Cool Hunting

Thanks to radical design innovation in the country’s universities and access to government grants and urban planning policies that put design on par with development, design flourishes in the Netherlands. Pages in the Yearbook Dutch Design 05, published by Episode Publishers, capture the best results from current practice in graphic design, product design, fashion, and architecture. Three essays about the current by state of Dutch design accompany the photos.
"Where There’s Smoke" by wunderkind furniture designer Maarten Bass graces the cover. The flames are actually a piece being burned for Baas’ line of burned furniture preserved under clear epoxy, produced for Moss. Work by 38 designers and studios fill the pages with wild yet functional ideas. Experimental Jetset is celebrated for their subtly innovative, Swiss-influenced graphic work. Tord Boontje's floral filigree lighting expands the imagination in the product design category.
This book might be the next best thing to doing post-graduate studies at Jan Van Eyck Academie or Utrecht University.
Available online at Episode Publishers.
Contributed by Kristopher Irizarry
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