Nominee: Henri Winkelman Award 2019
On 29th of May 2019, the annual award show of the Henri Winkelman Award will take place at the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA). The Henri Winkelman Award has been created seven years ago by the Stichting Ondernermersbelangen Rotterdam. This foundation supports young innovative entrepreneurs on their way with two incentive prices of € 10,000 and € 5000.
Forever Studio, Bienke Domenie (24) and Sara Degenaar (28), Lifestyle Transformation Design graduates, 2015:
Forever Studio is driven by research, working on new developments and experimenting. Forever means forever looking for unexpected combinations between autonomous and commercial design. Working in the intersection of art, design and spatial design, we look for our aesthetics in everyday life.
Almost without a plan but full of ideas, we immediately continued to set up a permanent studio after graduating from the academy. The fact that we are now working on designs and assignments every day shows our Rotterdam hands-on mentality. What sets us apart from other design studios is that we have graduated as lifestyle transformation designers and therefore have a different way of working than traditional product designers. We tend to think of the bigger picture than of the product itself. Our designs often arise from experimenting with materials intended for other purposes. By standing in the workshop and making everything ourselves, we learn what the possibilities are of the materials we work with, and we often do the most beautiful and fun discoveries during this work.
Our beautiful studio on the bank of Maas river, with a view of the Erasmus Bridge, the Willems Bridge and the Kuip, gives us every morning the feeling that we are at the heart of the city.
Working in the intersection of art, design and spatial design, we look for our aesthetics in the everyday life.
The attention for Forever has risen considerably during the Dutch Design Week 2017, where we had presented our 'halo series'. We have been pointed out by Elle Decoration and Westwing as one of the five 'talents to watch', next to our work being published in Elle Decoration and sold on Westwing. Afterwards, the collaboration with fashion designer Peet Dullaert had followed, we were asked to design sculptures matching Peet's new collection to be presented in Paris during Paris Fashion Week. During the Fashion Week, we have received an editorial shot, exclusively for Vogue Italia! With our project 'sign series', a sequel to 'halo series', we have participated in Ventura Future in 2018, during Salone del Mobile in Milan. Our products Bench and Stool have been included in the new exhibition at Frozen Fountain in Amsterdam, and since May 2018 both can also be purchased at Groos Rotterdam. During Salone del Mobile we were approached by London Design Fair and Maison et Objet, two design fairs we can now add to our list.
In Milan, we were often asked where we came from and when we answered 'Rotterdam' people's reaction was almost always 'of course!'. In this raw and ever-renewing city that we do see as the creative centre of the Netherlands, we feel very much at home. We are happy and proud to be part of the ever-growing group of artists and designers who set up here.
