“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Wednesday February 11th — —

The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Wednesday February 11th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Wednesday February 11th — —

Dutch Design Talents 14

Yesterday marked a highly significant milestone in the 9 year history of our close friends online magazine Fontanel, after the release party on Friday evening at Mendo they officially released their very first printed publication: the definitive showcase of the best design talents who graduated in the Netherlands named ‘Dutch Design Talents 14’. The 208-page hardcover book features 19 talents, agency visits, sharp columns and an inspirational dialogue with leading creatives on “the gap” between education and work. This first introduction to an international audience was elegantly designed by Rob van den Nieuwenhuizen (drawswords) and mainly resolves around the 19 talents graduated from renowned Dutch art schools like Eindhoven’s Design Academy, Amsterdam’s Rietveld and The Hague’s Royal Academy of the Arts, after which subsequently a narrative on the overal climate of the current dutch creative culture was formed. Each of the talents is remarkably distinct, one of them is for instance Bob Schiller, who created the EPO Bicycle which we wrote about last year. But despite all the differences in what they created and why, they all share something special in the eyes of Fontanel Chief-editor Willem van Roosmalen: “the combination of a promising attitude and unspoilt creative thinking.”

Fontanel’s Willem van Roosmalen on the book:

The ‘Fontanel Finals’, our Dutch campaign, has become a yearly tradition. It is the showcase of every leading Dutch art academy graduation show, and the influential ‘Fontanel Dutch Design Talent’ insignia is awarded to our favorite graduating graphic designers, digital creatives, fashion designers, illustrators, product designers and artists. After five years, we decided the stage for these talents deserved an upgrade — they deserved an international stage, a physical stage, an elegant stage — which resulted in our first ever printed publication.

The theme with which Fontanel has chosen to define the outline of this book refers to the gap between education and work. Besides personal stories by the Dutch Design Talents, expect sharp and personal short stories by leading creatives Kali Nikitas, Femke Agema, Martin Pyper and also Joachim gave his unfiltered vision on how to go ahead as a young creative now a days. They have also documented an inspirational evening in which this gap is discussed with the likes of Pauline van Dongen, Liza Enebeis and our friends Marcel Kampman and Nalden. Lastly, photographers Jordi Huisman and Marijn Smulders weer sent across the country to document the diversity in Dutch creative spaces.

Photography by Benjamin van Witsen

Order the book online here