Another year, another Dutch Design Week. Like every year a great mix between design and science. With a limited amount of time this year’s visite only included the graduate show at De Witte Dame, the Schellensfabriek and Strijp S.

Strijp S

This beautiful post-industrial location has increasingly become the domain of business-to-business presentations. A very important part of the DDW, but not at the top of our list. I was really surprised to finally run into one of Zimoun‘s installations. A happy surprise, even though the cacaphony of the DDW is not the best background for Zimoun’s audio installation art.

Here’s an earlier post about Zimoun’s work.

De Witte Dame

For this year’s Dutch Design Week I brought a longer lens to the graduate exhibition at De Witte Dame. I always find it hard to capture the event because there’s just too many people and too much visual noise in the background. So this year I’d aim for the graduates.

I’ve always liked how the young designers look confident and vulnerable at the same time. Proud of their projects, but insecure under the eyes of a crowd of non-designers. Their self awareness makes them stand out in the room, endearingly beautiful.

But I’m not much of a portrait photographer. Ideally my pictures are devoid of human presence. And I found out quickly that 100-300mm is a little too long for the size of the room, forcing me to stay two stands away from my subjects.

: Éléonore Delisse told me about her wonderful Circadian clock.

Schellensfabriek

This is the domain of collaborations between the creative industry and commercial partners. More than Strijp S this exhibition succeeds in addressing non-business visitors. The building itself is of lesser stature than the Klokgebouw but is nonetheless a great podium for the work on display.