Dutch Design Week 2017
This summer, I attended the Digital Nomad’s Conference in Berlin. Since then, I have been on the outlook for smart cyclical business concepts that are attractive for millennials in an era of “now work”. As a child of the 1980s, I’ve witnessed traditional business concept myself, i.e. starting a business at a fixed location, then opening branches, and working 9 to 5 or rather 7 to 8 if you are honest. My grandfather and grandmother started a painting and scaffolding business that developed into a larger company. Future generations joined the company to continue their work. My parents started a law firm in a living room, then moved to an office space in a working class neighborhood, and later expanded into the business area of a repurposed harbor. My brother joined their firm a decade ago. The torch has been passed on in each family system to future generations yet the stronghold castle and headquarter never moved.
In contrast to sedentary businesses, conferences and exhibits are cyclical businesses. Conferences and exhibits like the documenta in Kassel, Design Forward in San Diego, and the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven — build up over a certain time frame to then blossom, shine and show, and then quickly perish again. With this blog article, I try to capture the DDW’s moment of shining with a quick snapshot while also adding it as puzzle piece to a larger story. In San Diego, I observed firsthand how the recently founded UCSD Design Lab defined its mission to boost the local design practice. The first ever design conference in San Diego, “Design Forward>>San Diego” was part of that strategy. The Lab shouldered the monstrous task of conceptualizing, planning and executing this get-together for October 2016 from scratch to finish. The largest traditional events I had ever seen up close before had been repeat conferences and weddings. I realized that designing the entire experience of an unconference — which is what the design-led Lab was going for — took more effort than working with a template of an event. It seemed unfathomable to me. For a wedding, on the other hand, the checklist is more or less clear: you know you have to secure the location, invites, cake, dress or tux, band and photographer. For a unconference, however, in a city that has never had a design conference before, you have to start 3 miles at snail pace before that. What a great wicked problem!
The Dutch Design Week, first started in 2002 with 20 participants in Eindhoven. This past week, it happened from October 21 to 29, 2017 at over 80 locations again in a city with 220,000 inhabitants that welcomed 335,000 visitors on its ground (some of which were both, I hope). Since my arrival in Amsterdam, I have perked up for everything that says “Dutch”, “Design”, and “Mayonnaise with”, so I signed up. It was also a great opportunity to get out of my new comfort zone in Amsterdam.
Last week, I arrived for one day of the Drive Festival that featured several talks on Design Research & Innovation at the Natlab near the Strijp S location. The grand buildings of this former industrial area made for an interesting, familiar feel when I arrived. I was immediately reminded of my first neighboorhood in my hometown Bremen.
Bremen’s Überseestadt resulted from a reinvention of Gröpelingen’s once roaring shipyard AG Weser. The shipyard died in the 1983 and the community had to reinvent itself. Gröpelingen was a multicultural, since it had attracted hard working laborers (think Almanya, the film). It had great architecture, and public transport, i.e. 2 tram lines, to the inner city. Fortunately, cultural initiatives like Kultur vor Ort and various other initiatives and businesses created a vision so that Gröpelingen developed as well as it did. This month, they are celebrating their 11th storytelling festival “Feuerspuren” — a participatory, grassroots event that connects citizens and immigrants to fire up community-building. Stories connect.
Back to the Netherlands, where the Drive Festival was on the smaller side (200 people max, I think) with well curated and inspiring talks. It attracted participants from various Dutch cities, because what is a 1-hour train ride in the most densely populated country of the European Union? Both academics and business professional mingled in a true interdisciplinary manner.
I picked the circular design track following my gut instinct for trend and innovation. Tim Brown of IDEO’s together with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation had coined the circular design method. It aims at exploring new ways to create sustainable, resilient, long-lasting value in the circular economy.
With the example of a pair of jeans, I learned that 30% of pairs of jeans are thrown away after production and 30% of pairs are disposed after only one season — a great example from a short-sighted trash culture and great argument for high-end manufactum products (think: erasers your great grandchild still can use).
Next up, Clear Vision Cooling — plastic doors for supermarket refrigeration. It is now mandatory in the Netherlands to section cooling shelves off to save energy costs since about 56% of a supermarket’s expenses go towards cooling. The presenter said: “I am a salesman, but if the product is not ready, don’t go out and sell.” I obviously noted that down real quick. They set up a 21st century robotic manufacturing plant in the Netherlands and aim to supply 25% of all European supermarkets by 2025. I was wondering if they are solving “the real problem”, a crucial prerequisite in design thinking, and if so of whom (the business or the customers).
Myfutures by Froukje Sleeswijk Visser hit home with me. A TU Delft group applied design research to study how individuals can face the need to arrange long term end of life topics better and how to discuss these with others. Their whole collaborative story is made accessible in a booklet form and the pictures in that book alone tell the magic power of co-creative design sessions.
A female design duo entered the stage after lunch and presented their joint exploration of testing the limits of material properties.
It started with Roos experimenting with 3D printed inflatable containers that were exposed to heat, for instance. Beauty and function combined!
The example of a first 3D model of the milk ducts in a breasts marked the highlight for me. Inspiration from nature, a non-dominant angle, and then add a dose of beautiful aesthetics to a taboo(ish) topic. Here is more from of Studio Roos Meerman with her Dynamorphosis project Lactility.
If you elevate design to be a science, and not just applied practice, it is paramount to provide clear terminology. This is exactly what the next talk on design research provided for me: the online lexicon of design research published by the Design Academy of Eindhoven.
Now while the formal learning at cyclical events such as workshops, conferences and other creative gatherings help with information upload, it is just as valuable for me to grow my network and see things through other eyes. With Pixel Story Studio, I defined the framework for my creative human-centered engagement with other purposeful systems. I focus on data and narratives with an experimental approach in my day to day.
While the workshops breaked, I sampled the audience and got to do my favorite thing: ask questions and create experiences. Each encounter then became a data point (think: pixel) without distinction between gems and regular stones — all unique in their own way.
I left Eindhoven strolling through Strijp S again, meandered in the Klokgebouw, and other outside exhibits as I fused with the installations leaving both satiated and hungry for more.
The Dutch Design Week infected me with pang of makeritis. I finally built a custom piece of furniture the day after my visit. Out of the window with the excuses (no car, no tools, no experience), and laser focused on action steps, solutions and the goal line.
Because doing good for yourself creates a momentum, a wonderful feeling of effectiveness and interest, it was time for the family to explore the Dutch Design Week on a second shift on Saturday. Exploring how to raise entrepreneurs, future makers and designers is just another topic of my quest. Curious? Look out for design parenting workshops in my website’s event section or marvel at what Amsterdam already has to offer — Designathon 2017, for instance.
A picture summary
