a multidisciplinary design studio
Creative lead: King’s Day. Marijn served as creative lead of King’s Day in 2021 helping create a visual narrative for the hour and a half long televised visit of the Dutch royal family to the city of Eindhoven. At location at the High Tech Campus a hybrid physical and digital programme was realised to create a number of interactions both with guests on site as well as online. The goal was to blend the story of the city with the nation wide celebrations.
What do you do if you have 5 minutes to leave a memorable impression on a world leader or a CEO of a multinational? Two months ago we were asked to design the concept for a meeting between two prime ministers- Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany and Mark Rutten, the Dutch Prime Minister. So how? You do so as with any other message- make it stick.
People remember 3 to 4 sentences and an emotion as soon as they leave the room after a presentation.
So that’s half an hour to an hour’s talk with god knows how many slides with text and graphs boiled down to 3 facts and a sentiment. Luckily the region in this case prides itself on 3 pillars- technological innovation- manufacturing and design, these were my 3 themes. The emotion I used was speed. What the industries have in common is that they are ongoing processes- they cannot afford to sit back. To illustrate this the facts about the unilateral ties between the two nations that had to be presented were placed on chalkboards. Current today, ready to improved or updated the next moment.
To let the content get the attention the boards were made out of transparent, polished, plastics. Along a walkway iconic products and innovations were displayed and finally in the plenary meeting rooms design objects were featured to complement the interiors. We even created a side table for the occasion with integrated wireless charging besides two private meeting chairs.
The point of all this?
Which brings me to the following urban legend. At the meeting, at the end of the red carpet before the customary ‘family photo’ was a bright orange Mini Cooper Works. Here’s the story on how it got there.
A multi million dollar deal sealed by a penning it down on a single sheet of paper.
The story goes that when BMW was considering moving production of Mini to the factories of VDL in Born, the Netherlands they asked them to present their bid. VDL’s CEO, Wim van der Leegte showed up and took out a sheet of printing paper on which he had written down some basic calculations. He said- “this is how much it costs to produce the car, this is what I understand your margins are, this is what I believe a fair margin is for us…”
Silence- they were expecting a thick file with legal texts, graphs and detailed figures. Here was a napkin sketch representing millions of dollars.
As the photo above illustrates- the rest is history, the deal was sealed and when BMW’s CEO commented on the new partnership he referred specifically to the personal connection with the van der Leegte family that inspired confidence in the project. To think that it started by jotting down the essence on a simple sheet of paper.
Sources/ credits:
My thanks go out to Susan Janssen en Anne Verhaag at Brainport Development for letting us be part of this great project. Photo credit for the leading image- Bram Saeys. Remco Claassen for his insights into presenting and speaking.
A set of customised details for the MINI Countryman Limited Edition, Dutch Made. What started two years ago with the exchange of skills between Mayster’s studio and ours has turned into a series of collaborations. This is the latest one for their client MINI. We designed the bespoke details based on a brief of the client. We then used our network of specialists to manufacture this set of limited series details which were then delivered to MINI.
Consider the following as you read on.
buy your copy of right brainer here
Designing for municipalities allows you to design and prototype a governmental product or service in one city- test, fail and improve and make the final product available to all of them. Decentralised, bottom up development. That is the idea behind the collaboration between the Association of Dutch Municipalities & the Dutch Design Foundation. We have been working with the Association for the past years using design as an instrument in any and everyday with a small dedicated team.
After a three month creative residency we have decided to stay and open up a satellite office at the High Tech Campus. We are running our Online Masterclass Conceptual Thinking to train the individual creative brain bringing together companies like ASML and TNO in a classroom based training process. We will also look to expand our consulting services as we did before for our client Imec. We are located at High Tech XL Plaza.
Anouk designed this drinking water carafe in 2002. It vitalises tap water by creating a vortex to return the water to its natural state after being stagnant in angular water pipes in buildings. Water needs to flow, the vortex is the same a s you find naturally appearing and fading in streams and rivers. The First Water Carafe is made, by hand, from laboratory glass by local craftsmen. An engraved version was presented to the Dutch King William as a token of gratitude for his work in the water sector. The first water carafe is made to order. Send us an email for more information.
The Science Gallery in collaboration with Museum Modern Art New York presents Design&Violence, an exhibition showing our Do hit chair. Opens 14th of October. If you missed the exhibit at Marta Herford earlier this year, this is your chance to see it in Dublin.
Or visit Gallery Tutti Cortex in Rotterdam where the chair is being exhibited that was hit by four famous Japanese comedians during a film shoot last year. Or visit youtube for some humbling comments from some who had some constructive criticism reading the piece….;-)
Conceptual Thinking is the individual skill in creating multiple ideas fast, cutting through complexity and developing them into powerful Concepts.
Conceptual Thinking fuels and directs inspiration by allowing individuals to create and nurture ideas. This type of ‘creative’ thinking is seen as a gift or talent- it is not, it is a skill. How does it work? By combining the structure of business and moonshot attitude of creative processes. You start applying the structure through tools that unlock the non-linear, creative thoughts and combine the power of the two- you do this over and over again until the skill becomes an instinct.
-We train the individual brain because it is unique, because it is better that one person thinks his or her idea through vs hijacking it in a classic brainstorm. We do so in class formats like the Online Masterclass Conceptual Thinking.
-You can apply it with a team as an alternative to traditional group brainstorming and we’ll show you how
-We also apply it to specific projects for our clients, assisting with design and r&d
-It is our design philosophy and we have over 20 years of combined professional and educational/research experience in the field
Testimonial:
“This method has given me the framework to take a well-structured step back from my projects. I now have the instruments to come to insights I could not have imagined in my usual way of strategy development. More than in more traditional trainings I followed, Conceptual Thinking provided me with a good mix between generic knowledge and individual feedback.”
Koen Snoekckx, director Baltan Laboratories
Anouk was brought in on the project for a water treatment plant in Bladel Hapert for Waterschap de Dommel to do a thorough analysis of the sites recreation and education. Routing through the natural landscape surrounding the site with ecological subsequent treatment systems, educating visitors and school children on this new way of cleaning waste water.
Amongst others Anouk has been working for the Dutch Water Partnership as well as Coram International in this emerging discipline in design. Her drinking water carafe was presented to the Dutch King William for his work in the water sector.
