Behind the Design | An Interview w/ Werkwaardig
"We are Werkwaardig, a creative movement fighting for fun and against boring mass production in interiors. Our in-house design team and the external distinguished designers invited to create for our brand, share one mission: looking for that particular twist that makes a functional product quirky and more fun"
5 Questions w/ Werkwaardig
FUNctional and boldelicious are two works that can describe Amsterdam based Werkwaardig's inventive and playful designs. Thank you to Timo and Diederik for taking the time to answer a few questions about their interesting and energetic brand.
We both graduated the study ‘product design’ in Amsterdam 6 years ago. During this study we visited the Salone del Mobile couple of times, where we both get fascinated about interior/furniture/accessory and designer products. So many brands and designers were exposing the same designs. We thought: there is something to be done in design, and nobody is doing it, so why not make it our job?
From back in the days we both love to create things. It can be music, objects, photography...
We enjoy making things that stay. We found out, that we most enjoy making things that people really use. That’s why decided to start our own design label Werkwaardig. Making products that can be special, strange, funny or bizarre but all can be used, and we like them to be used, not to put on a pedestal.
Like explained above we like our designs to have a twist, make you smile or wonder.
So with every design / idea we have we look at it that way. What makes it different, what excites us about it. This can be found in everything; color, material or the actual shape.
We like it: Functional and boldelicious.
"So with every design / idea we have we look at it that way. What makes it different, what excites us about it."
Everywhere actually. We like to just go out, walk through the city, go to museum and walk through nature. We don’t have a standard flow to make ideas, they come in very different forms in different situations.
We also try to think about what’s going on in society: Think of a pig, or what a ‘FCK YOU’ affects to people. Let use this to show the opposite.
We designed the side pig in 2016. We wanted to create a side table that was easily movable and for indoor and outdoor use. The inspiration for the shape is of course quite obvious ;).
If you ask people: what is the most beautiful or cute animal in the world and would you like to place next to your sofa, very few would choose a pig.
Pigs are normally found filthy and unclean, but they are actually super clean and smart. We wanted to change this view, so this was our starting point and a challenge for designing a fun, cute but functional pig.
Thank you to Timo & Diederik for taking the time to help us get to know a little more about Werkwaardig!
