A Gulf; A Commonwealth; A Context
Modular lighting is a seldom encountered genre, and when it is encountered, then invariably in a very technical form, a form that implies the computer software has taken a greater role in the creative process than the designers understanding of form-giving,
There are however exceptions…..
Although as an event Dutch Design Week has always had a focus on presenting design in context, design in practice, our feeling is that of late that focus has intensified, something we thoroughly approve of as it helps make tangible that design is, can be, more than pretty objects; does however mean that you increasingly need to take more time with you to Eindhoven. Or accept that you are going to miss a lot of, potentially, interesting and thought provoking presentations.
Necessity meant that this year we followed option two.
But that still left us more than enough time to discover projects to get cross about, be confused by or simply quietly admire.
Or indeed vocally admire: our Dutch Design Week 2017 High Five!!
“Marcel Breuer seeing a pair of bicycle handle-bars decided to make chairs using the same industrial process”, notes Jasper Morrison in his text, The Poet will not Polish, “the new world constructor seeing a pair of bicycle handle-bars decides to use them as they are and save himself the trouble and expense of bending the tube.”*
On seeing an aluminium tube, Eindhoven based studio OS ∆ OOS followed, in many respects, a similar logic. The result is the Tunnel collection.
As we believe we’ve noted before, the joy in that exhibition format in which designers present objects which are important and/or relevant to them, is that no matter how often it is repeated it is always new.
Same, same, but different.
For their 2017 show Dutch Invertuals are presenting collections of objects from 45 alumni which have an importance to/relevance for them, or which simply represent an object of wonder and inspiration to the relevant designer. And because it’s Dutch Invertuals they have taken things a step further and each collection is also the starting point for the development a personal container.
Exposing yourself and then using that as the basis for visibly enclosing yourself. A double encapsulation, If you will.
“October is the month of painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight” ‡
Before Henry David Thoreau’s twilight comes, our five painted leaves, flashing their rich glow round the world from Nürnberg, Lausanne, Hamburg, Eindhoven and Barcelona.
Although one primarily goes to Kazerne Eindhoven to experience experimental, challenging, yet invariably accessible and pertinent design, during Dutch Design
It goes without saying that picking a “best of” from an event such as Dutch Design Week is impossible. Too
Our five recommendations for new design and architecture exhibitions opening in June 2016 feature four in Germany and one in
Unbelievably, Eindhoven based design studio Daphna Laurens have never, ever, participated at Salone Satellite, that section of the Milan furniture
May is traditionally the month in which the furniture design industry starts winding down towards summer…. fortunately, because after Milan
February 2015 saw us break new ground and make our first visits to Munich Creative Business Week, the magnificently monikered
We were first introduced to the work of Berlin based designer Uli Budde when we saw his “Reading Table” project
As we believe we’ve said before, and assume we will repeat in the future, contemporary Dutch design is largely, though
As we noted in our post on the exhibition Open World at Kazerne Eindhoven, for a city that is often
Floris Wubben is a rare and precious being. Floris Wubben is a contemporary Dutch designer who didn’t study at Design
As a general rule, what you don’t say is more important than what you do say: your body language famously
As we’ve often noted/complained/mocked in these pages, for a town widely lauded as being the most creative in the universe,
Name: Izabela Bołoz Born: Wałbrzych, Poland Alma mater: University of Wrocław, Poland, University of Zurich, Switzerland & Design Academy Eindhoven,
Throughout 2015 some thirty European museums and cultural institutions will mark the 125th anniversary of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh’s
For a town which, we would assume, boasts the highest density of designers in Europe, and which hosts one of
Such was the quality of the new products we saw during our autumn tour they kept us going well into
……and continued over Budapest and on to Berlin – where amongst other delights we partook of the exhibitions Sensing the
August being holiday month our principle focus was board sports: Woody Skateboards for the summer and silbærg snowboards for the
As older readers will be aware, one of our all time favourite projects is, was and probably always will be