An Economy of Passion: Droog and Remy Ramaker

“The capacity of design does not only express itself through products, graphics or garments but also through tools, services, scenarios, new business models and other ways of benefitting society.” (RR, 2012)

In Dutch, the word droog means dry. While many people think it means a dry humor (I did), according to co-founder Remy Ramakers, droog refers to the idea of having no extras, and working against decoration (such as with Memphis design which preceded Droogs founding in the 1980s).

Each summer I stop by the Droog store on Staalstraat to see recent developments. This August I accompanied my jeweler friend Ineke to get gifts for a host on an upcoming trip. Like many of the incubator spaces I have previously blogged about, the Droog store is not just one thing. In its current manifestation it is a retail store, a gallery of Droog’s history, a high-end fashion store, a café, and a boutique hotel (so Dutch).

Droog as a collection of people and designs

In the early 1990s Remy Ramakers, trained as an art historian and working as a journalist, began to notice Dutch designers working in new ways, often with the idea or concept at the center. Many were moving away from the flashy, decorative design of the 80s (think Memphis-style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group), and away from the mantra of “form and function”, and looking to the concept as the starting point. They were also looking at designs as an improvisational act.

Ramaker sees a value in the concept, aesthetics, and the essence of a design.

She along with designer Gij Bakker founded the design company Droog.

Tejo Remy's Chest of Drawers. Notice how each wooden outer-box is made specifically for each found drawer. This craftsmanship specificity is key to this piece, and makes it difficult to mass manufacture with the same level of individuality.

An early example of concept in design is the Chest of Drawers by Tejo Remy. In 1991 Remy, one of the Droog designers, created the now renowned Chest of Drawers. It challenged many of the norms of design, and at the time critics said it was "not design". Now it is included in museum collections including MOMA and the Boijmans (Rotterdam).

Remy collected used drawers, and worked with a carpenter to make the drawers into a unit. Remy was interested in critiquing consumerism through featuring discarded materials. At one point after the piece became successful, a company showed interested in mass manufacturing the piece. This idea was quickly rejected by Droog as it compromised the concepts of reuse and the handmade. They are still hand made by a carpenter.

Concept is king (konig).

Can DESIGN be democratic?

“My design events are not only about showcasing new products. They are about establishing new relationships between designers and non-designers, about experiencing new notions of luxury, visitor participation and having fun.” (RR, 2010)

In a 2012 Premsela podcast (link below), Remy talks her desire to bring consumers in as an integrated part of the design process. It democratizes design, as well as makes the designs playful and interactive. Consumers were reticent to complete the work, and Remy lamented that many consumers of Droog preferred having the designer’s touch and name. Droog adapted, and many of the designs from the Do Create collection offer both the DIY version, but also ones where the designer completes the work.

L: Do Hit Chair (photo from Droog website), R: Centrepiece

Centrepiece (above right) piece is one that seemed to succeed in getting the consumer to complete it. It is lighter work (not as intimidating as the hammer and chair), and constantly changeable. I wanted very much to reach through the glass case and rearrange and re-rearrange. From the Droog website “you can be the sculptor and lavishly decorate the steel base with magnetic miniatures the way you like it best”. And like so much Dutch art, it refers to Dutch art history! (The Merkelsche Centrepiece, 1549,Rijksmuseum)

Droog: Beyond the Object

While the store focuses on objects (as a commercial outlet), many of Droog collections challenge the notion of commercialism and assumptions about the mass manufacture of objects. Some of the projects Droog where has pushed assumptions about these aspects of design are:

Downloadable or open designculture:A project where the consumer can download files to use in creating Droog designs with their own tools.

Saved: Droog has explored both reclaimed and surplus materials with their industrial collaborations. They bought leftover goods from industries that closed during the 2008 financial crisis (known in Netherlands just as the Crisis).

Material Matters: this project is possibly the closest to social design, but also seems a natural evolution for Droog. For the 2012 Milan Design Week, Droog showed no products, but instead chose to focus on curating design that engages with the world in a greater way. Part of this was Droog’s concept of a materials tax vs. an income tax. She sees resources as a more limited scarce source in the future, and a tax as being a way to draw attention to limited resources and the over-consumption of raw materials.

Other ideas Droog curated into this collection include:

Biocouture: an exploration of new bio-materials
Lease Me: a prototype on the idea of leasing products vs. owning them
Sea Treasures: an organization that works to clean the ocean from plastic, and recycles the plastic into new products right on the boat
Solar Sinter: a solar powered 3D printer, using local resources (sand) to create locally products (glass!)
Play Shop: a game that aims to satisfy shopping cravings without shopping.
And even Wild Goods who create porcelain made from the bones of road kill!

Ramaker doesn't see design as being the solution to the world’s problems (Dutch are known for being very pragmatic), but does see it as a way to draw attention to them. I would refer back to my Plastic Whale blog post, where I explore the symbolic's direct impact on change.

And who says the designs can’t be aesthetically engaging at the same time?

“I am not an idealist by any means. It is not my goal to create social design, but I do like it when social renewal results in innovative design.” (RR, 2010)

Droog and Collaborating

Droog has collaborated with many others: designers and craftspeople, industries, academicians, and more. This emphasis on collaborating is one of the main points I have heard repeatedly in my explorations of social design, and these collaborations play a major role in Droog’s work.

In 1996 Droog brought designer Hella Jongerius to work with the aerospace department at University of Delft. Jongerius was working with knitting glass fibers, experimenting and failing, experimenting and failing, testing the limits of the material. The scientists were baffled by the artist’s process, saying “but she can figure this all out on the computer? Why is she doing this?”

Ramaker’s response “This is why! The failure IS the point! (The) knowledge of hands and materials only happens this way!”

L: Jongerius's knit light; M and R: Marcel Wander’s infamous knotted chair which also grew out of this collaboration.

Economy of Passion

Ramaker believes in the power of passion in society, even questioning an economist at a conference as to why not have an economy of passion. She recounts being at another conference on downloadable design, where a participant dismissed aesthetics as unimportant when social and environmental issues were at stake. She challenges that notion, defending the importance of aesthetic qualities, saying “even in war you need poetry.”

Art matters.