www.gekelensink.nl

WHO ARE YOU ?
After my study at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts I have always worked as an independent designer. Together with other designers, I worked first under the name Container Ontwerpstudio and later WISE people fulfilling assignments for various clients. A view years ago I started designing furniture and products under my own name. Now I am working on an autonomous collection and for commercial labels. The various furniture and products were already shown at exhibitions during the Dutch Design Week, Designhuis Eindhoven, Gallery Vivid Rotterdam and at the Salone in Milan. I use to work together with other designers, craftsmen and interns. This flexteam works well and gives me the opportunity to create the best a team around a project. In this project I mainly work together with Nikki van Onna, graphic designer, a creative thinker and a master in designing picts and info graphics.

WHAT IS YOUR VISION
Driven by the thought that our world is getting more complicated, I began a new collection of products using my own interpretation of this subject. By using the name Forward to Basic I began the search for the archetypical worth’s of a product and the development from the source. Also, by simplifying the production process, I found the originality in the design again. My collection consists of a group of products where new ideas and traditional processes, high tech and (s)low tech are combined.

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT? 

Standing where I am now as an independent designer. A couple of years ago I made a switch from being a project designer to a product designer. Surviving in a overloaded designers market is not easy. I am proud of the way we are searching as a group for new area’s to develop and be needed especially in a responsible way.

WHAT CHALLENGES DOES THE DESIGNWORLD FACE
To get access to the large mass consumers group and break through the disposable culture. This huge group does hardly think about sustainability on quality, has no knowledge of materials or where it comes from and no responsibility, all this against a great need for cheap products (including loads of furniture). It would be great to achieve more awareness that f.e. the selling price determines the production process and the choice of materials. A lot of cheap low quality products are shipped in from the other side of the world. It fills the need for buying products, the sad thing is that these products won’t last long and will be thrown away to soon. In this money driven world it is hard to force manufacturers and traders to change their way of producing and get more responsible. It’s also hard but still easier to change the consumer.

WHAT WILL YOU DO IF YOU WIN THE GREEN DESIGN COMPETITION? 
Celebrating this moment with the people that collaborated in this project on no cure no pay base. After that I hope to continue this project, bring it in production and to the market, building up a label and develop the collection. Besides that the money creates the opportunity to broaden the communication campaign to strengthen the effect on awareness.