Text Annemiek van Grondel — Photography Ilco Kemmere Gijs He could be called one of the godfathers of Dutch Design Bakker and certainly the one who put Dutch Design on the map. Gijs Bakker (1942), co-founder of Droog Design, is levelheaded F08r about it all. Last year he left the ever-successful design plat- form after 15 years. Time for a new creative chapter. ‘Life is marvellous. I don’t want that to be ruined by something that is obsolete.’ Droog Design is Overr 18 19 with a myriad of bulbs. A bookcase Arts Abroad in, Amsterdam) as well Dutch furniture salesmen,’ as Bakker A career in chapters he has been head of the department from the Memphis collection that as his collaboration projects. puts it. Dutch design didn’t “exist” In spite of the diversity of his activi- of Masters of IM at the Design would later become an icon… The His first collaboration was with after all. But fate had something else ties – design, teaching, lecturing, Academy in Eindhoven, a study audacity! Fantastic! That kind of his wife, Emmy van Leersum, whom in mind. With the arrival of Andrea organizing exhibitions – Gijs programme that also has a strong shock stays with you forever.’ he met in the early sixties at the Branzi – a group of young designers Bakker’s life is divided into clear-cut impact on Dutch Design and for He sighs. The exhibition meant Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, and press people in his wake – the chapters of 15 years. Admittedly, which there is fierce competition a turning point for Gijs Bakker, where they both studied jewellery exposition gained attention. The last they run more of less parallel to each from students from all over the conceptual artist and designer, and design. Their conceptual outlook three days there was quite a rush. other, but it is remarkable nonethe- world. ‘A lot is happening here, a cautious prelude to Droog Design, and raising the fundamental level of less: this marriage to Emmy van especially in the field of research. the design platform he would later jewellery design made G+E (Gijs Leersum; the period of time he was The market is changing; it demands start with Renny Ramakers. Droog and Emmy) pioneers. Bakker: ‘We busy with Droog Design; the work- more from designers than just a Design is everything the cutting edge were very different. She was ing relationship and romance he had product,’ he explains. ‘This can limit of that time, Italian design by Studio functional and analytical in the with Italian gallery owner Marijke them, but it can also simulate and Alchimia and Memphis Group, step-by-step development of ideas, Vallanzasca, with whom he started inspire. The majority of the foreign wasn’t: a return to the idea, the whereas I have a more intuitive the successful jewellery label Chi ha designers we’ve attracted, both in concept, averse from unnecessary approach. An excellent WH\YH&PU /LPZJ\YYLU[S` Eindhoven and at Droog, have decoration and exaggeration, but combination.’ working on a long-term project in stayed in the Netherlands, because ‘Vienna, 1980. My wife, my son, and with an emphasis on originality and Van Leersum passed away in Taiwan. At the request of the they’ve found a cultural and eco- I were visiting a jewellery sympo- reclamation, all with a touch of irony. 1984, when their son Aldo, now also Taiwanese Craft Research and nomic climate here that is without sium there. There were posters in all It was a new style that set off a shock a designer, was 13 years old. Bakker Development Institute, he is develop- equal anywhere in the world. For the the trams with the slogan: “Design is wave in 1993 at the Salone in Milan, is keeping her legacy alive. ‘Last Within a few years Droog Design as ing a native design culture for the arts, this has traditionally meant that unsichtbar”. They were referring to similar to the one Memphis caused year I organized a retrospective of a brand put the Netherlands on the Taiwanese craft-industry, together the government has found it its an exposition in Linz. We visited it at this Forum Design exhibition in our work and placed a series of map, with its razor-shape sense of with 17 young Taiwanese designers. mission to instruct the masses and on the way back. An enormous Linz. sixteen aluminium bracelets, all the spirit of the times and its selec- Could this be an indication of what is impart culture to them. Graphic white tent on the bank of the Donau, slightly different, in a display case,’ tion and later in-house production of to come for the next 15 years? design and architecture flourished in crammed with design in the broad- Intuition Bakker says. ‘It felt as if she was unconventional, conceptual work the 1920s and ‘30s, thanks to the est sense of the word; post-modern Bakker is characterized by a curious looking over my shoulder and with a interpretive twist. And done active part the government played architecture, car design, perform- mixture of level-headedness and knowingly whispering: “Shouldn’t by a new generation that gave as patron. But product design was ance art, fashion, visual arts… One absent-mindedness. These elements you turn that bracelet the other way renewed meaning to design with ‘Design is still all not yet of importance. Up until the section with design pieces by Ettore come back again and again, both in around?” ‘ clever use of combinations and about flexibility and ZHUKZP[^HZZLLUHZUV[OPUN Sottsass. Carpet made up of classic his personality and in his work. He recycling. World-famous designers more than embellishment, strictly for parquet flooring, finished with a approaches life with an almost Droog Design like Richard Hutten, Marcel an open mind, just marketing but without further chrome-plated steel border and childlike curiosity, despite his vast A second important collaboration Wanders, Jurgen Bey, and Hella like in the sixties.‘ purpose.’ placed under insipid Formica chairs experience and all but encyclopae- was with art historian and design Jongerius all started out with Droog. in the most varied patterns. A lamp dic knowledge of art and design. His critic Renny Ramakers. High-profile Bakker now considers Droog home-cum-studio, a canal-side projects and exhibitions led their Design’s current position as less The differences between the house purchased from another design platform Droog Design to influential. Last June, he decided to Northern European and Asian views Dutch design celebrity, Benno become the driving force behind the withdraw from the fifteen-year of design fascinate him immensely. Premsela, is a striking example of the movement that later became interna- collaboration with Ramakers, to the Here, as with Droog Design and at Gijs Bakker diversity of his interests: a jumble of tionally synonymous with Dutch dismay of many. the Design Academy, he comes into (1942, Amersfoort) styles, all tastefully arranged. design. Bakker and Ramakers With the opening of a prestig- contact with global thinking, some- ‘Benno had a fantastic, free, and decided on collaboration during a ious store in New York, he came to thing that has little to do with r LHYS`Z9PL[]LSK(JHKLT`HUK Konstfack Skolen, Stockholm open spirit!’, he calls from the kitchen group exhibition in pop temple believe commercial considerations bringing Dutch character to r JVSSHIVYH[PVU^P[O,TT`]HU with enthusiasm. ‘In the eighties he Paradiso in Amsterdam. An upstairs would push content further into the Taiwanese design. What does it 3LLYZ\T THYYPHNL had a kind of home-gallery in this gallery, on a regular Sunday background. involve? A conceptual approach. Or r +YVVN+LZPNU^P[OKLZPNUJYP[PJ and historian Renny Ramakers room. Look at the cotton carpet you afternoon, in early ‘93. Bakker was The designer is glad it is behind rather, as Bakker puts it: ‘conceptual Think global r *OPOHWH\YH&^P[O4HYPQRL are sitting on. That was revolution- one of the exhibitors, Ramakers him. ‘I am working on a lot of new design in context.’ Here the context Bakker was one of the first in the Vallanzasca ary in those days!’ organized the event. projects. Life is fantastic. I don’t want is Taiwanese culture. His findings are Netherlands to realize that differ- r +LZPNUMYVTQL^LSSLY`PU[LYPVYZ furniture, household appliances and Besides being a designer, ‘It was snowing and it was cold, that to be ruined by something that is being presented in the Triennale in ences between art, design, and items, to public spaces and exhibi- tions. For Polaroid, Artifort, VKB and Bakker is also a cultural entrepre- but all of Amsterdam was there,’ obsolete. Droog Design is over. Milan, under the label yii (see page other disciplines could be done Eno Studio, among others. His work is neur and mentor. He was and is a Bakker recounts. ‘The time was ripe, Something receives attention for …), featuring products made of away with. And besides pioneer, he collected throughout the world and has received many awards since decisive influence on the interna- responses were good. I was plan- some ten years and then is irrevoca- bamboo, porcelain, and even brick, was also an advocate of “the [OLSHZ[VM^OPJO^HZ[OL)LUUV Premsela Award in 2007, for his work tional promotion of Dutch design, ning on focussing public attention on bly surpassed by the next idea. a material that the Dutch brought to concept”. To say that he, as teacher at Droog Design. though both his designs (jewellery, some former students in a shop/ That’s fine; it gives young people Taiwan in the seventeenth century.