The Power of Making exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, featuring amongst others the Godogan table, attracted 320.703 visitors over 117 days, making it the most popular free exhibition at the V&A since 1950.

SALON/ is an initiative that creates a crossover experience to inspire and instigate a discussion and dialogue between art, design and fashion. SALON/ initiates both an offline and an online platform to endorse artists and designers and to generate a reflection.

The events take place at various locations in Amsterdam, over a number of days whereby visitors can experience the creative works of both well-known and emerging artists/designers in different contexts, so creating a dynamic, interactive and social event.

Participants at Droog Amsterdam
Painted
Pieter Wackers
Erzsi Pennings
Michael Schoner
Robin de Vogel

Let everyone know you are coming here.

On Thursday,  November 3rd, Droog launched the new design movement ‘UP’ during an event that brought together industry and design, and revealed the line of UP products.

In his talk, Eric Petersen of the Van Gansewinkel claimed that waste does not exist. Most waste contains valuable (raw) material such as gold and silver, which Van Gansewinkel wants to extract from the waste they collect. Van Gansewinkel also supports its clients in thinking and acting differently with their waste, so that less waste is burned and more is re-used. Van Gansewinkel put Droog in touch with its clients to harvest dead stock for the UP product line.

Jean-Pierre Bienfait, CEO of Makro, with Briefcase by Studio Droog

Marc Rouffaer of Call for Action, one of the partners with which Droog collaborated, revealed the outcomes of a research on why and how companies might like to be involved with UP, or why they might not. It became clear that even though the concept is easy to grasp, explaining it to people with a different mind set on waste becomes more difficult in practice. However, if companies have a vision on sustainability and on waste management, and if they are driven by innovation, they are more likely to work with the UP movement.

Jan Bongert of 2012Architecten showed how this architecture office re-uses waste in all their designs. Inspiring case studies were shown of play gardens built from old electric windmill flaps and internal walls with plastic window frames.

Member of the Parliament, Stientje van Veldhoven of the Democratic Party underlined the need to look differently to waste. She valued the level of innovation in this project and the possible implications for society. She suggested introduce this way of designing and thinking about waste into the Parliament.

Jean-Pierre Bienfait, CEO of Makro, told about his collaboration with Droog. When Droog first came with the question if Makro had dead stock to use, he thought it was a joke. However, he quickly saw the potential of the collaboration and the importance of the collaboration with designers in repositioning of the brand.  Makro now could imagine that the UP products could be sold in their stores.

The UP collection was revealed by Kaisa Rakemaa (Mediq Finland) who started a used to be x-ray film now music record with the four seasons of Vivaldi on it.

The day was concluded with a discussion on amongst others IP issues. On IP-issues: How to deal with this, if one works with existing products (that were originally made by other designers). It was revealing to see the relaxedness of the different parties and brands involved. Things are changing and the way there was dealt with by e.g. Makro (“We called the original designers and they thought it was cool that others worked based on their designs”) gives room to innovation.

Read more about the project and see the products here.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the UP conference today to hear the presentations and to partake in the presentation of the UP product line. Look out for product photos to be uploaded here soon.

Join us at the UP conferenceOn November 3rd Droog will present UP, an investigative economic model that aims to increase the value of dead stock through design at the UP conference in Amsterdam. The first line of UP products will be unveiled. Read more details and register here.

Last night we held a very lively panel discussion and opening of the Fantastical Investments exhibition at Droog Amsterdam. The exhibition is on view at Droog Amsterdam until October 2nd, 2011. Stay tuned for more photos and video clips of the discussion.

by Renny Ramakers

This Thursday, September 22nd we will present the outcome of the Droog Lab project that investigated the habits of Russian consumers at Droog in Amsterdam. A presentation will follow in Moscow in 2012 in partnership with Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design. As in all our Droog Lab projects, the outcome will be accompanied with a debate.

Our Lab projects start with my intuitive observations. In New York I was struck by the service economy, and in Russia, I was struck with consumer behaviour.

We all know that that Russia has a rich tradition in literature. In 1987, when I took a train to the countryside outside of Moscow, farmers were sitting around me with buckets of potatoes that they were taking to sell on the city markets. They were totally absorbed by Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. In supermarkets and kiosks, classics and popular fiction books sit next to each other, as convenient items to be consumed on the go. I wondered how this addiction to reading could be reconciled with their lavish consumption—their love of diamonds and gold. Is there something to be learned from this paradoxical culture?

This was the brief to the team led by Daniel van der Velden (Metahaven). During their research in Moscow they discovered that these seemingly conflicting ways of consuming can be reduced to passion—to their love for fiction and fantasy as forms of escapism. This need for escapism emerged from a context of institutional mistrust. Since money is said to be dust, something not worth saving, it is better to spend it on more reliable things. We then realized spending on fiction and durable goods should be seen as an investment. A classic example is golden teeth, and another striking example we heard about was about a guy who bought two Porsches—one to drive in, the other one for spare parts.

The thought that acquiring durable goods can be a survival strategy made me think about our notion of the aesthetics of sustainability. If goods are durable why do they have to look so austere? We seem to think that there is a connection between “saving the environment” and an aesthetic that is bare and grey. We seem to think that sustainability is austerity, it is moderation, it is consuming less. If products are designed as an investment for one’s lifetime, there is no need to our pre-conceived notions of sustainable aesthetics. One of the outcomes of our project is a carpet with a pattern that changes as you get older and your taste and needs change. You buy it once in your lifetime. Another design shows screws that are made of 24-carat gold. Hidden in your furniture, they provide security if times get worse.

On September 22nd these principles will be presented with an imaginary brand, Fantastical Investments. The brand connects notions of survival and escapism with fiction and fantasy. Fiction is survival, story is shelter and celebration is memory.

In conversation with our team, Olga Kuzina, a Russian sociologist and economist pointed out that “in the world of rising uncertainty and institutional instability Russia may be considered as a looking glass that for the last 20 years has been offering the Western countries the reflection of the coming future.” In Russia the post-institutional era has begun, whereas we are just starting to mistrust the institutions. I would add that Russia also leads the way to a different vision on the aesthetics of sustainability, the creation of products that last a lifetime, products that will not be thrown away after a few years, products that can be seen as an investment in our insecure times.

Fantastical Investments—the outcome of Droog Lab’s study of consumption habits in Russia—is an imaginary luxury brand. By Droog with Metahaven, Fantastical Investments will be presented on Thursday, September 22nd with a panel discussion and exhibition at Droog Amsterdam. Unveiling a collection of nine products, the brand will act as a vehicle for discussion on the co-existence of fiction and survival in a new vision on luxury.

“Russians have a deeply engrained reading culture; one can find literary classics in any supermarket. At the same time, they are known for their lavish spending on luxury goods. Our intention was to understand the relationship between these apparent contradictions in developing a new model of consumption inspired by Russia,” says Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog, and initiator of the project. As part of the Strelka 2010 summer program, the Droog Lab design team led by Daniel van der Velden discovered that many consumption patterns in Russia emerged from a context of institutional mistrust. “Western countries have often been perceived as an example of the future towards which Russia is moving to. However, in the world of rising uncertainty and institutional instability Russia may be considered as a looking glass that for the last 20 years has been offering the Western countries the reflection of this coming future,” stated sociologist and economist Olga Kuzina in conversation with the team.

The team observed that acquiring durable goods can be a survival strategy, akin to hoarding or investing in gold, and that consuming fiction and feeding the imagination is equally critical to one’s capacity to thrive. These principles formulated the Fantastical Investments luxury brand proposition, inspired by Russia but aiming for more universal impact.

“Fantastical Investments brings together imagination, luxury and survival, anticipating a gradual dissipation of the 20th century institutional backup for civil life,” says Daniel van der Velden. The brand “thrives on some of the darkest sentiments currently around in Western culture, but gives them a positive turn.”

Download the full release here.

A surplus of ephemerals like earth and pigments stashed for years of intensive use.

More.

The exhibition installation for Fantastical Investments by Droog with Metahaven is starting today. Here are a couple photos from this morning.

Fi opens Thurs., Sept. 22nd with a panel discussion at 4:00 pm followed by the exhibition opening at 6:00 pm at Droog Amsterdam. RSVP for the panel to info@droog.com