Herdecke

Some of you might wonder where Herdecke is. It’s a small town, located south of Dortmund, Germany.

I am with my family am in Herdecke right now. My brother and I had a little photo shoot the other day, because my parents asked for a nice picture of both of us. It’s not really our usual look. The idea was present them a staged portrait in a conservative look.

‘Mr. and Mrs. business’ – picture by mueller3000

its not really a design related post. it is a personal one.

I am very angry today, especially because I meant to collect some good content for my blog at design miami in miami. I had loads of appointments and drawn interviews planned out. I mean, the great and good of the industry gather for this event. me and my friend robert andriessen from designguide.tv wanted to do some video interviews. and now I can’t go. I couldn’t fly to miami today because my passport is not valid the next 6 months. that’s it. it is valid now. enough for most countries. maybe it’s my fault because I didn’t realise that earlier. but why did I recieve a visa aproval from esta? I mean, I have been in america before. never had problems. sure, it’s annoying that they are asking so many questions at the airport but that’s how they are, the americans. they want to know stuff. the consequence is that I officially decided to never watch an episode of american dad anymore. I probably will have a weak moment about that when I can’t fall asleep next time but I will try.

thanks wallpaper magazine for the image. I stole it from your website. I really wanted to take good pictures in miami but what happend today made me a thief. : )

I graduated yesterday. yeah. here is my project:

modus operandi

‘Led by an obsession for clean-cut form, the product design graduate has created a number of archetypal forms that relate with the common conception of a chair.

Matylda distorts and extracts the functionality through her ‘modus operandi’, exerting and gaining dominance over the chairs, transforming them into her conceptual pieces.

She proceeds like a remorseful ‘serial killer’, demonstrating a hedonistic and sometimes crazed approach, before reassessing her ‘victim’, realising her conduct and ceasing.’

modus operandi from Daniel van Hauten on Vimeo.

maastricht

My life as a product design student has almost an end. I am graduating this week! End of June I participated at the pecha kucha event in maastricht. I talked about the power of blogging, the difficulties of becoming a designer and how people start taking your seriously when you work on a project on a regular basis. Here is the video of my presentation:

‘damn, I am fucking nervous’

berlin/dmy

young swedish designer ramus malbert has designed a shelf that becomes a playful element when its filled with books.

I have to admit that the video embodies amateurism. we did the video on the spur of the moment. 3 takes and the 3rd one was chosen. but I said what I think and have finally an ‘ABOUT’. I like it that way.

find the ABOUT link on the right side …

… and the video appears!

I´ve met a lot people last week during milan design week. I also had the chance to do a drawn interview with ronan bouroullec, shay and yeal from raw edges, pieke bergmans, piet hein eek and some more.

I travelled with the bus from milan back to maastricht, nl. when I got off the bus I had to walk home in the rain. unfortunatly my bag isn´t that waterproof. all drawings got wet. after 2 days of little frustrations about this misfortune I´ve decided to publish them anyway. I mean, it happend and I can´t change it…

milan 2009 /

its sunday and I just got back from the milan design week.
unfortunately I couldn’t find an internet connection in milan. so no posts the whole week. but now I have enough content for the next few months.

here is a little preview from my spontaneous top 3 from last week.
and when I say top 3, I talk about the whole thing: exhibition, presentation, idea, products..

1 – design miami/ fendi present craft punk
design performances by designers at spazio fendi

2 – ‘mat, satiné, brilliant’ by belgium-based fashion designer
maison martin margiela at zona tortona

3 – prophets and penitents by damn magazine, showing chairs in prototype form at the oratorio della passione, a 15th century hall