Dutch Design Week

 In conjunction with the Crédit Fontýs exhibition organized by Lucas Maassen of the Academy of Art Communication and Design Tilburg (ArtCoDe), Wall Street ‘MoneyFest’ for Dutch Design Week, kinder MODERN curates the Wall Street Windows DDW.

The initiators of Wall Street – which is Eindhoven’s new financial center by the way – started a practical research into alternative economic models and innovative means of value creation. An intensive program with workshops by Lucas Maassen, Jelle Mastenbroek, Helmut Smits and Helen Burger explores what happens when designers with little economic expertise tackle the economy anyway. 

INNOVATION = THE NEW CURRENCY

At the Wall Street Windows gallery, kinder MODERN’s Lora Appleton curates a show exploring design innovation as a bridge between creativity and commerce.

Innovation in design can be an antidote to conspicuous consumption and the corporate greed stereotype of Wall Street. Designers can push their work beyond form and function. Ideally it can also be culturally progressive and financially valued. When designers innovate, pushing their designs and the industry forward, it influences the market. Innovation then becomes more valuable as it raises the productivity of both capital and labor, and with this in mind, innovation is not just a single event, but rather a process of discovery, transformation and engineering. Innovation then becomes more valuable than currency. 

While these ideals may not always be attainable, and indeed may be far from the norm, we can aspire to make them real. The Wall Street Windows highlight such innovative work – thorough concept, materiality, function and form – and investigate the related economic issues, during Dutch Design Week.