dutch design week 2011

Last weekend my eldest son (13) and I went to the annual Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. We took it easy, stayed in a hotel, got up early in order not to miss anything. We could have stayed for a week: we only saw half or even less of this lovely big event, I guess.

Most of the times I was so absorbed by what I saw, that I forgot to take photo's. And seeing the photo's I did take, it looks like I only saw lampshades!

Tallow candles by my friends from Ontwerpduo, who have this wonderful feeling for colours.

Rick Tegelaar's chicken wire and paper maché lamp shades. 

Beautiful blues and greens at Piet Hein Eek

Butterfly Lamps, the latest work by Paula Arntzen, one of my favorite (paper) designers.

Some nice neon paper lamp shades designed by Buro JET

 

pinned

I was warned by Monique from Vlinspiratie: "Jurianne, if you ever start working with Pinterest, watch out: it is highly addictive!"
Well, I did a very cautious step some time ago, (got myself an account basically) but last night I took a deeper dive in this digital image paradise. And I have to say - after one night - that I am 'hooked', or actually 'pinned'. What a great medium!

I don't understand all the ins-outs-do's-don'ts yet, but I got the message: It is about SHARING and about beauty, forms, ideas, materials, art, design, crafts...so it actually is about everything that I love!
Here's My Pinterest, hope to meet you there to share! The four lovely photo's above are my very first 'repins'.

the making of Pilloon

I actually felt rather flattered when Art School illustration student Nina van de Vondervoort contacted me. She was looking for an 'external internship'. She wanted to use her talent and skills in a new way, and she needed guidance through the route of product design. It was a path of 8 weeks and every week Nina sent me her work via e-mail and one day later we sat on the phone for an hour. I commented, guided, asked, shared and gave her instructions for the next step to take.

Nina prooved to be a remarkable student! Not only she had a huge production, she also switched from one step (fase) to the other in a very flexible way and...she really understood the steps to be taken to get the best artistic and commercial result. And - very important - she stayed true to herself!

First of all I told her that my intention was for her to end up with a REAL product, not only a prototype. We chose for a cushion cover.

To 'capture and frame' her own style and handwriting for this product she had to start with a Nina-moodboard, a personal style-source to accompagny her alongside the route. A hell of a job,  you have to get rid of all the images that are not relevant, then again: less is more!

When her moodboard was ready Nina sketched for weeks, mostly without colour, just as many 'scribbles' as possible. In this fase she saw that the sketches of the balloons were worth a next step. So she took a plonge into the balloons, decided the colours for the final pallette and designed both front and back of three cushion covers.

Then the series needed a name and needed to be produced. 

Within a few weeks Nina got her 'Pilloons' live at home, ready to be photographed... 

And now the wonderful and allways surprising online store Envelop is selling Pilloon! Envelop makes lovely artist's designs into high quality cushion covers (got a few myself). Thank you Serge from Envelop for giving talented Nina this opportunity! 

And please readers: do blog, publish and tweet about Nina, she's worth it!

is there life after the blue box...

Dear readers! It took me a while...no post last week because I was in the hospital, emergency surgery, got my appendix out! I am recovering. Not easy for me: piles of work, millions of plans and ideas, and even more promisses and deadlines....

 
Some of you might know that I worked as a stylist for IKEA Amsterdam years ago. A strange world, creative in a certain way, with the loveliest co-workers you could wish for, but locked up in a large blue box every single day.
And there I met Ellen, she actually was my 'boss', and we became friends. We kind of didn't fit into the IKEA mold and we felt extremely unhappy in our XXXL unisex stylingteam IKEA uniforms, on a daily basis children used to point us out: 'Mummy look, there goes Bob the Builder!'
You can imagine Ellen and I asked ourselves: is there life after the blue box?

Well, there is! She came a long way: but here is Ellen van der Wiel!

She has built up a beautiful little company in felted home accessories, which she all designs and makes herself, partly by hand, partly with her huge new felting machine.

The icing on the cake for her: her plaids and cushion covers where used in the huge VT-Wonen-magazine stand on the Dutch Interior Fair called Woonbeurs (see photo's above), that was held last week. And her work is on the cover of this months issue of VT-Wonen.

Ellen, I am so happy for you, you go girl!