The Netherlands seems to excel when it comes to creativity and have nurtured a range of remarkable talent in the design and artistic space. Consequently, the national label CreativeNL wants to celebrate their home grown talent, and are doing so by creating a series of short films on notable profiles and examples.
The first of these films, directed by the acclaimed Johan Kramer, focuses on Borre Akkersdijk. Akkersdijk is the founder of BY BORRE, a collaborative ecosystem hoping to make the textiles industry more responsible.
BY BORRE sits at the frontier of material innovation and experimentation, and by bringing together developers, yarn specialists, knitters and designers under one roof they aim to inspire a generation of creators to make less but more meaningful products. Their digital creative platform is influenced by a pool of creators, scientists, designers and users, and allows brands to imprint their personality into the weave of a cloth, before helping them to roll out the product vastly but sustainably.
The Dutch government is a key motivator behind the country’s creative output, viewing it as a vehicle for innovation and forwarding our journey to a more sustainable future. Creative NL is looking to join forces with Creative Thought Leaders, as they have done with Borre, in a bid to encourage system-changing design.
“For me, the basis of Dutch creativity is: how does something grow, and what system is behind it? Other ‘creatives’ I find inspiring who have changed the international landscape include architect Rem Koolhaas, Boyan Slat (of The Ocean Cleanup) and fashion designer Iris van Herpen. Each of them has put the Netherlands on the map as a ‘changemaker’ within a particular industry.
The issues in the textile industry are huge, I believe that change always starts with inspiration and idealism. I sincerely believe that we have only just begun. We have proven over the past 10 years that BYBORRE, we can do things differently and that we have the perseverance to actually change the textile industry – by offering sustainable materials, digitizing the production process, and our open-source mindset making it more transparent and accessible for everyone.
By now we have sat at the table everywhere, in all the innovation labs and with influential brands.
Everyone knows it can be done to design and use better and sustainable textiles. It is therefore an honor to be asked by CreativeNL, to work together for the better world of tomorrow and to join hands in this to literally take the story further into the world. There are no more excuses to make! In addition, it was a joy to work with Johan Kramer; Johan shows (me) how you can and perhaps should continue to look at the world very openly, uninhibitedly as a child.”
Have the Dutch hit the nail on the head when it comes to applauding and fostering innovative talent? Perhaps the Creative NL model of pedastooling leading profiles is a map that other countries should replicate in a bif to enhance the creative output of their society. Only time will tell which part of the world will be most successful in the innovation race, but GLITCH is big supporter of the community-driven approach that the Dutch are trail blazing along the way
written by Hebe Street from GLITCH Magazine
