Droog Design: Spirit of the Nineties

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Renny Ramakers Editor

nai010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1998, English

Nonfiction, Product/Industrial Design

ISBN: 9789064503016

From the Publisher. Since international showings in Milan and Cologne the interior products of Droog Design have become a household word across the globe, earning Dutch product design a position on the cutting edge of international design practice. Droog Design products uphold the Dutch tradition of clarity and simplicity, yet tie in amazingly well with the general call for greater restraint (the ecological aspect), radically breaking at the same time with the established tenets of product design and material application. This opulently illustrated volume opens with an introduction by Paola Antonelli, Associate Curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, after which art historian Yvonne Brentjens outlines the history of Droog Design, which was established five years ago by the art historian Renny Ramakers and the designer Gijs Bakker. Ramakers then devotes an extensive essay to probing the design mentality of the nineties. Design, she explains, has become a style, has become form without meaning and has fallen into the pincerlike clutches of the market. The book closes with a comprehensive overview of the complete Droog Design collection to date, including Hugo Timmermans’s orangebox cupboard, Hella Jongerius’s soft vase, Tejo Remy’s milk bottle lamp, Marcel Wanders’s knotted chair, and Dick van Hoff’s felt washbowl. These are stand-out products one and all, rooted in a restrained design without frills but simply brimming over with ideas. (Out of print)

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