KLM is a Dutch airline, and one that wants to project that image down to its finest detail. For this reason, KLM has brought some of the greatest names in the Dutch design world on board. Yesterday saw the start of Dutch Design Week. In keeping with this event, I thought a blog about Dutch designers and their association with KLM seemed appropriate.Fashion designer Mart Visser created KLM’s uniform for women and Viktor & Rolf have signed on to create our comfort bags. Marcel Wanders designed our tableware and Hella Jongerius created the stylish cabin interior. These are resounding names that also have significance for a large international audience. This is nothing new. Since the 1940s and ’50s KLM has made a tradition of seeking out renowned designers and making use of their talents and insights. Here are two of them: Glass designer Andries Copier and architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld.Glass Designer Turns to Plastic In the late 1940s, plastic utensils were not as popular as they are now.
In fact, Bakelite was the only form of plastic in common use. It was most popular for telephones and light switches. In 1948, when KLM came out with a new line of tableware for tourist class, they put a new form of plastic to use: Melamine.The designer was Andries Copier. Copier had long since earned his stripes as a designer though, until that time, his work had been limited to glassware and crystal tableware for Royal Leerdam Crystal, where he was the chief of the design studio. Copier began his career in the factory’s drafting department. He designed his first tableware sets in the 1920s, after which time many more would follow. One of his best-known designs is called Gilde, which is still in production.Melamine possessed a number of special properties. It was light, sturdy, and it retained heat well. It held its shape and was easy to clean. Structurally it stored well on the trolleys and used the space efficiently on the passengers’ meal trays. Everything remained firmly in place and fitted perfectly.
The dishware was light blue although, over time, it slowly lost its colour in the dishwasher. KLM continued to use the design until well into the 1960s until it moved to a new trend: disposable tableware.An Architect Designs the Cabin InteriorArchitect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld might not be the first person you would associate with aircraft cabin design, but he certainly associated himself with KLM. Rietveld has designed numerous homes in the Netherlands and is world-famous for his furniture. The renowned wooden red-blue-yellow-black reclining chair is a classic in the tradition of De Stijl—the most trendsetting group of its time among designers, painters and sculptors.In the mid-1950’s, KLM asked Rietveld to design new aircraft cabin interiors. For Rietveld, colour and material were of great importance and he used them in an effort to break up the cylindrical form of the aircraft cabin. Once again, he employed the primary colours—red, blue, and yellow—combined with white.
He included the partition walls in his design. “The panels, which all the passengers must look at throughout the journey, have to be included in the overall composition. There must be something to see, something that increases in vibrancy the more you look at it.”Commentary about his designs varied from “stylish” to “bland”. For KLM, however, the practical objections proved decisive. The red, blue, and yellow surrounded with by as much white as possible may have been beautiful to look at, but they also got dirty very quickly. Sadly, none of our aircraft ever ended up using Rietveld’s design, but we still have the drawings. KLM has loaned them to the Central Museum in Utrecht. Lowell Fabric Club Chair Rogersville Button Tufted Arm chair Jameson Track Arm Chair Saginaw Upholstered Club Chair Hierry Wingback Arm chair Crandall Tufted Swoop Armchair Fineview Armless Chair (Set of 4) Reese Tufted Fabric Retro Side Chair Retrospective of NYCxDesign by Leonne Cuppen
The New York Design Week – ‘NYCxDesign’ – took place from May 3 to May 17 at different locations. Leonne Cuppen (Yksi) gives a brief report of the Dutch input. At Ventura New York, Organisation in Design (Margriet Vollenberg) presented fourteen new-generation designers at Wanted Design. One of them was Daniel de Bruin, whose fascination for production processes inspired him to design a mechanical 3D printer. This 3D printer – in his own words, the world’s first mechanical one – functions by a pulley system and prints ceramic vases. Also at Ventura New York: the carpets by designer Simone Post do not originate from her urge to just make carpets, but from the fact that there is a Dutch textile company with wanted to do something useful with the waste material it produces. This company is Vlisco, a major player on the African market. Using special laser techniques, Simone Post didn’t only make carpets, but also cloths and seat covers in the brightest and most divergent colors.
Studio Job’s exhibition ‘Mad House’ occupies two floors. We are already familiar with the work, but especially the interior design with wallpaper and floor designs realized by Exposize created an extraordinary experience. An exhibition of work by Sebastian Brajkovic. His collection ‘Lathe’ includes pieces of furniture that look as if they had been stretched or extruded. Inspired by the Photoshop function that allows you to select pixels and stretch them as much as you want. I find Cooper Hewitt the most beautiful design museum; this is where you can find many Dutch designers, both in the exhibitions and in the museum shop. The work is not all new and there is not a lot of Dutch Design yet. The difference with presentations in Milan or Eindhoven is, however, that the items sell well. I have been asked to do research into what we can do with Dutch Design in New York over the next few years. I think that it is important to highlight design thinking in the USA and I’m convinced that in the coming years we can play a major part in taking the NY Design Week to a higher level.