Simply Droog

RAMAKERS, Renny. 2004.
Simply Droog: 10+1 years of creating innovation and discussion
Amsterdam: Droog.

This book appeared on the reading list for a group seminar looking at design ethnography. A retrospective of the work of Droog at the time of writing, it includes a series of short essays covering topics which explore the guiding principles of the Dutch design collective. Some of these principles have been consciously nurtured by Droog from the outset; others have evolved or solidified over time.

Extracts from the book most relevant to my work, or which I found particularly intriguing or thought-provoking, can be found below...

RAMAKERS, Renny & BAKKER, Gijs. ‘Introduction’, pp. 4.

“The activities of Droog Design have grown tremendously in the past years. We make exhibitions, we give lectures, we initiate experimental projects, we carry out commissions for companies and organizations, we produce and distribute products, we publish books, we supervise the IM Masters course at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and we have a shop cum gallery in Amsterdam.”

BETSKY, Aaron. ‘Re: Droog’, pp. 15-16.

“The core belief of Droog Design seemed to be that design was not a question if making more objects, using more materials, or even inventing new ideas or solutions to the problems we encounter in our daily lives, but one of finding more ways to experience, explore and expand the possibilities of existing objects, images, spaces and ideas. Like squatters in the history of art or the structures of mass production, they hunkered down with what they had inherited, scavenged, salvaged and maybe even stolen, turning it into communal artefacts. For that is what they did make that was new: a community. Droog is a kind of design tribe.”

WILLIAMS, Gareth. ‘Use it again’, pp. 28.

“Similar ideas lie behind Gijs Bakker’s Peepshow wallpaper that features a cut design allowing spots of the old paper underneath to show through. It regulates and heightens our perception of an older product. Rather [than] sublimating or replacing the past, history and memory are used again as core conceptual elements of the new design.”

KONINGS & BEY, 1997/99. 'Kokon furniture'. Pp 29. & 136.

These pieces were created by coating existing furniture in PVS. By wrapping the pieces together, the shape (and the perception and familiarity of it) is changed to create new and hybrid furniture pieces. I particularly like the way that the coating accentuates the new form and draws my attention to the three-dimensional form that define the bound-together pieces.

BEY, Jurgen. 2003. 'St. Petersburg Chair'. Design Boom. Available at: http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/milan04/droog.html [Accessed 21/09/2009].

Again using existing chairs, coated with foam and glass reinforced Polyester and silk-screened with a floral pattern. These were developed for the Dutch Room in St. Petersburg. I particularly like the way in which a new uniformity is achieved to previously non-matching, non-uniform chairs.

SCHOUWENBURG, Louise. ‘Inevitable ornament’, pp. 73.

“According to Jongerius, for whom decoration would become more and more important in her work, it’s mainly the small detail that stick in our minds. ‘We remember the patterns of the wallpaper in the bedroom or the stripes on the coffee cup that we held every day. Forms disappear from memory but decoration lingers.’ It seems that conceptual design and decoration are very compatible, as long as the underlying idea gives rise to it.”

HEIJDENS, Simon, 2003. 'Sugar cubes numbered 1-200'. Pp. 80.

There is something charming in the seemingly pointless simplicity of this piece. Sugar cubes are individually numbered using chocolate print. The chocolate print and board box complement each other superbly and the overall effect is one of supreme graphical order.

VAN HINTE, Ed. ‘Irony’, p. 102.

“A designer can use his creations to transfer meaning, but there is always the intriguing risk that the observer misunderstands. This can happen in two slightly tragic ways. The first kind is when a more often than not inexperienced designer, without any hidden agenda, creates something straightforward that nevertheless seems to suggest much more. Consequently observers perceive layers of meaning that were never supposed to arise. The result can be that the work of this designer has an inspirational quality that others have yet to explain to her or him.

The second is just the opposite: a designer may have attempted to express something that later is misinterpreted or not understood at all.”

The text goes on to explain,

“…Droog design was perceived as presenting ironic alternatives for a more sustainable society, especially in the beginning when many of the products incorporated used materials and familiar shapes. The designers, however, had different considerations, based mainly on aesthetics. Since irony presupposes a certain amount of knowledge, the clues offered work differently for different
audiences.”

VAN HINTE, Ed. ‘Experience’, pp. 121-129.

This essay talks about the rise of experience as part of the design outcome. It considers brand experience – how brands are no longer just symbols representing consumption but have become artificially linked to experiences that consumers can undergo. It notes that experience design has become a discipline in itself.

“The implications all depend on the way in which experience is defined. Generally it is a set of consecutive visual, but sometimes also auditive and tactile perceptions that are so memorable that it becomes a fixed association in people’s minds, whenever part of the same circumstances occur.”

“…experience is about memory.”

FARKACHE, Nina. 2001. 'Bench "Come a little bit closer" ', Nina Farkache, 2001. Pp 127.

A playful piece constructed from stainless steel, glass marbles and lacquered MDF, this bench has seats which 'float' on marbles allowing sitters to roll their seat over the marbles to move together or away from each other.