Fantastical Investments by Droog and Metahaven

As if it wasn’t hard enough to keep up with the various project strands that twine together to form Droog.

They’ve launched an imaginary brand.

We did consider marking the moment by penning an imaginary post.

But that would be to completely miss the point. Again.

Created from the Moscow leg of the Droog Lab “Here, there, everywhere” project, Fantastical Investments is both a response to consumer habits in Russia and a vision of how the world of the future could look.

The Droog Lab team lead by Daniel van der Velden from Amsterdam based agency Metahaven essentially set out to investigate the apparent paradox between the Russian consumers love of classic literature and of modern luxury items.

And discovered there wasn’t really a paradox there at all.

They observed that many Russians consumption habits can be linked to a mistrust of official institutions and a response that leads many to invest in high value consumer goods rather than, for example, gold.

Presumably because gold reserves and prices are controlled by “institutions”.

And with our familiar global economic structures looking ever more precarious and temporal, ask Droog, could the Russians not have the key to a more stable and reliable future in a world without civil institutions?

Durable goods as a survival strategy?

Literature, concluded the team, complements this process by providing the intellectual stimulation to help support our capacity to thrive in times of uncertainty.

The result is Fantastical Investments with its mix of diamond studded tyres, “Investment is invisibility” screws, “Celebration is memory” fireworks and other products for our future reality.

Which sounds scary. But as we often say. That’s what designers do. They can’t read the future but they can try to make sure that when it comes we’re prepared. Droog Lab see Fantastical Investments as a vehicle to help stimulate a discussion on our future needs.

Of course it could also all just be a cheap marketing stunt to help push sales of Jurgen Bey’s Tree Trunk Bench…..

A product that we imagine would fit in quite well in your average Oligarch’s garden!

For all in Holland, Droog Amsterdam are holding a discussion on Thursday September 22nd with Renny Ramakers, Daniel van der Velden, Olga Kuzina, Sjeng Scheijen and Agata Jaworska.

And on the same evening Droog Amsterdam will open an exhibition to the project which runs until October 2nd

More details on Fantastical Investments by Droog and Metahaven, the panel discussion and exhibition can be found at droog.com

Fantastical Investments by Droog and Metahaven: "Storage is Armour" tyre by Totan Kuzaembaev

Fantastical Investments by Droog and Metahaven: Investment is Invisibility Screw (Poster design by Daniel van der Velden)