Audax Textielmuseum Tilburg

Winner of design competition

On view up to and including 13 June 2010 in Audax Textile Museum Tilburg

On Friday 21 May this year, the winner of the KRAAKHELDER design competition was made known at the Audax Textile Museum Tilburg. Students of Dutch academies were invited to submit a special, contemporary design for a textile household product. In April, an expert jury, together with the public, nominated four exceptional designs. These designs were then created as a finished product in the Textile Lab of the Museum.

Of the four designers, the jury chose Jolien van Schagen as the winner. Jolien is a third-year student at the textile department of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and designed a contemporary set of linen tea cloths in warm, bright colours. The jury gave the following reasons for their choice: "Jolien has used the traditional weaving motifs in an up-to-date way. You can see that she has used every possible facility offered by the Textile Museum. First she researched the Museum?s library for the right weaves that would suit her design. The colours and materials were very well-chosen and fit perfectly with the first image that was sketched. She gave considerable thought to the finish and discovered and demonstrated various different approaches. She even paid particular attention to the little loop for hanging up the cloth."

The three other nominations are: Rosanne Siebers, second-year student of Industrial Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts; Charlotte van der Horst, fourth-year student of Product Design at the Utrecht School of the Arts, and Martijn van der Velden, third-year student at the Eindhoven Design Academy, Atelier. The jury had the following comments on their designs:

About Rosanne Siebers: "It is the most innovative idea of the four nominations for a household cloth. With further study, this could become a more simplified product. Using this design, however, over half of the material had to be discarded, which is not good. The presentation of the entire project was very professional."

About Charlotte van der Horst: "There was clearly not enough time in the Textile Lab to work out the design. The translation of the design drawing to the final product was taken too literally, it failed to move away from the 2-dimensional drawing. The design sketch promised a layering that was not achieved."

About Martijn van der Velden: "It is a pity that the subtlety of the initial design was not retained in the final product. It is an interesting study, however. Thought was given to both the sides of a household cloth, which is good. The jury found the step of including colour unnecessary, it was actually the initial black-and-white effect that had strength."

Curious about the final outcome? Jolien's tea cloths and the three other nominated designs can be admired in the Textile Lab of the Museum up to 13 June 2010.

The design competition was organised on the occasion of the KRAAKHELDER exhibition, in which the Textile Museum portrays an animated image of the developments in household textiles over the past hundred years. A large collection of textile products are on view by various leading designers and companies, as well as original pattern and design drawings, price lists, books, photographs and films. KRAAKHELDER is open until 13 June 2010.