Yearbook Dutch Design 03 04

This important study introduces the key theories of national identity, and relates them to the broad fields of product, graphic and fashion design. Javier Gimeno-Martinez approaches the inter-relationship between national identity and cultural production from two perspectives: the distinctive characteristics of a nation's output, and the consumption of design products within a country as a means of generating a national design landscape. Using case studies ranging from stamps in nineteenth century Russian-occupied Finland, to Coca-Cola as an 'American' drink in modern Trinidad and Tobago, he addresses concepts of essentialism, constructivism, geography and multiculturality, and considers the works of key theorists, including Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm and Doreen Massey. This illuminating book offers the first comprehensive account of how national identity and cultural policy have shaped design, while suggesting that traditional formations of the 'national' are increasingly unsustainable in an age of globalisation, migration and cultural diversity. Javier Gimeno-Martinez is Lecturer in Design Cultures at the VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The Dutch designer Richard Hutten is barely 39 and has already gained an indelible reputation in the international design world. In 2008 a design academy carrying his name will open in Seoul. Together with the architect company MVRDV he is designing a complete school, for which he's also compiling the educational programme - and the biggest design shopping centre in the world, which will be situated nearby. For the Central Museum in Utrecht he has designed the restaurant, the garden furniture and the bookshop. The orders for his contemporary version of the Berlage chair are difficult to keep up with, and the Domoor mug, the Bronto chair and the Zzzidt chair (the 'skippy') remain very successful. Hutten's designs - 'works in use' as he likes to call them - are well sought after by celebrities and colleagues such as Paola Antonelli, Queen Beatrix, Aaron Betsky, Humberto Campana, Karl Lagerfeld, Philippe Starck a.o. In this bulky book, many of these people describe their day-to-day contact with the creations of Richard Hutten. Furthermore the reader also becomes acquainted with the environment of this internationally appreciated designer and with the context and history of his designs. Text in English and French. 200 colour illustrations

Jan van Toorn is one of the most significant and influential Dutch graphic designers to have emerged since the early 1960s. His designs persistently call attention to their status as visual contrivances, obliging the viewer to make an effort to process their complexities. Van Toorn wants the public to measure the motives of both the client and the designer who mediates the client's message against their own experiences of the world. He hoped in this way to stimulate a more active and skeptical view of art, communication, media ownership and society. Projects such as Van Toorn's posters and catalogues for the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and his long-running series of calendars for the printing firm Mart.Spruijt are powerful demonstrations of graphic design used as a means of commentary and as a tool of critique. Later, as director of the Jan van Eyck Academy, Van Toorn drew together all the strands of his critical practice into a multi-levelled educational initiative that urged designers to think harder about design's role in shaping contemporary reality.

The work of EEA, as presented in this retrospective of the past 10 years of its work, covers the full architectural gamut including public, educational, residential, interior design, exhibition design and the design of furniture and objects.

This book addresses the need for an in-depth study into design quality in new housing. The wider implications of policy and design are examined through a series of case studies of new housing projects in the UK and the Netherlands. Dutch interdisciplinary design and modern methods of construction are widely considered to be of the highest quality from which much can be learned and understood. This new guide offers architects the best practice for the design, policy and construction of new homes. The author considers proposals for the Thames Gateway and government incentives to create better quality housing, including the £60,000 house and design reviews. The wider implications of skills and training of architects, planners, design professionals and those parties involved in housing are also addressed.