oris
Droog postoji od 1993. kada ste s Gijs Bakkerom na Milanskom salonu namještaja postavili skupnu izložbu dizajnera koji su dijelili slične poglede. Produkti koje ste izabrali za tu izložbu bili su prilično drugačiji od tadašnje dizajnerske produkcije. Što vas je potaklo na to?

ramakers
Bila sam glavna urednica časopisa za dizajn Items i dizajn mi je pomalo postajao dosadan. Nekako sam istovremeno u različitim školama za dizajn diljem zemlje uočila jedan novi mentalitet i pomislila da se možda radi o znaku vremena. Svidjeli su mi se svi ti novi predmeti jer su bili toliko drugačiji od bilo čega napravljenog ranije. Prije se sve ticalo forme i funkcije, sve je bilo lijepo i dobro izdizajnirano, ali nije imalo priču. Ja volim priče, a tada sam po prvi put gledala projekte koji su pripovijedali priče. Te priče su bile različite, no sve su imale neku poveznicu. Zajednička značajka svih tih predmeta bila je da su u vizualnom smislu bili prilično “izravni”, ponekad vrlo sirovi. Bili su bez dekoracija i stilski nedorađeni. Samo koncept. Pomislila sam da bi se iz toga mogao izroditi pokret nalik na onaj grupe “Memphis” iz 80-ih godina prošlog stoljeća. To me oduvijek privlačilo – da pokušam objediniti neku novu pojavu, neki novi mentalitet kad ih uočim. Tu je počelo moje sudjelovanje. Zajedno s Gijsom Bakkerom, mojim partnerom u droogu, pokušala sam objediniti i opisati taj mentalitet, dati mu naziv. I uspjeli smo.
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oris
Droog has existed since 1993 when you and Gijs Bakker put up a group exhibition of designers who shared the same views at the Milan Furniture Fair. The products you selected for the exhibition were completely opposed to design production at the time. What was the motivation behind it?

ramakers
I was editor-in-chief of Items design magazine and I was a little bit bored by design. At the same time, I realized there was the same mentality in different schools around the country, so I thought this might have been a sign of the times. I loved all these new items because they were so different from anything that was done before. Before that, it was all about form and function, nicely designed, but without any story behind it. I like stories, and for the first time I saw projects that told stories. The stories were different but they all had a connecting element. What these products had in common was that they were all very straightforward, sometimes very rough. They had no decoration and were stylistically incomplete. They only had the concept. I thought that this might turn into a movement, like in the 1980s with the Memphis Movement. I was always attracted to new phenomena, new mentalities, I always try to bring them together. My participation began there. Gijs Bakker, my partner in Droog, and I tried to bring this mentality together and explain it, give it a name. And we succeeded.
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