Core77

Last night Droog Design kicked off a series of New York City based events at the Soho House. This intimate lecture focused on defining the products and mentality of this now-oh-so-famous design collective. Art critic, co-founder and director of Droog, Renny Ramakers, presented a series of 300 images (picked at random) from the Droog archive. In true subversive Dutch fashion, the talk had a non-linear participatory format, encouraging guests to lead the presentation by shouting out when they wanted more information on a slide. The resulting conversation touched on iconic Droog products and their design philosophy, but quickly turned into a dialogue about the role of art in accessible vs non-accessible product-making.

"We can't design for everyone," stated Ramakers when asked how to deal with selling products for the masses. "I am not going to educate people. I am going to inform them," she said. The nebulous discussion of art vs design was thus once again brought to the table (literally - we had to sneak some blurry pics at this 20 person event!), eliciting criticism of the American marketplace vs the European model.

Most evident throughout all this was the increasing frustration from both designers and retailers in the lack of adventurous consumers. Thoughtful, provoking products that elicited delight from the small crowd were often called out as the least profit generating items sold by Droog. "[Our goal is] to change perspective on daily life," Ramakers said. "It's a company that is fueled by design, not profits," a guest challenged from the round table. And as the endearing presentation proved, is this not the crux of the present-day marketplace? Droog Design has the power to put smiles on faces, but will it continue to sell in a recession climate?

Keep an eye on them in the coming months as they roll out more work (word on the street: Droog's next focus is the American service economy. Yup. That's right, they want to research why you actually pay someone to walk your dog.) And if history proves anything, this collective will surprise us. Once again.

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