4 Influences of Contemporary Dutch Design

For the past few weeks, I’ve been writing a the Design Crack series on contemporary Dutch and  British Design. I’ve sort of haphazardly touched on several young designers that fall in this genre, but I have not really provided any base with which to appreciate their designs. But, rather than write a long post on the history of Dutch Design, I thought I would leave you with 4 influences of contemporary Dutch design and leave some links for you to explore.

De Stijl

Like most other western countries during the early 19th century, the Netherlands was going through a great revolution in art that geared towards a more mechanized world. Their particular brand of abstraction can best be characterized by the work of Piet Mondrian and Gerrit Rietveld in a movement known as the De Stijl. Even 100 years after the begining of this movement, their influences can still be felt today.

Philips

Philips is one of the world’s largest consumer electronics companies. It has been innovative in so many fields that it would be hard to make a short list, however the most obvious innovations came in CD technology of the 1980s. Philips is a pretty amazing company because it has not only innovated in fields of chemistry and physics, but also in the field of design. They are the true innovators of what I would call integral design where you bring a number of disciplines together to solve a problem. Their open eyed approach and their huge scale has lead to the creation of this unending stream of talented designers. I urge you to take a look at the link I’ve provided. You will certainly discover a new side to this company.

OMA

OMA is an architecture and design research firm based in Rotterdam and founded by Rem Koolhaas. The firm, and Mr. Koolhaas’ work, has always pushed the boundaries of what architecture is about. Before Koolhaas, buildings were more or less simply style skins slipped over whatever function a user needed. But since OMAs practice started, architecture, particularly in the Netherlands, has realized architecture can derive its form purely from a deep seeded psychological need. In other words, OMA really studies what a client needs and does before a form can be derived rather than a client telling them what they want like " I need a door there" or " I need a window here". To be more specific, OMA will completely track and understand the psychology of a client as a means to derive the architectural form. OMAs bold design style has lead to influence the schools in the Netherlands and the U.K. into a much more personal look at how to solve design problems.

Droog

Droog is sort of a design amalgamation. It’s a products company, a collective, an art center, and a state of mind. Nearly every top designer from the Netherlands has been commissioned to work for Droog. Because of its amorphous quality Droog is hard to characterize, but if I were to some up their style in one word it would be "clever". The wit of their projects is sharp and pun laden. And I think it’s this infectious, humorous, cleverness that attracts so much talent to Droog.

I hope this extremely quick touch on the influences of Dutch Design was useful!