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..... 304 by Nick Beens, as seen at Dutch Design Week Eindhoven 2017 Although we saw the 304 collection by Nick Beens' at the 2017 Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Exhibition, it's inclusion here should in
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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
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"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. OS ∆ OOS @ Dutch
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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
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Although one primarily goes to Kazerne Eindhoven to experience experimental, challenging, yet invariably accessible and pertinent design, during Dutch Design Week one also gets the chance to experience young, emerging, furniture brands. At Dutch Design week 2016 we were particularly taken with the presentation by Dutch brand Functionals. Tracing its origins back to 1972 and the establishment of a metal workshop in Goirle, near Tilburg, by Henk van Esch, the contemporary Functionals was
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It goes without saying that picking a "best of" from an event such as Dutch Design Week is impossible. Too varied are the projects, too wide the scope, too incomparable the works be that classic product design, classic architecture, classic craft, or more conceptual and/or research projects in and across genres. Rarely does urban planning sit so comfortably and naturally alongside pottery, high-tech and politics. While everywhere in Eindhoven one finds people 3D printing with all manner of
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As older readers will be aware, one of our all time favourite projects is, was and probably always will be the majestic Spore Vase by Paulo Sellmayer. Not just because as an object it teaches us so much about contemporary society and the absurdity of the perceived control we have over the natural world; but because through discovering and dissecting Spore Vase we learned and understood an awful lot about our job and our responsibilities. Since we saw Spore Vase in Smalle Haven in Eindhoven we
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Cohesion is a concept with which we are very familiar. Largely because it is a state we never achieve. Much like the geometry's asymptote never touches its associated curve, so to do our lives approach cohesion, without ever achieving such a condition. It remaining something tantalisingly ahead of us. Infinitely so. And so it was with a particular personal interest we viewed the new 2014 Dutch Invertuals' exhibition: Cohesion. As is traditional with Dutch Invertuals the participating
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One of the highlights for us of Dutch Design Week 2014 is and was the showcase of works by Eindhoven based studio Ontwerpduo a.k.a. Tineke Beunders and Nathan Wierink. For although in the past we have seen various Ontwerpduo projects individually, there is no real alternative to seeing a studio's collection together in order to build a more complete picture of the designers and their work. In addition to reunions with those Ontwerpduo products with which we were already familiar, including the
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The presentation of Dirk Vander Kooij's current collection during Dutch Design Week 2014 took place at Kazerne - the new star in Eindhoven's already well illuminated design sky. Established by designers/curators Annemoon Geurts and Koen Rijnbeek who used run the temporary Eat Drink Design "exhibition restaurant" during Dutch Design Week, Kazerne is their new permanent "exhibition restaurant". They obviously having tired of "popping up" once a year. Featuring a combination restaurant cum
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For us the passion, indeed interest, for living in a shared flat ended approximately 18 months before we moved out of our last shared flat. It ceased to be our thing. We needed our peace. We needed our space. We became anti-social. Some people however remain sociable. Even professionally. Some such as the design studios Daphna Laurens, Studio Mieke Meijer, OS ∆ OOS, Studio Maatwerk and Bogaerts Label who since summer 2014 have shared a space in the so-called TAB Building, somewhat inevitably a
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Back in the day when the CD was new and exciting we remember watching a breakfast TV host spread honey on one to demonstrate how indestructible they were. Other CDs were attacked with keys, dowsed in hot coffee and stood on. These days we all know much better. CDs are destructible. We've seen the light. And at Dutch Design Week 2014 you can can see the light a recycled CD emits. Or at least the luminescence produced by a mass of recycled CDs in the thoughtfully and intelligently formed
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Proving that Eindhoven is full of old factories, but that they are not necessarily all former Philips factories, Sectie C is a former industrial estate on the eastern edge of Eindhoven that has become home to a, seemingly, thriving community of creatives. Featuring a nice mix of creative genres and small businesses Sectie C's real charm is the way the tenants have colonised the available space just as vegetation does in derelict industrial estates: offices constructed under the rafters like
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Design weeks are part of the daily grind of our profession. For those outwith the industry it all just looks like jaunting off to another exotic sounding location and going to a lot of cocktail parties with unfeasibly gorgeous and entertaining people. For others it may be. For us it's early mornings, heavy rucksacks, lots of polite small talk, little food, lots of walking, lots of avoiding polite small talk, late nights. And we generally have to buy our own beer. Which we typically drink
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Every year at Dutch Design Week we always take time out to escape the design circus and visit Area 51 Skate Park. Because even if it does make us feel really old; Area 51 probably has more to do with design than a lot of what we see at most designer furniture trade fairs throughout the year. Established in 2002 - so one year after Dutch Design Week - Area 51 is 3000 sqm metres of landscaped wood inside an old industrial building on the former Philips estate where youngsters can skate and
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Inspiration for a design exhibition can come from the most unlikely of places. Even the rubbish your dog picks up and brings home. Kasper van ‘t Hoff's black lab Gus likes to pick up rubbish and bring it home. Rather than throw it away, Kaspar keeps the rubbish and photographs it. Kasper van ‘t Hoff is a photographer. So it's not weird. If he wasn't it would be. One day Kasper told ceramic artist Marina Relou about Gus and both agreed that he should be honoured for his contribution to
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In the history of (smow)blog only two designers have contacted us to comment on our comments. The first was Brooklyn based Jason Miller and the second was SintLucas student Vivienne van den Dungen. Writing about a stool she was exhibiting at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven we commented that : "Our one complaint would be that the current version doesn’t really seem to know what it is: the higher component being to short to be a back rest and to narrow to be used for holding, for example, a
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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
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We first saw Spore Vase by Paulo Sellmayer at Made out Portugal on Dutch Design Week Sunday, and it didn't leave us in peace the whole day. And so we went back on the Monday morning and spoke to Paulo. Born in Oberhausen, Germany Paul studied Industrial Design at ESAD in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal and is currently on an internship with Julien Carretero in Eindhoven, Holland. So just the sort of cosmopolitan pedigree we like. Spore vase is - in short - a vase in which fungi grow. A hole
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We must begin this post with a small confession. Something we were too scared to tell the good folks at Dutch Invertuals personally. We first came across the Dutch Invertuals design collective @ Milan 2009. Where we walked out of their show after 36 seconds. It was our fault. We were tired, hungry and on our way to the opening of a Belgian product design showcase. We shouldn't have gone. It was the wrong moment on the wrong day for experimental Dutch design. We spent a little longer at
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The good news for Rui Alves is that he remains our favourite Portuguese furniture designer..... ..... but the competition is out there. Made Out Portugal is a show from 6 young Portuguese designers who all live, work and study in Holland. During our conversation with some of the participants it turned out that the Portuguese government offers it's design students extremely generous grants to go and study overseas. Which of course they all then do. As a consequence a network of Portuguese
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Manno! We've only just got here and now we've got to go! Despite the number of shows, products and designers we've seen, tested and talked to - we can't shake the feeling that we've only scraped the surface of what can be found in Eindhoven. Which if we're honest isn't a negative feeling - because it implies that the Dutch Design Week is a very healthy event. And makes us all the keener to return next year! But for now its a train journey to Cologne, Orgatec and contemporary office
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Under the title YP - Young Professionals SintLucas College of Applied Design is running four shows at the 2010 Dutch Design Week. Two of them in Pennings Inside, even if we say so ourselves a very agreeable designer furniture store on the edge of Eindhoven city centre. YP (Young Professionals) - Out of the box, is a collection of stools from fourth year students made using differing materials. So a standard student project exhibition. As such the exhibition is full of the sort of fanciful
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According to the ever accurate wikipedia Eindhoven has a population of some 214,000. On Sunday's the population of Eindhoven is around 214. Eindhoven on a Sunday morning is a lonely and forbidding place. Gesloten is Dutch for "Closed" The parallels - typographic as well as semantic - with Get Lost are unmistakable. Even the bakers are closed. We can't remember the last time we were in a century, sorry city, where bakers close on a Sunday. Eindhoven on a Sunday morning is not for the faint
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