Simplicity is a virtue and often results in beautiful, uncomplicated products that are often affordable to boot. Simplicity was a necessity, however, when I was developing the presentation for the Design Academy and, later on, the permanent furnishings for the Glass Museum in Leerdam. Those simple constructions with multiplex strips and plates opened up a whole new world of possibilities. You can construct pretty much anything with them and, since the details themselves are so simple, it’s possible to bring together an incredible amount of details, making it complicated all the same, very complicated. It was so complicated that Joost, one of our hardest workers, didn’t even attempt to fathom the entirety beforehand, but simply started making the pieces, like putting together a puzzle.
I had required a real taste for simple, yet highly complicated constructions. When asked to design a tile cabinet, I came up with a frame into which you could slide drawers from every side. Like years ago, Jeanine was responsible for designing and making the tiles. The client’s timing couldn’t have been better – it was the perfect opportunity to start working together again. After years of children, diapers, runny noses, chauffeuring, homework and reading stories, we both had the time and desire to get cracking in the studio together once again. The frames are almost finished and the tiles will be coming out of the new moulds shortly.
The best part is that we were making these pieces, each of which was unique, when virtually no one was interested in making unique pieces. Afterwards, a kind of “expensive unique piece competition” developed, which recently came to an abrupt end due to the financial crisis. So now may not exactly be the best time to come out with “glamorous pieces”, reason enough for us to pick up where we left off and create a kind of “state of our art”. The result is the same as before, but years ahead in every respect.
This post is also available in: NL
« Back to blog