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WHAT IS DUTCH DESIGN
Dutch Design is internationally recognised, but what does it mean? Is every design made in the Netherlands really Dutch design?
It identifies design from the Netherlands, and specifically product design. The term refers to the design aesthetic common to designers in the Netherlands. Dutch design can be characterized as minimalist, experimental, innovative and humorous. Using humour in creativity, would this not be the art of a certain intellect?
In the 1980s, the Netherlands were primarily known for their graphic design, only later in the 1990s the term Dutch Design became popular. The term was closely identified with a group of Dutch product designers and design firms and collectives who gained international recognition. The term could be extended to fashion designers such as Viktor & Rolf and architects such as Rem Koolhaas and Francine Houben.
The internationally recognized Dutch design scene has been supported by a strong educational system for designers and backed by the Dutch government, who created in 1988 the Fund BKVB (the Fund for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture) to stimulate students to entrepreneurship. At designers ‘schools, design has become an integral part of product development, where they were included in the earliest phases of innovative processes and the production development. The Design Academy Eindhoven has produced many well-known designers. But also other schools, as the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam or the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, are international rewarded schools. The New York Times called it “without question, currently the best design academy in the world.”
All this has contributed to the success of Dutch designers to be so unique and well recognisable. For those who would like to learn more, every year the Dutch Design Awards has his new laureates during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.
Images ©Hester Vonk Noordegraaf.
Text ©World Luxury Jewellers.