Sign in with Google
Sign in with email
A dominant factor that differentiates design from art is the lack of constraints enlisted for the latter. While good design must satisfy prescribed specifications, solve pertinent issues, and snugly sit under styles and trends, art is shaped by obscure ideas, abstractions, a fair amount of daydreaming, and is often a response to personal, societal, and political issues that inundate one’s mind and life. Without the constraint of proving themselves useful, artworks blossom to encapsulate ideas and thoughts resting in the deepest caverns of our minds and souls. When Droog Design was first introduced to the public in 1993 by Dutch art historian, curator, and design critic, Renny Ramakers, and jewellery and industrial designer Gijs Bakker, the founders described it as a “mentality, not a style, and an approach to a creative process.” In straying away from colour, material, and elemental typifications, it summons the freedom associated with art.
30 years after Droog Design was first broached in the Dutch design scene and in Milan, Italy, an exhibition, titled Droog30, in La Triennale Milano, will celebrate three decades of the experimental initiative that has been practised by influential artists and designers such as Richard Hutten, Marcel Wanders studio, Hella Jongerius, Tejo Remy, Ed Annink, Jurgen Bey and Joris Laarman, as well as by upcoming creatives—in an attempt to break out of the box, to think and make differently. Scheduled to remain on display from April 18 to 23, 2023, the showcase, curated by design curator and author Maria Cristina Didero and Dutch designer Richard Hutten at the Italian gallery will illustrate the lasting influence of Droog as a movement and as a brand.
There are very few bullet points sitting under the head of Droog Design. Anything can fit within this bracket as long as it utilises contemporary ideas and thoughts in a manner that serves as a metaphor for the time and context it is created in. Another demarcator is the simplicity and crudeness with which the inceptive concept is utilised to create the final object, restating the meaning of Droog, which translates to ‘dry’ in English. In the past 30 years, Droog has established itself as a practice undertaken to express ideas, tell stories, through roughly-hewn objects that stand in stark contrast against refined products populating the market.
The exhibition, after a brief inning at La Triennale Milano, will travel to Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in May. The immersive showcase will present the brand’s evolution, its notable position in design history, and its contribution to catalysing disobedience against conventional design systems and practices over the years.
Droog gave origin to a movement—or rather, a way of thinking about design as an art form, as an instinctual act—by leveraging the idea of producing unconventional items using ordinary objects and scrapes salvaged from around us. Today, it has been adopted by the mainstream. Droog’s comeback, after its debut in Milan's Via Cerva three decades ago, reiterates its status as both a trendsetter and a game-changer. Droog Design is distinguished by a conceptual approach that deals with problems outside the realm of design. It addresses problems pertaining to politics, social issues, and sustainability in a straightforward manner, through a "non-design" lens.
In keeping with the essence of Droog, the exhibition will also include a social, experiential, and behavioural component. The showcase will bring to life Analog Twitter, a metaphor for all of social media and the indelible mark it leaves on our lives. While social media was not a part of our daily lives in the 1990s, one can surmise that Droog Design’s advanced vision would have enabled it to adopt the offerings of these platforms as part of the movement had it made its presence apparent three decades ago. The exhibitions at the two locations will reclaim the digital world with display areas that resemble virtual social media walls.
Instagram posts by Dutch designer Richard Hutten; (International Relations Chief Officer at Triennale Milano, Marco Sammicheli; and General and Artistic Director of Nieuwe Instituut, Aric Chen, welcomes everyone to leave their thoughts on Droog in the comments section: “For these exhibitions we need your stories, quote, anecdote, opinion or whatever you feel like, about Droog design. When did you see Droog first? What did you like/dislike? What is your favourite (unknown or known) Droog design? What is the influence of Droog? Is Droog still relevant today? Was it good that they included politics, sustainability, social issues etc. as one of the first ones in the realm of design? Do you like Droog’s irony? Which piece you think is the most fun, sustainable, political, whimsy, shocking, cute? Anything goes!” Visitors at the exhibition will be surrounded by 3D formats of the comments left behind on the post.
STIR enlists a few comments from the post that caught our attention.
"I think, Droog is a founding movement of contemporary Dutch design. Basically, all successful Dutch designers of middle-age generation were associated with Droog. Its conceptual humorous twist was then seen in the work of many other Dutch designers, who had a very strong presence in the global design discourse in the last 20 years. I remember going to my first Salone del Mobile in 2007. There was a lot of talking about Droog at that time and it was already 14 years after its born. It demonstrates that the influence of Droog was tremendous and very strong, probably even more than the influence of Memphis a decade ago. I remember that Zona Tortona was a kind of 'Dutch Village' with many Dutch presentations using the humorous narrative of Droog. I think that all these designers would not be there if Droog did not exist," shared Adam Štěch of Okolo Studio.
"The seriousness and humour in Droog were what got me into design," commented furniture designer Seth Keller.
"Good design is a set of truths told ‘silently’," shares Amit Gupta, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, STIR.
"Since I was an architecture student at Politecnico of Milan, Salone del Mobile has always been the highlight of the year. I remember so strongly when Milano was invaded by the dutch creative wave called DROOG! Their freedom of approach and results was so refreshing compared with all the rest, and the main peculiarity was represented by the name itself meaning DRY: everything was dry to the bone, essential, stripped of any ornament! It was the avant-garde of a broader dutch creative phenomenon that from the Academy of Eindhoven would have later spread all over the world. But it all started from DROOG, that's a fact!" Italian architect Fabio Novembre commented.
"Graduating from the Design Academy Eindhoven under Droog in 2004, with Gijs Bakker as head and Jurgen Bey as a mentor. They taught me everything, most essentially the notion of conceptual art in design. The emphasis on the idea before form, without neglecting the latter. Transdisciplinary from the start I presume Droog’s values continue to be relevant for nowadays’ contemporary context. Grazie mille, Droog," Tina Roeder, a Berlin-based transdisciplinary designer shared.
"What fascinated me in Droog and Dutch culture, in general, is the ability to stand together behind certain values and if you want visual identities, the togetherness in doing good things and the desire to bring individual excellence in a collective manner! Recently I see a lot of foreign designers who make their names in Holland but not that many collectives, such as Brut in Belgium who once cited this Dutch spirit as an example," shared another user.
Droog30 will remain on display at La Triennale Milano from April 18 to 23, 2023, and in Nieuwe Instituut in May 2023.
STIR’s coverage of Milan Design Week 2023 showcases the best exhibitions, studios, designers, installations, brands, and special projects to look out for. Explore Euroluce 2023 and all the design districts—5Vie Art and Design, Brera Design District, Fuorisalone, Isola Design District, Tortona District, and Milano Design District—with us.
What do you think?