Co-founded and directed by curator and author Renny Ramakers, Droog creates products, projects and events around the world in collaboration with designers, clients and partners. Droog has offices and a store in Amsterdam, and retail partners worldwide, but their beginning was a humble one.
The first exhibition by Renny Ramakers, which had furniture assembled by young Dutch designers from cheap industrial materials or found objects sold so little that she barely covered her costs. Nevertheless, the project attracted so much attention to the unconventional works of Jan Konings, Jurgen Bey, Piet Hein Eek and Tejo Remy that Ramakers became convinced that she had discovered “a clear break from the past”.
Thus, Droog appeared in 1993 to break with the minimalist sobriety of the 90’s, bringing dry, that is “droog”, humour and certain subversion to the industrial design scene.
A clear example of that droog humour is the “too beautiful to hide” hot water bottle, by Wendy Legro for Droog Design in 2011.
All it took to make a hot water bottle beautiful was to design the familiar light bulb shape. A few simple lines clearly evoking the lateral thinking that Droog is known for.
See Droog’s collective works from 2011 here.
http://designmuseum.org/design/droog