Say “Droog”
Last week I got to hear Gijs Bakker from Droog Design speak as part of an arts festival on campus. Droog is a sort of design collective based in The Netherlands. If you read ID, Metropolis, or any of those furniture-porn catalogs like DWR, you’ve seen their stuff. Gijs didn’t say anything particularly notable, but I enjoyed his tour through their product catalog.
One of my favorites was a tulip bulb encased in a small box of pressed cow manure, which serves as fertilizer. It gives the Dutch a means for exporting manure (the EU is picky about that stuff) bit by bit in the luggage of tourists. I bet they’re still patting themselves on the back for that one. I also liked the chest of drawers. As you can see, their stuff isn’t always putting a high-priority on function, but it can still be quite compelling.
You can check out some more of Droog’s products here.