Christien Meindertsma (NL)

Christien Meindertsma (NL)

“It is her dream that at some stage we know exactly where everything comes from. Not only our food but also the things we wear and use around us.” ”

Christien Meindertsma is a designer with an investigative mind, from the Netherlands, born in Utrecht in 1980. She attended high school at the Koning Wilhelmina, Colemborg, VWO and from 1998 – 2003 studied industrial design at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Christien graduated with an extremely successful final project which took her all over the world, exhibiting in galleries such as MOMA (New York), The V&A (London) and the Cooper Hewitt Design museum (New York). For her book PIG 05049 she won three Dutch Design Awards (2008) as well as an index award (2009).

Christien has a unique approach to her design, and one that is very personal and intriguing. She explores the life of products and raw materials around us, seeing them as things incredibly important to our survival, well being and comfort ability, Christien strives to find out exactly where they come from and strip them down exploring every aspect of them she possibly can. It is her dream that at some stage we know exactly where everything comes from. Not only our food but also the things we wear and use around us. By doing this, Christien aims to regain understanding of processes that have been completely lost or distant in industrialization. She further explains this as remembering the excitement she felt as a child when she would get a new pair of shoes for the winter. She explained it as a special feeling and that now, people just walk into a store, buy the shoes and wear them not knowing where they come from, and not feeling any personal connection to them. She finds this worthless. She expresses these views in her project FLOCKS, which introduces a whole new level of product awareness.

In FLOCKS- One Sheep Sweater. Christien approaches the use of material in a very conscious way. Describing it as a ‘flock of sweaters’ explains that each sweaters size depends entirely on the size of the sheep that is shorn to make that sweater. She further explains how she likes starting with a sheep rather than a cotton plant because it has a face and it is alive and this way she could get to know it and obtain the best understanding she possibly could about where it ‘came from’ and gain a better understanding on how it grows, in what kind of amounts it grows because a lot of this information is lost as sweaters are knitted all around the world, most often in mass production lines. Along with this Christien provided an identity card for each sweater that was knitted, explaining what type of sheep it was, with the type of wool, where the sheep came from, how old it was, its size, colour and its weight. 

Along with the sweaters Christien has also produced knitted furniture such as ottomans and rugs. She ‘felts’ the wool, resulting in incredibly thick strands of yarn, which she knits with oversized needles, custom made for the task, this bringing an interesting and innovative aspect to her design.

 Each rug she knits is done with a different ‘knit’ or’ knot’ this separating each sheep or type of sheep.

The FLOCKS series led to her next incredibly successful project, PIG 05049, showing all the 185 products that can be made from a single pig. Furthering her curiosity in where products come from and what they consist of, pig explores every possible product that can be made from one single pig. After its death, pig 05049 was shipped in many parts all over the world to begin investigation after three years results led her from the obvious such as pork pie, gelatine and pate, to more interesting and surprising products such as ammunition, photographic paper, train brakes, fabric softener and matches. 

Christien’s approach to design and her interest in where the products come from and urge to gain the best understanding of them she possibly can, adds incredible depth to her work and it becomes increasingly more personal and meaningful.

Christien is influenced by mass production, and strives to create products that counter act it. She wants to bring back the personal ‘home made’ feeling consumer products can have, and create a sense of belonging to them. This she does by personalising her products and really dissecting them and showing true interest in where they come from and how they’re made.

By doing this, her work has contributed very positively to the world of design, creating awareness of products and what people are using. It is too often that consumers blindly purchase goods, whether to wear, eat or merely show an interest to, and rely on advertising for all the information on the product. This way there is no accurate knowledge on the ingredients that make up the product or where it comes from and therefore no personal relationship between the consumer and the product is able to develop.

She is urging people to ask questions on the products they are purchasing and develop an interest in the materials and the methods used to manufacture or produce the end product. Today with the rapid increase and takeover in technology this is something important to consider as many people are losing touch with traditional forms of craft.

Christien markets herself through her various projects. Several of her projects have been published into coffee table books and are available online as well as various stores in the Netherlands, along with this she also attends design conferences giving talks on her philosophy on design and consumerism.