Part industrial design house, part avant-garde art group, part makers of clever consumer products, Dutch design group Droog has been making waves since 1993. They create everyday things that are not so everyday/mundane. They ask, “what is a chair?” and proceed to design something that make us question what we know about a chair. The result is sometimes beautiful, always functional, and often plain old fun: Pantone-coded mug cups, a refrigerator that runs without electricity, art-deco wall mount radiators, and above, the “come a little bit closer” bench.
On a visit to the new Museum of Art and Design in New York this month, I got to see a pretty comprehensive retrospective show titled “Simply Droog” (going until 14 January 2007).
On the day I visited, I got to join an interactive tour where we could actually use and see some of the objects work. The tour guide, an art enthusiast volunteer, asked, “Now, what do you think this is?” at every stop, nagging us to share our respective best guesses.
With a few architects, graphic designers and students in these fields in the group, the thread of discussions was revealing. I got to explain the meaning of Pantone color codes, and the origin of “Lucky Cat.” The highlight for me was when we got to sit on a bench called “come a little bit closer” with sliding seats floating in the sea of marbles, laid on a steel surface so you hear these jangling noises as you slide over to your neighbor.
Good design is not so much about aesthetics, but about the processes and experiences of designers designing, and users using. Renegade DYI graphic design magazine Emigre’s motto “design is a good idea” (the brilliant double entendre) applies readily to Droog’s work.
Of course it’s the job of copywriters, graphic and web designers like us to carry out an idea to its integrated, beautiful end. But what’s important, and sometimes neglected, is the IDEA — thoughts, messages, needs and wants — that drives the design process. As a design professional, this is something that I can’t forget in my own work.
Check out the Droog show if you are in New York, or see the catalogue in bookstores!
Simply Droog
10 + 3 Years of Creating Innovation and Discussion
Through January 14, 2007
Museum of Arts & Design
40 West 53rd Street
New York, NY
Also see: Every product tells a story: DK’s report on Droog from Amsterdam
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