‘True identity is something known in one heart
and recognized within another’
Struck by the work of Donna Verheijden at the Masterclass Exhibition of the Sandberg Institute, which had its opening last friday in Amsterdam. Her distinguished style with words, music and images makes an impressive view on today’s world.
Totally up my alley is the work of Verena Michels, shown at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Graduation Show. Just fell head over heals for her use of colour, the beautiful little book added to the garments and the feel of her sweater. The total concept behind this project is making it top-notch; experiment and research the way it should be. As stated on her vimeopage:
‘I always liked the poem Inventur by Guenther Eich. It describes someone collecting, naming and counting everything he has left after the war. He describes their new function, like using a pair of socks as a pillow and cardboard as a mattress.
This mirrors my own concept; I gathered materials I like and tried to forget their conventional function. I experimented with wool and ended up finding a way to create a textile from wool without knitting. The technique is inspired by the way “moving blankets” are made industrially. The result is something that looks more flat than a knitted textile and has a different structure. The technique does not require special equipment. You can do it at home on your sewing machine and it is easy to learn. I always wanted to create a way of production that I can teach my friends and collaborate with them.’
Before I started my final project, I did a three month internship with Conny Groenewegen, an Amsterdam based designer known for her innovative knitwear collections. It influenced my way of looking at material. I learnt to manipulate texture and the weight of materials and I practiced creating silhouettes by following the material.’ ‘I only use wool yarn. The different qualities I use define the look of each garment. One looks and feels like a woven structure, one like a knit, and the weights vary from very light to heavy like a rug.
I got the idea for this technique the moment I saw the work of German artist Rosemarie Trockel in real life. It is her work too that made me decide to keep my own technique minimal.’
Every house is like a tree rooted in a global network of underground network of pipes and cables. All we communicate through those roots is converted into a language that is the same all over the world: ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). This computer language was the first form of communication between man and computer. These curtains by Nienke Sybrandy visualize a tree that has its roots in the same ground as the house, and can be taken anywhere you go. No more longing to that old view when you move house and you sadly have to leave behind that growing tree in front of your window.
White crisp silhouette of weeds make intruiging patterns at the ‘Blueware Tiles’. The dried and pressed weeds are composed between plates of glass. The plates and tiles are then exposed under ultra violet light, which develops a photogram of the weeds in an intense Prussian blue. Great project by Glithero; two dutch designers working from London.
‘Why design’ is a video series by Herman Miller design that shows the world through the eyes of their designers and shares why they value their point of view.
“At Herman Miller design is the language we use to ask questions and seek answers to the problems our customers face. The design process is a journey into the unknown—or as George Nelson once quipped, “I have never met a designer who was retained to keep things the same as they were.” Before we decide what we do and how we do it, we like to begin by asking the question “Why?”
The point of view shown in the video about Yves Béhar is so totally up my alley, a great talk about the importance of having different kind of views.
Besides the ongoing intruiging gif-magic this alphabet installationby Koen Taselaar is such a clever beauty of striking simplicity. However as Johan Cruijff would say ‘simple is the most difficult’.
Via visualpoetry
A little fun project on show today. I’ve gladly participated in a print-workshop ‘so you think you can print’ initiated by nieuweklasse*. It was a bit of trip down memorylane but it sure was a nice interruption of all the web-oriëntated work of today’s life. It’s always kind of great to work with the real colourstuff. And last but not least it was an excellent opportunity to give ‘life’ to my first hero.
[translation]
Beautiful, old, wooden grandstands
are entered through a little narrow staircase.
The trees rage right beside you.
You look upward. If they are smart
they choose downwind, after the toss.
by Nico Dijkshoorn from ‘Kleine Dingen’ (Little Things)
‘Neither Here Nor There’, is another intruiging title behind yet again another striking product. This monograph by Oliver Jeffers shows his impressive fine art which is a different side to his well-known charming children’s illustrations and the best children’s picturebooks around.
‘Neither Here Nor There’ shows his interests and concerns in a direct way. As stated over at It’s Nice That; ”I’m intrigued by the world around me and feel compelled to both capture it and ask questions of it through my work. Sometimes this is in the form of questions, sometimes in the form of stories. Sometimes my picture books are stories, and my paintings are questions. Sometimes it’s the other way around.”
Want to know more; read the whole interview here and watch his fun author film over here. Whoo – do I admire this guy, and isn’t this book wishlisted (published by the Gestalten)
Images by Oliver Jeffers
Subscribe to the non-regular Studio Chronicles
For your dose of optimistic stories with and about design