invitation
	The best compliment ever paid to Dutch Design came from an American. In 2004, Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, published an ode to the design from the Netherlands : False Flat: Why Dutch Design is So Good. In this book, Betsky characterizes Holland as ‘the world's center of great modern design’. He says that nowhere else in the world there is “as much innovation, experimentation and sheer beauty in architecture, urban planning, industrial design, and graphic design as in this small country”. To underpin his statement, Betsky presents in his book lavish photos of the embroidered ceramics by Hella Jongerius, the Treetrunk bench by Jurgen Bey, and the 'No sign of design'-furniture by Richard Hutten. Clever conceptions, in-your-face designs, successful examples of Dutch design. But how Dutch are these designs actually? Just like the Bone Chair by Joris Laarman, the Random Light by Bertjan Pot, and the pieces of furniture by Atelier van Lieshout, these designs are all 'Made in Rotterdam'. Rotterdam is the number one design city in the Netherlands. Designers are trained at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Design shops are mushrooming in Amsterdam. But Rotterdam is the city where most designers settle after their graduation. Under the title Orange Alert, an initiative of the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, New York's most prestigious museums, retail stores and exhibition spaces presented in 2005 an unprecedented roster of Dutch design projects. The sequel to this initiative will take place during the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. Rotterdam-based VIVID Gallery presents in conjunction with the Centre for the Arts Rotterdam the exhibition Dutch Design Port/Orange Alert 3, a show with work by ten designers from the capital city of 'the world's center of great modern design', that is: Dutch Design, made in Rotterdam. Arjen Ribbens
	thanks to
	vividvormgeving.nl