Droog Design

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Droog Design (droog is a Dutch word meaning "dry") is an internationally renowned Dutch design collective which designs and manufactures furniture and architectural features. Droog Design has helped launch the careers of designers such as Marcel Wanders, Hella Jongerius, Tejo Remy, Richard Hutten and Jurgen Bey.

Droog Design was founded in 1993 by Gijs Bakker and Renny Ramakers. They started off by putting together design presentations reflecting a clear spirit of the times. In 1996 they extended their sphere of activities by initiating experimental projects and one year later Droog received its first commission from a company. In 2003 Droog B.V. was set up alongside the Droog Design Foundation, for the production and distribution of the Droog product collection. Since the end of 2004, the Droog headquarters, droog@home, has been situated in Amsterdam, combining a shop, an exhibition room, a library and a kitchen where design dinners are cooked.

In 1999 an exhibition on Droog Design was presented at Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, followed by a retrospective exhibition in 2006/2007 at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York City entitled Simply Droog: 10 + 3 years of creating innovation and discussion. In 2004 a book was published on Droog Design, entitled Simply Droog: 10 + 1 years of creating innovation and discussion.

[edit] Activities

projects & product development
- Droog initiates projects and is also commissioned by international firms and institutions such as Mandarina Duck, Bang & Olufsen, Levi Strauss and British Airways. Droog projects can result in a single product, developed by an individual designer, or in group shows presenting a coherent series of variations on a theme.
exhibitions
- Droog organises travelling exhibitions showing Droog collection products. In its own gallery droog@home Droog presents young (inter)national design talents in the field of conceptual design.
education
- Droog lectures world-wide at congresses and seminars. Since 2001 Droog is head of the Masters Design course IM: Identity, Industrial and Interior Masters Industrial Design studio at the Design Academy Eindhoven.
publications
- Droog takes position with provocative publications, both in terms of content and form. The design of Droog’s catalogues is as much a statement as the texts and products they contain.

[edit] Droog collection

The Droog collection is curated by Renny Ramakers and Gijs Bakker and consists of over 180 products by more than a hundred designers. As Droog Design is not a style, but rather a view on design in the 21st century, the founders of Droog prefer to have the initiative in the contact with designers, to ensure that new ideas have not been inspired by exisitng Droog products but represent innovative and creative concepts.