A True Form Purist

Product design

After designing a sink made from felt for his graduation project which he now feels slightly embarrassed about, Dick van Hoff is all about function and honest, utilitarian products. He disdains bling and fashion and is using his new label to produce the sort of long-lasting, no-nonsense products he thinks the market now wants.

By Gabrielle Kennedy /asdf 27-08-2009

It’s the glamour design event of the year, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, but Dick van Hoff doesn’t like it. “Of course it is good for business,” he says, “but I really can’t stand the short-term nature of it all. Every new season a new chair in a new colour. It reduces design to fashion. I like the type of furniture that you can buy and twenty-five years later it is still beautiful.”

Not that Van Hoff removes himself from the tendency. “We are all guilty of it,” he admits. “Me included. That drive to look for new things is very common.”

So when it comes to his own designs, Van Hoff’s intent is to always make longer-lasting products. “I make what I can relate to, “ he says. “And that is something that can conjure up a certain type of emotion. I like to be honest both in my life and in my designs, even if that might create painful situations.”

Cautious of isms, Van Hoff might best be described as a modernist. His utilitarian products always look and feel functional. “I do think aesthetics matter, but if the materials and structure are right, I think the aesthetic naturally follows,” he says. “I don’t like the idea of creating aesthetics. Like with a chair, it has to be strong, you need to be able to sit on it and it has to be comfortable. You design that to happen, follow the golden rules, and I think it will look good.” This year in Milan the design world got to see Van Hoff’s new label, Weltevree, which he started with fellow Dutch designer Floris Schoonderbeek. “We have known each other for a very long time and he is good at business,” Van Hoff says. “He has good relationships with people and knows how to run things.”

When Van Hoff and Schoonderbeek first started talking, Van Hoff had already designed and produced his concrete stove, “but I didn’t really know how to get it commercially produced,” he says. Now Weltevree has a development arm and is reviewing some of Van Hoff’s earlier work for possible production.

“We are a good combination,” he says. “I think these types of well made and honest products are what the market is looking for right now. I just like to design. I spend time developing one idea, then I’m sick of it, and want to move onto the next thing. Now I have many designs lying around, and finally there is a chance to put them into production.”