Design Marathon 2010 Review: Dutch Design Week

Eindhoven is Philips.

Eindhoven used to be much more Philips; but in course of the inevitable restructuring of the last 20 years Philips have greatly reduced the number of buildings they need.

Buildings which Eindhoven city council hope to turn into a “Creative City”

In addition to office blocks occupied by architects, photographers or graphic designers, just about every Eindhoven based product designer you meet works in an “old Philips factory”

And the principle Dutch Design Week exhibition space was also in an “old Philips factory” or 12.

And bang in the middle of it all – a skate park. Which, in our best Rabbi Lionel Blue: Is a lot like Dutch Design Week.

For just as the skaters experiment with varying objectives and degrees of success, so Dutch Design Week is a wonderful mix of genuinely creative concept design and commercially orientated projects.

And of course one or the other blood stained misjudged toe-grab can be found at both.

Aside from high points such as Spore Vase @ Made Out Portugal or Manon van Hoeckel’s “leather carrier strap” @ YP Graduates we particularly enjoyed Atelierdorp Gets Closer, Reed Bench by Steven Banken @ Landinwaarts and “Matter of Time” by Dutch Invertuals.

Also a word of praise for the organisers in arranging the free shuttle taxi service to get visitors and exhibitors between the various locations. Certainly an idea that one or the other design week should consider.

One of the bonuses of Dutch Design Week being in Eindhoven is Piet Hein Eek. We’re not huge fans of Piet Hein Eek, but he does occasionally produce objects that tickle our fancy – as indeed does his new base at Strijp-R –  and it was really nice to see his full range together in one place. Especially in his new base.

The question for us is if 9 days is really necessary?

Especially for the exhibitors. Nine days is a huge commitment, both in terms of time and finances and we really can’t see where the advantage is supposed to come from. A fact that probably explains the relative dearth of young designers from outside Holland showing new products.

We believe that if you reduced DDW to less than a week one could attract one or the other designer from overseas and so not only deepen the range of design on display, but also strengthen the international standing of the design week.

If there was one thing that not so much got our goat, but much more broke into our goats stall in the dead of night and kidnapped the terrified caprid at knife point it was without question some institutions insistence on charging for entry to their shows.

Whereas with the museums one could just about accept it – even if we had our suspicions that one or the other of the museums had raised their prices especially for DDW – the charges at two of the other exhibitions were simply inexcusable.

Why the Dutch Design Awards even bothered having an exhibition if they were planning charging entry is beyond us.

“Come and have a look at the best and most innovative design and designers Holland has to offer ”

“Three euros please”

It may only have been three euros – but the symbolism speaks volumes for the motives of the organisers.
What pray tell is the point in having sponsors whose products cost more than the average GDP of an East African nation, if they can’t pay for a 20 square metre marquee for a week!

Even more pompous was the ten euros being demanded by Eindhoven Design Academy for the graduate show.

That’s Graduate Show.

Now we don’t know what a seriously over-inflated opinion of their own self importance the Design Academy Eindhoven have – but ten euros to see a collection of experimental student projects?

We visit around 30-40 student shows per year.
We do such because we want to see what the students have to offer, see what the colleges have to offer and always with the faint hope of discovering some fresh talent.

• Dutch Design Week
• Thousands of international design visitors in the city
• And the Design Academy want Euro 10,00 entry to the graduate show.

We can’t think of a greater insult or less respectful attitude towards their own students.

And so if we have one piece of advice for the Dutch Design Week organisers it would be to kick out all those events who are more interested in money than the designers they claim to represent.

Ten euros for a graduate show!

Honestly how arrogant can you get!

On the whole however Dutch Design Week 2010 was an entertaining and enjoyable trip, where we not only discovered one or the other true gem but also learned a little and were forced to re-consier a couple of our positions.

And we don’t ask for much more.

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