Dutch Design Week 2018: Future Proof
'The best compliment on the work of Dutch Design Foundation (DDF) that I have received so far, was one I got from a young designer who came to me and said: ' What happened to me is unbelievable, I picked up work for a year this week', says Martijn Paulen, director of the organization behind Dutch Design Week (DDW). From 20 – 28 October, the international design event will again take place in Eindhoven where the focus lies mainly on future proof design with special attention for upcoming young design talents. Ticket sales have already started, get yours here!
DDW18 features young and upcoming designers. Below are some of the highlights of this year's edition.
G18: Design Academy Eindhoven
The Graduation Show 2018 will be the first edition in almost two decades to take place outside the walls of Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE). This move to a venue on the site of the historic Campina Milk Factory reflects a major shift in the public’s perception of design and the role of DAE. ‘The relevance of design today,’ says creative director Joseph Grima, ‘has vested us with a position in which we, as a profession, have unparalleled influence over our collective future. Now it is down to us, as an institution, to extend the horizon of design education in response, questioning and revisiting how we present our work and generate discourse and debate.’ G18 presents no less than 208 projects by 185 graduates, emerging the visitor in this inquisitive environment where design is constantly being redesigned.
Location: Saturday 20 October and Sunday 28 October | Hallen, Campina, 5613 LE Eindhoven | by Design Academy Eindhoven | More info
Presented among 250 other projects are: Sea Kale Revised by Mathilde Nakken, who combines coastal engineering with saline agriculture, Façade Skin by Freek Peters, who designed tiles to cover entire buildings, and Women's Chairs Project by Anna Aagaard Jensen, who created public seats as they are to be used in an ideal world (beware: only women can sit on them!).
Antenna
Antenna is a project by World Design Event, partner of DDW, which presents the best of next generation designers who want to make a positive impact on the world with new insights, clear ideals and strong ambition. Not a line-up of superficial products or big names, but people who seek answers to social issues. The 2018 line-up offers 20 international talents a stage during an inspiring and challenging conference and exhibition.
Location: Conference | Monday 22 October | Klokgebouw | by Design Indaba & DDW
Antenna Expo | Veemgebouw | Floor 2, Torenallee 36, 5554 CC, Eindhoven | by Design Indaba & DDW | More info
Olga Zelensk’s project, From Nowhere with Love, is comprised of a series of postcards, each containing a plant seed. One can take them on a journey, settle down in a new location and put them in the ground to give life to plants brought from one’s home country. Will the closeness of familiar nature help support the emotional relationship with the motherland? Ella Westlund presents life-altering products in ‘Be a Part of’.
Mind the Step
A unique collaboration between the Eindhoven University of Technology and Design United research center 4TU, Mind the Step involves various departments and student teams. You’ll find over 50 intriguing designs, often with the designer close by. Explore tomorrow’s world and visit Mind the Step.
Location: Klokgebouw, Strijp-S, 5617 AB, Eindhoven | More info
Projects to look out for include a Chaise Longue, which morphs from a seat into a bed configuration in a controlled transformation, and Mussels in the 3D printer - a project which shows that mussel shells can be completely recycled and reused using 3D-print technologies. With Computer Aided Consumer Design, the consumer can even modify the digital design for a product.
Dutch Design Awards
Rewarding Dutch designers for their most impressive, innovative and groundbreaking projects, the Young Designer Award is an incentive prize for three young talents who have graduated up until five years ago. The young generation of designers increasingly ventures beyond the boundaries of their own discipline(s) and continues to search for (new) forms of collaboration, with a variety of (also commercial) parties, and on the basis of other business models.
Location: Veemgebouw Floor 3, Torenallee 36, 5554 CC, Eindhoven | More info
Winner Olivier van Herpt designed and made his own clay extruder and experimented with many different types of clay. Lisa Konno presents her debut collection For the Workers: an ‘Anti-Sweatshop Statement’ to raise awareness regarding the conditions in the fast fashion industry. As a social designer, Manon Van Hoeckel develops tools that encourage strangers to chat to each other.
Yksi Connect
Pine tree bark-turned-leather by studio Armite, trendy sneakers with soles made from recycled chewing gum, jeans you can lease, an ethical phone that can be fixed and re-used – in Clean Revolution: Dutch Design for a Better World, Yksi Connect shows 40 Dutch designers whose products, projects and concepts contribute to a circular economy. This exhibition was part of the Dutch contribution to the world climate summit that recently took place in San Francisco.
Location: VEEM at Strijp-S | Floor 3 | by Yksi Connect | More info
Studio Mixtura experimented with minerals and developed a way to use them as a basis for glaze with ForzGlaze. Julia Thomann designed the Breccia leather collection, which is distinguished by a kind of craquelure - the effect of a cracked layer of paint or varnish.
Creative Industries Fund NL
Creative Industries Fund NL is looking forward to launching its Talent Platform, an online database for today’s best design talent. With this platform, the fund intends to give an extra impulse to the visibility of emerging design talent. Presented are 24 one-minute video portraits of creatives from various disciplines whom the Fund has supported through the Program for Talent Development over the course of 2018. The platform will grow each year with the arrival of a new crop of designers and makers. The individual practices of all the talented creatives, with a portrait page consisting of videos and visual material, thus presenting a living archive of contemporary design talent.
Location: VEEM | Floor 2, Torenallee 36, 5554 CC, Eindhoven | More info
Images
1) For the Workers by Lisa Konno, 2) (l) Sea Kale by Mathilde Nakken and (r) Facade Skin by Freek Peters, 3) Women’s Chairs Project by Anna Aagaard Jensen, 4) From Nowhere with Love by Olga Zelensk, 5) Be a Part of by Ella Westlund, 6) Chaise Longue by Arwin Hidding, Henriette Bier, Patrick Teuffel, Qing Wang and Senatore Gennaro, 7) (l) Mussels in the 3D Printer by Mariet Sauerwein, ( r) Computer Aided Consumer Design by Omo Meijs, 8) 3D-printed ceramics by Olivier van Herpt, 9) (l) Limbo Embassy by Manon van Hoeckel (photo: Alexander Populier) and ( r) For the Workers by Lisa Konno, 10) ForzGlaze by Studio Mixtura (photo: Jeroen van der Wielen), 11) Breccia Leather Collection by Julia Thomann (photo: Jeroen van der Wielen), 12) Talent Platform by Creative Industries Fund NL (video) o
