In the historical centre of Gent Droog and Sofie Lachaert have launched Droog for Rent. Upstairs from the Sofie Lachaert Gallery, Droog re-designed a studio and a flat for 2 in which you can find a “restaurant”, “lobby”, “gym” and a “library” all fully equipped with Droog products. Droog for Rent offers you a unique opportunity to try and buy not only brand new products but it also gives you the chance to experience Droog’s top design pieces – icons of the 21st Century – as long as you wish for.

http://www.droogforrent.com

For the press release click here

Fantastical Investments—the outcome of Droog Lab’s study of consumption habits in Russia—is an imaginary luxury brand. By Droog with Metahaven, Fantastical Investments will be presented on Thursday, September 22nd with a panel discussion and exhibition at Droog Amsterdam. Unveiling a collection of nine products, the brand will act as a vehicle for discussion on the co-existence of fiction and survival in a new vision on luxury.

“Russians have a deeply engrained reading culture; one can find literary classics in any supermarket. At the same time, they are known for their lavish spending on luxury goods. Our intention was to understand the relationship between these apparent contradictions in developing a new model of consumption inspired by Russia,” says Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog, and initiator of the project. As part of the Strelka 2010 summer program, the Droog Lab design team led by Daniel van der Velden discovered that many consumption patterns in Russia emerged from a context of institutional mistrust. “Western countries have often been perceived as an example of the future towards which Russia is moving to. However, in the world of rising uncertainty and institutional instability Russia may be considered as a looking glass that for the last 20 years has been offering the Western countries the reflection of this coming future,” stated sociologist and economist Olga Kuzina in conversation with the team.

The team observed that acquiring durable goods can be a survival strategy, akin to hoarding or investing in gold, and that consuming fiction and feeding the imagination is equally critical to one’s capacity to thrive. These principles formulated the Fantastical Investments luxury brand proposition, inspired by Russia but aiming for more universal impact.

“Fantastical Investments brings together imagination, luxury and survival, anticipating a gradual dissipation of the 20th century institutional backup for civil life,” says Daniel van der Velden. The brand “thrives on some of the darkest sentiments currently around in Western culture, but gives them a positive turn.”

Download the full release here.

DETAILS featured design for download in its 10 DO-IT-YOURSELF DESIGN PROJECTS THAT ARE LESS CRAFTY, MORE COOL by Monica Khemsurov.

When Droog launches its game-changing Design for Download website in the coming months, it will do for design in the 21st century what Ikea did in the 20th—democratize it—in this case by bringing design directly to anyone with an Internet connection, with no international shipping or middlemen required. Just choose and configure your design, download the schematics, and either take them to a nearby fabricator or give it a try yourself. Among the first online offerings will be open-source decorative electrical sockets, tables and chairs made with wood and 3-D printable brackets, and shelves whose composition can be customized using Droog’s new software.

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Domus featured design for download in its design report by Valentina Croci:

Droog continues to explore programmatic design issues. The group’s focus has always extended beyond the trends to concentrate on processes, production chains and user applications since it was founded in 1993 by Gijs Bakker and Renny Ramakers. Always conscious of social and market signs and changes, Droog has been analysing goods production methods.

Read more.

We hosted a breakfast prepared by Sofie Lachaert for our contacts, designers and interested members of the press this morning. Come back tomorrow from 10:00 – 12:00 for one more breakfast.

During Amsterdam Fashion Week, BerlinFashion.TV director David Roth came by Droog Amsterdam for an interview with Renny Ramakers.

BerlinFashion.TV

Droog Las Vegas was featured in this ABC News segment, amongst discussions of the brave move by The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

It’s two days before the opening of Droog Las Vegas–a great moment to pull up one of our favourite quotes by John Unwin, CEO of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas as published by Travel + Leisure:

John Unwin has been giving me a hard-hat tour of the Cosmopolitan for the better part of an hour, pointing out the “casino cabanas” and the lobby columns patterned in high-definition video screens. But it’s not until we reach the building’s eastern edge, where it opens onto the sidewalk of the Las Vegas Strip, that I realize just how different it’s going to be. “We’re going to put a Droog in this corner,” the hotel’s CEO tells me. A what? “You know: Droog, the Dutch design store. Slots would make more money, but I think Droog is cooler.”

Read the full article here.

Watch a recent interview with Renny Ramakers by KLM’s iFly magazine.

“I am not an idealist by any means. It is not my goal to create social design, but I do like it when social renewal results in innovative design.” – Renny Ramakers

Watch here.

Huffington Post listed Droog New York as one of the top ten design stores in NYC!

Read more and rate their choices here.

Last week the Russia consumes design team, led by Daniel van der Velden was in Moscow for research and initial concept development. Theory & Practice published an interview by Ksenia Petrova with Daniel and Droog project & content manager, Agata Jaworska today. Here is the extended English version.

Tell us, please, what is this project about and what was its premises?

Agata: The Droog Lab was initiated in 2009 in Amsterdam by Renny Ramakers, director and co-founder of Droog, mainly for two reasons. One is this fact that more and more cities all over the world are developing in the same direction and are starting to look the same, when in reality, one knows there are real differences between them. The other is, if you look at the world of design, designers are copying and referencing each other and the design world is becoming circular and inward-looking. The Lab was started to bring designers to foreign places to find new directions for design. We will be working on eight projects over the course of four years.

Daniel: The initial idea of ‘Russia Consumes’ came from two observations that Renny Ramakers had. One was about the extreme, ‘hyperconsumption’ – diamonds, ‘bling-bling’, etcetera. The other was about peasants reading classic literature on the train. We think that these two forms of consuming might be connected – either by their extreme difference, or by the fact that they exist as part of a similar mindset or mentality. So, what we’ve been doing here this week is visiting different places, interviewing people, researching, observing and of course participating as far as we can in everyday Moscow life – and observing that through a design lens, a design point of view. What we have found is going to be translated into a design concept which can be an idea, an image, a prototype or a product. The concept will not be about Moscow but it will be informed by it.

Agata, you said, that there is a series of similar projects by Droog?

Agata: The first project was in Dubai, the second is in the Canadian Arctic, the third one is in New York, and Moscow is the fourth. There will be four more and each of them will have an exhibition and a publication.

What is the role of Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design?

What kind of outcome you are expecting from this project?

Daniel: I’m expecting that we deliver something that works on two levels; one is a level of fantasy, of fiction, or fairytale – design providing an escape route for the mind. But on the other, lower level it should be about absolutely basic elements of life, about survival in a world that is so pretty and yet so hostile. At this point I also would like to mention our team, consisting of the architect Totan Kuzambaev, graphic designer Pavel Milyakov, graphic designer Michèle Champagne and product designer Digna Kosse. Together with Agata we’ve had such a great week – and I do hope this will show off in the final result. As said before, it is going to be something conceptual as you would maybe expect from Droog.

Agata: It’s very important to note that we’re not designing for the place, even though we are working with people from here, but rather, we are learning from the place as an inspiration for a broader result.

What did you learn so far here, in Russia?

Daniel: The thing that I found very interesting about Russia as far as I’ve seen it is this vibrant and dynamic society, which coexists with institutions and government in a fascinating manner. Because there often seems to be no positive interaction at all – the government does its own things, people do their own things. You have this body of institutions that is almost like a ruin, or museum piece, and on top of that there is all that social energy. We’ve been to luxury villages and exclusive spas and shopping malls, and to a soup-kitchen. We’ve been to people’s houses, to the high-rise in the periphery, and to grey and black markets where they sold things from Chinese imports to machetes to live owls and raccoons. Impressive.

Agata: I think the biggest lesson we learned from Russia is how it is incredibly advanced in some ways but also backwards at the same time. The way people cope, and at times thrive, is a model that countries in the West dealing with uncertain times can learn from.

And the last question is about Russian soul, of course. There are lots of speculations about this ‘mystical’ thing. Do you have something to say about it based on your experience of Russia?

Daniel: You can keep talking about it, you may approach it – but you can never quite grasp it. I found here, in Russia, a deep and sometimes black humor. No conversation has passed without at least five jokes and anecdotes. This coexistence of optimism and cynicism is very interesting and it does have the literary quality that Renny pointed at in the very beginning of this project. I would say that we don’t see this in the West and I wouldn’t say I understand it yet – I’m not sure if I ever can. I’m thankful for this week, and invite you to look at the outcomes in May 2011.