Category: Uncategorized

21 Wool Masters At Hôtel Droog

As part of Campaign for Wool Nederland, the exhibition presents wool design by wool masters from the 21st Century. The Campaign for Wool is a global community of sheep farmers, retailers, designers, manufacturers and you, the wool lover. They aim to educate as many people as possible about the incredible benefits and versatility of wool in fashion, furnishings and everyday life. This in turn, supports many small businesses and local farmers whose livelihoods depend on the wool industry.

Curated by Frans Ankoné and Martijn Nekoui

Hôtel  Droog
Staalstraat 7B, Amsterdam

Open from November 6th -11th

 

NOW OPEN!

Droog has opened a new hospitality experience in Amsterdam.

Please come and visit Hotel Droog for: design at DROOG, exhibitions, fashion at KABINET, beauty at COSMANIA, products and experience at WELTEVREE, food & drinks at ROOMSERVICE by Droog and the one and only bedroom…

Staalstraat 7B
1011 JJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands

www.hoteldroog.com

Design for Download @ DAD Berlin

DAD Berlin will present furniture from the series Inside-Out by Minale-Maeda for Droog and the project Design for Download. Inside-out was presented by Droog in Milan last year as example of downloadable design. During the DMY visitors can experience digital design tools developed by Droog with the aim of allowing ordinary computer users to easily make functional design decisions, automatically generating blueprints for local execution in various materials. Although still in a developing stage, the user can experience how Design for Download can empower the consumer with easy-to-access and low-cost design tools for customized product design.

www.DAD-Berlin.de

DAD gallery in Berlin

Downloadanle design @ DAD Gallery in Berlin

Become part of the Droog team!

Droog is looking for a Graphic Design Intern who will give overall support to the PR/marketing and product department. The successful candidate will assist in the visualisation of all creative concepts, creating presentations, promotional and branding material.

High proficiency with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign is essential, currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate graphic design degree program or recently graduated. Experience and skills in web design is desirable.

We are looking for someone with a strong eye for detail, a passion for design, an effective communicator and a good multi-tasker.

Please tell us why you are interested, and send us a CV and portfolio link or light attachment with subject “internship” to [email protected]. We regret we can only accept applications from within the European Union at this time.

‘I used to be a magazine’

Droog releases ‘I used to be magazine’ by Ruben Iglesias.

Paper is part of our everyday life. We print, we read, we write and we waste tonnes of paper. The paper pencils are the first products produced after introducing UP by Droog. UP is an alternative way of dealing with dead stock. It proposes to reinvest in dead stock through design, introducing new functions, new aesthetics and new markets to leftover goods in order to bring them back into circulation. Renny Ramakers states: “It is one of the best kept secrets: everyday, tonnes of sellable products are recycled or simply destroyed worldwide, resulting in an unacceptable loss of material and energy. Recycling in practice is down-cycling; many recycled materials are processed into inferior products.”

Q&A with Ruben Iglesias, designer of ‘I used to be a magazine’

Q: Due to the increase in environmental consciousness in today’s society, a lot of waste is recycled. What do you think of this?

A: Most of the waste we produce is made of materials that are in perfect condition, even though they are discarded as “used”. The plastic of a water bottle or the paper of a magazine are examples of discarded materials that can be reused or transformed before recycling them. In fact, before we recycle we should always think of reusing and upcycling if we want to respect our environment.

Q: Can a designer be of any influence in regards to environmental consciousness of today’s society?

A: I think today more than ever designers have to unify environmental respect with form and function. When you design an object by reusing, upcycling or recycling discarded materials, you are also showing that there are many ways to do the same thing. As much as we support this kind of design, society will do the same. We have to realise that if we want to live in harmony with our environment, we have to recycle.

The pencils are made of leftover paper from newspaper and magazines by rolling paper on the carbon lead. In the production process they have used as little glue as possible in order to protect and achieve the desired quality and reliability. Every pencil is unique and handcrafted in a social workshop in the Netherlands.

Now available at Droog Amsterdam and at www.droog.com for € 8,75 (set of 5). Coming soon to retailers worldwide.

Droog at world design capital

Lecture by Renny Ramakers

at the Pavilion, in the heart of Helsinki, the world design capital

“UP, a new economic model for upping the value of dead stock through re-design”

Wednesday 23.5.2012
15.30 -16.30

Location:
Ullanlinnankatu 2ˆ4, between the Design museum and the Architectural museum, Helsinki

Droog for Rent: try before you buy

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

85 LED Lamps

Since the first production of the 85 Lamps in 1993 the world has changed tremendously. With the introduction of LED lamps the screw-in incandescent light bulb got replaced by a more environmental friendly opponent. As a respond to customers’ needs Droog decided to replace the old incandescent light bulbs into LED lighting. With this recent change the 85 Lamps has become a more eco-friendly and customer-friendly product without losing the character of the iconic chandelier, which was created almost 20years ago. The lamp uses only what is necessary to create light: bulbs, wires, connectors. By multiplying these essential elements an opulent chandelier is created. Less and more are united in one single product

Q&A with Wendy Legro, designer of Too beautiful to hide – hot water bottle

In December, Droog released Too beautiful to hide – hot water bottle by Wendy Legro. It is available now on www.droog.com, at Droog Amsterdam and at resellers worldwide. We ask Wendy some questions about her design.

Designer Wendy Legro

What do you think makes the use of a hot water bottle articularly relevant today?

The hot water bottle never really disappeared; it has always played a part in the background. With this new design I hope more people will get re-acquainted with a very simple way of keeping warm. After all, comfort is something we are always looking for.

What are the benefits above a regular hot water bottle or electric blanket?

I find the comfort and support you can offer a beloved with a hot water bottle really beautiful. But the touch of rubber to skin is not comfortable and the material can be a bit smelly. Hiding it in an extra layer brings down the beauty and warmth. As for other ways of local heating like the electric blanket, my mother used one at our home but for me there was a lack of charm. My goal was to give an aged product with a warm use the look and feel it deserves.

How does this hot water bottle relate to your other work?

When I design I let my senses guide me. By doing so I hope to add an emotional value to my products. Finding beauty in shape and details, to me, is the most important thing. The use of colour and material should complement this.

How does this sensorial value translate into Too beautiful to hide?

The shape with its curves and flat areas is formed to fit a human body. The round lines on the surface let the bottle stay warm longer, while they make you want to touch the soft ridges to sense what it feels like.

Too beautiful to hide - hot water bottle by Wendy Legro for Droog

About Wendy Legro

Wendy Legro (Enkhuizen, NL 1984) graduated with distinction from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009. In 2010 she founded Studio WM. with Maarten Collignon, based in Rotterdam the Netherlands. Based on affinity with the senses, the designer couple develops products that show a keen sense of atmosphere and detail. Work by Studio WM. can be characterized by a use of intuition and a sensitivity to material and aesthetics.

Wendy Legro’s graduation project Hot water bottle has been on show at Sotheby’s London, Salone del Mobile, Milan, Nike’s design conference in Beaverton, Orlando, Designersfair at IMCologne, Graduation Galleries 2009 at Dutch Design Week and has been picked up by Wallpaper* and Frame.

winterSALON/2012 at Droog Amsterdam

Winter salon 2012 at Droog AmsterdamSALON/ is an initiative that creates a crossover experience to inspire and instigate a discussion and dialogue between art, design and fashion. SALON/ initiates both an offline and an online platform to endorse artists and designers and to generate a reflection.

The events take place at various locations in Amsterdam, over a number of days whereby visitors can experience the creative works of both well-known and emerging artists/designers in different contexts, so creating a dynamic, interactive and social event.

Participants at Droog Amsterdam
Painted
Pieter Wackers
Erzsi Pennings
Michael Schoner
Robin de Vogel

Let everyone know you are coming here.

The UP conference | looking back

On Thursday,  November 3rd, Droog launched the new design movement ‘UP’ during an event that brought together industry and design, and revealed the line of UP products.

In his talk, Eric Petersen of the Van Gansewinkel claimed that waste does not exist. Most waste contains valuable (raw) material such as gold and silver, which Van Gansewinkel wants to extract from the waste they collect. Van Gansewinkel also supports its clients in thinking and acting differently with their waste, so that less waste is burned and more is re-used. Van Gansewinkel put Droog in touch with its clients to harvest dead stock for the UP product line.

Jean-Pierre Bienfait, CEO of Makro with Briefcase by Studio Droog Marc Rouffaer of Call for Action, one of the partners with which Droog collaborated, revealed the outcomes of a research on why and how companies might like to be involved with UP, or why they might not. It became clear that even though the concept is easy to grasp, explaining it to people with a different mind set on waste becomes more difficult in practice. However, if companies have a vision on sustainability and on waste management, and if they are driven by innovation, they are more likely to work with the UP movement.

Jan Bongert of 2012Architecten showed how this architecture office re-uses waste in all their designs. Inspiring case studies were shown of play gardens built from old electric windmill flaps and internal walls with plastic window frames.

Member of the Parliament, Stientje van Veldhoven of the Democratic Party underlined the need to look differently to waste. She valued the level of innovation in this project and the possible implications for society. She suggested introduce this way of designing and thinking about waste into the Parliament.

Jean-Pierre Bienfait, CEO of Makro, told about his collaboration with Droog. When Droog first came with the question if Makro had dead stock to use, he thought it was a joke. However, he quickly saw the potential of the collaboration and the importance of the collaboration with designers in repositioning of the brand.  Makro now could imagine that the UP products could be sold in their stores.

The UP collection was revealed by Kaisa Rakemaa (Mediq Finland) who started a used to be x-ray film now music record with the four seasons of Vivaldi on it.

The day was concluded with a discussion on amongst others IP issues. On IP-issues: How to deal with this, if one works with existing products (that were originally made by other designers). It was revealing to see the relaxedness of the different parties and brands involved. Things are changing and the way there was dealt with by e.g. Makro (“We called the original designers and they thought it was cool that others worked based on their designs”) gives room to innovation.

Read more about the project and see the products here.

the UP conference

Thank you to everyone who came out to the UP conference today to hear the presentations and to partake in the presentation of the UP product line. Look out for product photos to be uploaded here soon.

 

the UP conference

Join us at the UP conferenceOn November 3rd Droog will present UP, an investigative economic model that aims to increase the value of dead stock through design at the UP conference in Amsterdam. The first line of UP products will be unveiled. Read more details and register here.

 

In the press: design for download

Australia’s Vogue Living featured an interview with Droog’s Agata Jaworska about Design for download.

“Droog is interested in developing new models for the design, distribution and production of design. Downloadable design is a whole chain redesigned and we are interested in innovating on both levels – on a system level and a product level. We’re always looking at structural innovation of supply chains for design – innovation on the level of the system behind design, not just innovative product design. We are interested in what the interaction will be with the user. How is a product distributed? What parts are transported? What parts are digital?”
– Agata Jaworska, Droog

Read the rest here.

Vogue Living also interviewed designer Herman Verkerk of Eventarchitectuur. Read the article here.