the Rietveld House, and the works of Piet Mondriaan and Theo van Doesburg. With its simple and severe lines, the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium designed by Jan Wils is a symbol of the optimistic spirit of the time.

Another twenty years on, the world was in turmoil once more. In 1948, the bombed city of London hosted the Olympic Games for

London – Olympic

Games and Design

Jan van WeijenHead, Department of Dutchness

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in London

Louis Smith (UK), gymnast at the Olympic Games 2012 in

Olympic formalwear.

the dots #553 london – olympic games and design

the second time. Gone was the optimism of Amsterdam. The Games were marked by ration-ing and scarcity. And yet, it was precisely those games that were a triumph of the Olympic ideal: if you want to make it happen, it can happen.

Design did not play such a major role. Alison Settle, former editor-in-chief of British Vogue, thought that the Olympic outfits of the British athletes left much to be desired: ‘Couldn’t we have organised a design com-petition?’ she asked. The Netherlands could not have put on a better performance. Fanny Blankers-Koen, the flying housewife, won four golden medals – in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 80 metre hurdle race and 4x100 relay race. The Inter national Athletic Federation acclaimed her ‘Female athlete of the century’ in 1999.

And now it is 2012London is once again hosting the Olympic Games. Third time lucky. Since 2005 all the preparations have been under way for a memorable Olympic Games 2012. East London has been entirely overhauled. Design plays a major role. Stella McCartney has listened to Alison Settle’s plea and the GB team is dressed in her designs.

The Olympic locations have been laid out in a very responsible way. Postindustrial London has been cleaned up, the polluted ground has been removed, cleaned or covered up where possible. The River Lea is now a paragon of environment-friendliness. Trees and mead-ows adorn the former industrial sites. New districts are accommodating Olympic stars to make way for genuine Cockneys once the games are over.

The Netherlands has been closely involved with the Olympic Games in London right from

the start. Many Dutch companies have con-tributed to its success. 2,400 trees from the Netherlands have been planted in the Olympic village. Roses cultivated in the Netherlands and hardened in England will be woven into the bouquets of the winners.

2012 is a harvest year for Dutch Design. The always reticent Financial Times published a eulogy of the Design Academy Eindhoven on 9 June: ‘Why Lovers of Design go Dutch’ was the heading of the article. Libby Sellers, who has a gallery in Berners Street, a side street off Oxford Street, attributes that suc-cess to ‘the liberal-minded attitude of the tutors and their interpretation of design. It’s not just about design but about developing broader political and social issues. They come at design from a very critical perspective.’

The graduation designs from Eindhoven were in the shop window of Selfridges for six weeks in 2011 and were auctioned at Sotheby’s in Bond Street. Not bad.

Success in London confers an international reputation. One good article in the British media is worth more than any advertising campaign.

Olympic FireIn the meantime the Netherlands is preparing to host the Olympic Games again in 2028, a hundred years after the Games in Amsterdam. Design plays a major role. The motto is: as much as possible with as little as possible. Recycling is a top priority. Of course, it is sports performances that count the most. An organisation has been set up to raise the Netherlands to an Olympic level again.

Let’s join in working towards this. Amsterdam 1928 was one of the most optimistic games ever. The world in 2028 will look very different

from that of Metropolis. It is a fact that the creative and cultural industry will form an even larger part of our economy than it already does today. The Dutch government has desig-nated this sector as a priority. Courses in the Netherlands like those offered in Eindhoven, Arnhem, Rotterdam and Amsterdam are among the most highly regarded in the world. Dutch Design is in demand and is popular. By comparison with 2009, the Dutch contri-bution to the London Design Festival has increased by five times.

I am delighted with this trend. The embassy has dedicated its efforts to promoting Dutch Design in London since 2008. We did so for the first time together with Connecting the Dots in 2011. With all those dots the govern-ment can no longer do it all by itself, so it is a real pleasure for me to wish David Heldt and his team every success in connecting the dots of Dutch Design in London during the London Design Festival.

Here’s to 2028!

•London 2012’s Olympic medals

designed by British artist David Watkins. Photograph: LOCOG


For three decades now the magazine Items has been the Netherlands’ design conscience.

Or as its full title says: ‘Items, the Dutch view on Design’. Items is serious and thoughtful;

it is more about the culture of design than about the business of the market. “In our pages you

won’t find the usual overstyled parade of chairs that you will in the home decoration glossies,”

says editor-in-chief Max Bruinsma.

Items, the conscience of

Dutch designMax Bruinsma and Pao Lien Djie

interviewed by Tracy MetzPhotography by Ilco Kemmere

Bruinsma, trained as an art historian, has been writing about design since 1985. He led Items once before, in 1988 and 1989. Between 1997 and 2000 he was the editor-in-chief of the London-based graphic design magazine Eye. He has published books and curated exhibitions in this field and teaches at St. Joost academy in Breda. Since 2009 he is back at the helm of Items. Pao Lien Djie, also an art historian, has been with Items’ editorial team since 1997 and is now the managing editor.

Items appears bi-monthly in Dutch, although the magazine is planning to enlarge its audience both at home and abroad by issuing a digital English version later this year. It is the only Dutch magazine, and one of the few internationally, to cover all the design disciplines: (interior) architecture, fashion, graphic design, product design, new media. Some articles delve into the nuts and bolts that are particular to a specific field; others are broader cul-tural critiques. Max Bruinsma agrees with Paola Antonelli’s statement that “design is a way to under-stand the world around us.” That is what all the design disciplines ultimately have in common, he says. “The craft of designing is essentially the craft of organizing meaningful structure. Of course I like a beautiful object, but as a critic I always want to know: what was the brief, what is the context for which it is being made? I want to enjoy, but I also want to understand.”

The newest issue of Items has as its theme ‘cultural identities’. Not the usual critique of nation-alism, but an investigation into the ways cultural institutions present themselves visually, with reviews of new or enlarged museums like Eye and the Stedelijk in Amsterdam. “The first thing a cul-tural building exhibits, is its own stance vis-à-vis culture,” one of the articles states.

The previous issue revolved around the theme of ‘Network’. Now that the worldwide web con-nects all sorts of information, we no longer live with but rather in a world of networks. Bruinsma: “Designers have the responsibility to make net-works not only functional, but also visible. If you live in a networked society, you are better off being the spider than the fly.”

Like all print media Items feels the ground shifting under its feet. “Even publications with a dedicated public like ours notice that readers now ‘graze’,” says Pao Lien Djie. “Instead of subscribing they pick and choose in the kiosk.” So Items, too, is approaching its readers in all sorts of new ways. It is not only active on Twitter and Facebook, but also organizes real-time events under the name ‘Items Live’ with interviews and presentations loosely connected to the current issue. Last year, they also made a free iPad app called Items Dutch Design Graduates dedicated to their annual selection of the final exam work of graduates from the various academies in Holland and in Belgian Flanders. During Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven this year, they will issue a new version of the app and organ-ize an exhibition with the selection of this year’s graduation projects.

The magazine’s content and form is a collab-orative effort – the designers are integral part of the editorial team. The magazine was restyled early this year and the lay-out has been entrusted to

Max Bruinsma and Pao Lien Djie


Premsela did a good job in promoting Dutch design. Although they sometimes seemed to promote themselves a bit too hard in the meantime. Pao Lien Djie

•

Pao Lien Djie and Max Bruinsma at work.

the dots #557 items

a young collective called Almanak. Its members – Barbara Hennequin, Jeremy Jansen and Rob van den Nieuwenhuizen – also work separately on other commissions, but join forces in designing Items.

In virtually the entire thirty years of its exist-ence Items has been subsidized as a cultural effort by the government, via the Mondriaan Foundation. Have they ever felt that this restricted their editorial freedom? “On the contrary,” says Pao Lien Djie. “Everyone is so enamored of ‘the market’ nowadays that we forget that the market primarily has its own interest at heart. There is nothing wrong with that. But the government is by definition more neutral. Never once did they use their subsidy to try to influence what we did or wrote.” And what about the role of the Premsela Foundation, set up in 2002 to stimulate Dutch design through lectures, de-bates and exhibitions? “We operate independently of each other, of course, and Premsela did a good job in promoting Dutch design. Although they sometimes seemed to promote themselves a bit too hard in the meantime.”

Businesswise the magazine has had its shares of ups and downs, especially in recent years. In 2003 its publisher BIS was taken over by a large pub-lishing house, which sold the magazine in 2007 to a start-up publisher named De Jonge Hond (‘the Young Dog’) which tanked in 2009. That triggered Bruinsma and Djie to take the title into their own hands: the magazine now operates as an independ-ent foundation. Recently, it also forged a partner-ship with its new printer, Jubels, which involves, among other things, the development of hybrids of offset and digital printing and a broader spectrum of media and publications than the magazine alone.

How do they see the future? A brief silence. “Difficult,’’ says Pao Lien Djie. “The government has decided that it will no longer subsidize cultural magazines, including Items. To us this seems incon-sistent with the fact that the same government recognizes the creative industry as one of the nine top sectors of the Dutch economy and has reserved 20 million euros to reinforce it. It is essential to have a podium for critical reflection on the disciplines that make up this sector we find so important.”

Max Bruinsma: “Criticism is central to design. I consider critics to be a kind of civil servants. They provide information and insight which is valuable for society at large. As old-fashioned as that may sound, it means that they have a responsibility to be committed and independent.”

Just because money is tight doesn’t mean that the mission of Items is any less important. Djie: “Quite the contrary. It does mean that we have to become more creative in forging collaborations with partners who share our stance on the cultural importance of design and the arts in general.” Bruinsma: “With every shift in society and culture, we redefine the place of the magazine. But we refuse to even consider the possibility that Items could disappear. That is simply not an option.”

•

Criticism is central to design. I consider critics to be a kind of civil servants. They provide information and insight which is valuable for society at large. Max Bruinsma

•

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rotsoord 3utrechtthe [email protected]

SM05 design cees braakman one of the first chairs to be entirely fabricated from steel wire. The timeless design from 1958 is back in production. BOXES design studio pastoe an 9mm slim body, which is mounted on the wall. The bodies are available in various heights and widths to 36cm deep, and available in any colours and finishes from the Pastoe collection.* also shown VISION design pierre mazairac & karel boonzaaijer

Connecting Creativity:Dutch design

crossing Europe from London to Istanbul

Nurten Meriçer, DirectorDutch Design Desk İstanbul

In 2012, Turkey and The Netherlands cele-brate 400 years of diplomatic relations. These age-old ties have become stronger in recent years: the volume of trade between the two countries has tripled in the past decade. The creative industries provide one of the strong-est foundations for Turkish-Dutch relations.

Today, the textile and fashion industry repre-sents one of the most promising sectors for Turkish-Dutch economic collaboration. Increasingly, Dutch architects, designers and fashion designers are finding their way onto the Turkish market, working for Turkish clients, companies and governmental institutions, often collaborating with Turkish designers.

Supporting this trend, 2012 marks the start of the Dutch Design Desk Istanbul, which will act as a connector between The Netherlands and Turkey, fostering trade relations and collabora-tions in the field of the creative industries.

In 2012, a varied programme of activities in-volving Dutch architecture, design and fashion unfolds through September to December, with Istanbul as chief location. Season begins with the exhibition Connecting Concepts by Premsala opening at Istanbul Design Week, September 25 – 29. October brings Creative Bridges Exhibition, SALON/Istanbul and IABR/Making City exhibitions organised around the First Istanbul Design Biennale, October 13 – December 12.

Month will continue with a strong Dutch accent in the week October 14 – 18 with visiting Mayors of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and the

beautiful sailing ship, Clipper Stad Amsterdam, which will be hosting workshops, catwalks, design shows and parties. During the week, a comprehensive set of events and activities will also bring Dutch and Turkish designers around the common theme of Urban Transformation.

Together with the Mayors, a multisectoral trade delegation including a large creative chapter organised by the Netherlands-Turkish Business Association (Netuba) in cooper-ation with DutchDFA and its partners (BNA, BNO, Premsela, NAI and MODINT) will be in town. The Dutch Design Desk Istanbul will provide local support and services for individual companies.

www.dutchdesigndeskistanbul.com

Skyline of Istanbul. Photo Şebnem Aslanbay

Claim now your advertisement space in the Milan 2013 issue and receive 20% discount*!

· Reach design professionals all around the world

· Reach the entire Dutch design scene

· The Dots magazine is kept used as a catalogue during the whole year

Connecting the Dots – Milan 2013 comes out at the beginning of April and is distributed in the Netherlands and in Milan during the Milan Design Week (9 – 14 April 2013).

Please contact us for more information: [email protected] · t. +31 (0)20 893 28 86 www.thedots.nl

* 20% discount before November 2012

Connecting the Dots showcases all Dutch presentations

at the Milan Design Week 2013

thedots

#6

advertorial

66the dots #5 colophon

Connecting the DotsYearbook Dutch Design London 2012Representing all Dutch presentations during the London Design Week 13 – 23 September 2012

Connecting the Dots publishes and presents Dutch designers and design- culture internationally during key design events and fairs.

Connecting the Dots magazineKoningsstraat 43c · 1011 ET AmsterdamThe Netherlands · t +31 (0)20 [email protected] · www.thedots.nl

www.twitter.com/thedots_mag

Editor in ChiefDavid [email protected]

Contributing editiorsAnna Bates, Ineke Hans, Hannah Jones, Daniela De Lorenzo, Anette Lundebye, Tracy Metz, Jan van Weijen, Heleen Willemsen

TranslationStudio Mason & Egmond

Graphic designHaller Brunwww.hallerbrun.eu

Cover photoImme van der Haakwww.immevanderhaak.nl

Illustrations everyday objectsFinger drawings on an iPad

Contributing photographersJudith Jockelwww.judithjockel.comIlco Kemmerewww.ilcokemmere.nl Hege Saebjornsenwww.hegesaebjornsen.com

Printed byControl Media

Communication & PressLuc [email protected] · t +31 (0)6 52472990

AdvertisingDavid Heldtt +31 (0)20 8932886

Commissioned byNL Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation

© Connecting the Dots 2012All rights reserved. Copyrights on the photographs, illustrations, drawings, and written material in this publication are owned by the respective photographer(s), the designer(s) and the author(s). No part of this publication may be repro-duced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without per-mission of the publisher and designers, photographers and authors involved.

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Connecting the Dots #5