Spring

Maxima at the opening in Eindhoven Photo: Job Jansen.

Spring, curated by Miriam van der Lubbe, centres on 15 established designers who represent the breadth of the field. Work by Piet Hein Eek, Scholten & Baijings and Maarten Baas appears alongside Philips’s Stefano Marzano, Volvo’s Corien Pompe and Ikea’s Monika Mulder.

Each top designer has selected a design talent who displays outstanding originality, nonconformity or professionalism to share the spotlight in Spring. The 15 rising stars include Nienke Sybrandy, who is showing her Biotopen terrariums; Dirk Vander Kooij who is exhibiting his robot-produced chair Endless; and Thomas Eurlings, who is presenting his Total Access Jewellery.

Each of the initial 15 designers has also identified an influential member of a previous generation who inspired him or her at an early career stage, and the show also honours these elders, each of whom is represented by a published document on his or her work.

Spring is a joint project of Premsela and Capital D, the design association of Eindhoven’s Brainport region. It is made possible in part by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Spring in Milaan 2012

The designers speak

“When you see her products, you want to know more,” says Ikea’s Monika Mulder about the young designer Anna Glansén, in a statement on display in the exhibition, “and when you look at the underlying ideas, you’re never disappointed. They make the products even more interesting.”

In the exhibited quotes, the 15 star designers explain why they admire their younger and older colleagues.

Stefan Scholten of Scholten & Baijings says of the young designer Lex Pott, “His designs make visible the different phases the material goes through. He can be seen as attempting to merge industry and nature by combining industrial, usually geometric forms with the more organic forms of the raw material.”

And Richard Hutten says the late Gerrit Rietveld “has always been a significant point of reference for me. His radical and innovative approach is a source of inspiration. The fact that his designs sold at auction for record sums encouraged me to make limited editions right from the beginning of my career, long before it became fashionable. Besides, Rietveld is one of the best chair designers of all time.”