Dutch Design Week
Design fair, Multiple venues, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
The 16th annual Dutch Design Week is presenting work and ideas by more than 2 500 designers, concentrating on the designs for the future with the theme 'stretch'.
By choosing ‘stretch’ as the theme, Dutch Design Week (DDW) aims to encourage both participants and the general public to get involved and dare to break out of their comfort zone. Martijn Paulen, director of the Dutch Design Foundation, explains:
"Today’s world is complex and poses enormous challenges. Designers have revolutionary ideas and innovative solutions for the future. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes confrontational. In this sense, Dutch design is yoga for the brain. Stretching exercises for people who don’t want to get stuck in their ways."
‘Stretch’ is the essence of design. By stretching your mind, you create space to innovate. To change direction, the way you work, your environment and vision of the world. To transcend boundaries and define the new standard. In cooperation with agency Fabrique a public campaign was developed to support the theme. Says André Bouwman, creative director of Fabrique:
"To create the campaign, we stretched the bounds of key design themes such as uniqueness, originality, and ownership. We teamed up with 15 leading designers to transform existing work into new and unknown forms. The result was a series of exciting, aesthetic images. And, sometimes, completely absurd ones."
DDW first began to select a theme for the week in 2012. The themes serve as the heart of the annual public campaigns developed around the event, and provide designers, companies and other participants with a starting point on which to base exhibitions, presentations, gatherings and the like.
