‘A collaboration with two different people’.

Mae Engelgeer / Jos Jansen

Written by Thara Nabbe

Pictures from the site of Mae Engelgeer. You can see the new samples with the different colours and thickness to make a new design with the old craftsmen techniques.

The most of the time when you visit a museum there is a lot of end results but how became the designer till the end result? Which steps did he/she made tot make the right choice? These question popped up in my head when I visited Het Nieuwe Instituut.  The exposition ‘Speculatief design archief’ shows you the steps and choices from the designer and with this background information you see a lot of different things in the end result than before.

One of these designers is Mae Engelgeer. Textile design is always the start of her work. From her period at high school until the end of her studies at AMFI and Sandberg Instituut, she has been working with textile. A few years ago, she met Jos Jansen, the owner of a weaving factory in the east of The Netherlands. His factory makes carpets for high-end interior shops and also for private clients.

Mae felt Jos’s business was something that can be used as a big inspiration. Boxes full of samples, prototypes and colours formed the archive of this weaving factory. Together with these sources of inspiration, Mae started designing. She made a lot of small weaving samples with different thicknesses to make a large colour palette out of different sorts of yarn. You can see the different between the samples from Mae and Jos. Not only because the look a little bit older but also the colour pallet has changes the last few years. When you see the samples of Jos there a more colours with the same tone colour and by Mae there are different colours and thicknesses which really jump out of the whole design/samples. But with each their own inspiration and way of thinking the craftsmen techniques are most important. This is something what Mae really liked and with this way of working, the craftsmanship is something that is combined with the modern way of working of this time.

These are the samples From Jos. When you look to the two different pictures you can see the colour combinations. Also the thickness of the yarn is in own sample the same.

Jos and Mae’s work is part of the education depot in the exhibition. This is the place were designers started with making prototypes with different materials and also work with different techniques. The interesting part is that you learn things from both persons, Jos learns you more about the craftsmen techniques and Mae that techniques with new materials and colours. You see not that much drawings but each samples have his own tag were you can read what the technique was and how it is made. That’s the reason that you can use the samples in the futures by development new products. Jos and Mae use the final material more to find out which way is the best way of making their end product.

Sources:

https://speculatief-design-archief.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/achtergrond

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