by pure chance I bumped on sunday into alexander pelikan at the exhibition in the designhuis. he invited me to a meeting of design 22+2. it is a dutch initiative consisting of 22 designers and 2 supervisors, ann maes and richard hutten. they are showing cross-over activities, surpassing the idle concept thinking that dutch design is known for, and conceiving functional and most original products, meant to have a longer life cycle.

alexander pelikan and christian kocx were presenting what they experienced in indonesia. both had the chance to spend 4 months in southeast asia to work and find out what possibilities for the manufacture of products and designs are given. dutch design in development is the organisation which enabled this experience for the 2 designers from eindhoven. the indonesian are craftspeople. handcrafting has been performed for centuries. designing and innovation is what they are missing because they never learned it. peli and christian have showed us some great pictures about how good these people are with their hands and that there are opportunities of manufacturing and producing – a designer’s land of plenty.

ann maes and angelique spaninks (director mu eindhoven)

presentation about indonesian manufacturer pekerti

christian kocx and ingrid van der wacht (project manager brainport)

bastian leijh, maurice mentjes, arnoud visser, ann maes, annelies hermsen, alexander pelikan, christian kocx