Wieki Somers (Sprang-Capelle, 1976) is a Dutch designer. She works closely with Dylan van den Berg under the name Studio Wieki Somers. Somers is considered part of the second generation of Dutch designers who have gained international acclaim. Unlike the first generation of Dutch designers, who have focused mainly on conceptual, functional designs, this second generation also recognizes the importance of aesthetics.[1]
In October 2009, Studio Wieki Somers won the Golden Eye (the award for best Dutch design) at the Dutch Design Awards with the Merry-go-round Coat Rack, designed for the cloakroom of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. By pulling ropes, coats are raised onto the carousel-like construction, making them appear to be floating in space.[2] The coat rack was also nominated in 2009 at the London Design Museum's Designs of the Year awards.[3]
Other well-known designs by Somers include the High Tea Pot, shaped like a pig's skull and accompanied by a fur cosy; the Bathboat, a bathtub shaped like a rowing boat; and the Bellflower, a two-metre-tall lamp woven out of a single piece of fabric using an experimental weaving technique. In 2007, Somers was commissioned by the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in The Hague to design a tulip vase, Departed glory.[4]
The Rotterdam-based design centre VIVID showed an exhibition of her work from November 2005 to January 2006.[1] From December 2008 to February 2008, the Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch in Den Bosch presented the exhibition Studio Wieki Somers : thinking hands, speaking things.[5] And in January–March 2010, Galerie Kreo in Paris presented Wieki Somers: Frozen in Time, an exhibition of objects designed by Somers that were inspired by photographs of an ice-storm in the northeastern Netherlands on March 2, 1987.[6]
Somers graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2000 and then founded Studio Wieki Somers with fellow student Dylan van den Berg. In addition to her design work, she also teaches at Design Academy Eindhoven.[7]