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November 15, 2018
Liesbeth Oltmans
Dutch Design Week 2018

DDW 2018 highlights

The Dutch Design Week, held in Eindhoven from the 20th until the 27th of October 2018, can be seen as the lab of the future showcasing vision in conceptual and technological innovation as well as in the renewal of crafts and systems. The theme 'If not us, then who?' was a tribute to designers. They think up solutions, create innovations, are pioneers, make things tangible and functional. It is up to us all to embrace and stimulate these creative solutions. Together we decide what the world will look like in the future. There were too many highlights to cover, here are five of our favourites.

The Irregular Léa Mazy/ The production of fatigue

Society is obsessed with productivity and effectivity. As a result, fatigue is viewed as a weakness. But Léa Mazy celebrates it as a strength. She believes that instead of fighting fatigue, we should recognise its creative potential in challenging the ideals and standards of mass production. Léa explored how fatigue enriches the surface of printed tiles with a variety of nuances. Each tile is the unique recording of its production rhythm, resulting in a beautiful and versatile collection of blues.

3D printed pulp Beer Holthuis/ Paper pulp printer

Beer Holthuis was surprised to discover that there are no real sustainable filaments for 3D printers on the market. He decided to use the mountain of paper we waste: 80 kg per person per year. The pulp in Beer’s printer needs little natural binder, which makes the products endlessly recyclable. The printed objects exploit the possibilities and beauty of the technique. Tactility, bold lines and print speed result in distinctive shapes. Don Kwaning/ Medulla

Don Kwaning explored the posibilities of the rush plant for use in a wide range of materials, from paper to textiles, foam, cardboard, rope and even furniture. The soft rush is primarily known from the woven Japanese tatami mats, wherein the whole plant is processed. But separating the inner core, or pith, from the outer stalk creates a wealth of possible new applications. With its lightweight, shock-resistant and insulating properties it is suitable as ecological packaging material. It can also be compressed into a foam block without the need for extra bonding additives. Compressing it further creates a lightweight sheet material strong enough to make into furniture. The natural tonal colours were beautiful & subtle.

Plastic haptic Elissa Assaf/ Hues of saturation Erika Emerén/ Ornament now

Elissa Assaf (left) was struck by the images of the trash crisis in Lebanon, and fascinated by their form language. To challenge their ephemeral nature, she translated them into ceramic pieces. By digitally morphing the images from 2D to 3D, and milling these into plaster molds, she transforms these digital landscapes into a material archive. The glazed columns become symbols of a serious waste problem by manifesting decay as a disruptive form of art.

Erika Emerén wants to update traditions and defies the sober conventions dictated by her Swedish homeland’s cultural institutions. Why not approach high-end design as a delicious treat? In ‘Ornament Now’ the crafty decoration technique is the starting point for a new ‘form language’ in ceramics, a new mindset to Swedish heritage: more is more.

Layering colour Raw Color/ Props & prints Raw Color developed a set of objects that represent each a different aspect of colour, such as density, proportion, shade, translucency and blending. The object allows to change its appearance by different interactions like stacking, turning, nesting and composing. Each prop was accompanied by a pigment print, a 2D version of the 3D objects.

Banner image project by Lukas Saint Joigny.