Dutch Design Culture

by Mienke Simon Thomas

"From the colourful abstraction of the Rietveld chair to the dry wit of the 'milkbottle lamp' by design cooperative Droog, modern design in the Netherlands has always been a hotbed of experimentation. Dutch designers have consistently pushed the limits in anything from posters to postage-stamps, home furnishings to street signage, ceramics to city airports. Indeed, in the last decade or so, Dutch design has become a worldwide phenomenon, almost a brand in itself, with regular publications in magazines and books promoting the remarkable output of this small country." "This book takes an in-depth look not just at designs made in the Netherlands, but behind the works created throughout the twentieth century and beyond. Author Mienke Simon Thomas, a curator at one of Holland's main museums, provides a compelling thematic account, guiding the reader through the beginnings of crafts education, the debates of design as art, the moral and social ideals of modernism, the new profession of indus