Going Dutch On Design
Reflections on the Dutch Design Week on October 27th and 28th, 2016
by: Elena Luchita
Upon arriving in Eindhoven (NL), you immediately understand why the city is the perfect host to nine days of exhibitions, conferences and workshops dedicated to Dutch Design. Bursting with innovative tech companies and modern architecture, it’s home to the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Dutch Design Academy which has produced many prominent designers. One of these designers, Maarten Baas is ambassador of the 15th edition of the Dutch Design Week which focused on ‘The making of’ — makers and the process of making.
DRIVE festival
On Thursday, our team attended the Design Research & Innovation Festival (DRIVE, #drivefest), organized by CLICKNL. The second day of this festival explored the role of design in the Circular Economy and the research program Research Through Design. One session featured Hein Daanen (Professor at VU Amsterdam), explaining his research project Smart Clothing for Thermal Control of the Human Body. By integrating cooling and heating elements into clothing, Daanen’s research shows the future of smart apparel. Very similar to the The Crated’s Kelvin Jacket. At TIS.tv, we too have explored the idea of technology merging with fashion, also known as FashTech, in September. Below a video summary on what great projects we’ve come across.
During the Circular Economy sessions, speakers zoomed in on the subject of managing obsolescence. This concept suggests that product designers should plan ahead for several product life cycles, instead of just one. Take for example phones, in the design process people have to think about designing a phone that can be checked and cleaned after its first life cycle, refurbished after its second life cycle and can be recycled easily after the product has become obsolete.
Connected Bike
After a morning of research pitches and discussing circular design as a business model, it was time to move on to Valtech’s Connected Bike event. The session kicked off with a talk on how technology can help cyclists in the future. Some of these great examples can also be found on our website: the Hövding airbag for cyclists, the LINKA smart bike lock and the GeOrbital wheel that turns your regular bike into an e-bike in 60 seconds). Soon after this, we were asked to team up with other attendees and this is where the event takes an interesting turn.
Each group was asked to come up with the next great idea in an area of cycling: Health, Leisure, Sports or Commute. Some two hours and a nice pressure cooker session later all groups had to pitch their ideas. TIS.tv was even part of the winning team, presenting a concept for speed sensors in the bike that alerted the cyclist on upcoming cars and other fast moving road users. Looking at all the pitches and session in general, it’s clear that there will be some interesting developments for bikes in the coming years: internet of things, augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and wearables. We’re looking forward to it!
DDW Goes Digital
Whereas Thursday focused on the near future of design, Friday was all about ‘what’s happening right now?!’ The setting was perfect. The old Philips factory building dubbed Klokgebouw, accommodated several DDW exhibitions on furniture and mobility, and amidst the chaos of visitors, Dutch Digital Agencies hosted DDW Goes Digital event — Where Digital Meets the Real World.
Speakers on stage guided us through the latest developments in digital design, showcasing the possibilities of automation, virtual reality and the importance of digital branding. More than one was quick to point out the pros and cons of incorporating technology in the design process. Among them, Frank Kolkman (designer) mentioned several popular culture examples that deal with automation, e.g. the well-known line by HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey: “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” which illustrates a machine (agent) refusing to comply to a direct order.
Throughout the day we were introduced to some great concepts that showed how digital can help brands and people. Three examples:
- The Tate museum way-finding app designed by Fabrique, which uses location beacons and individual preferences to advise visitors where to go next;
- This Page Amsterdam used VR to tell the horrific story of a former refugee on his way to Europe (watch the video Run Like a Refugee);
- DigitasLBi U.S. illustrated how their VR app component Loop helped to make the OnePlus3 launch campaign a huge success.
The most important takeout from this event, and the one thing all speakers agreed on, was:
“Designers, don’t forget that you’re always trying to solve a specific human problem! And people don’t like to give control out of their hands, so give them a sense of control by incorporating an off-switch.”
Read our full social media report on Dutch Design Week on Storify!
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