///EXPO SUSTAINABLE LUXURY

Juliette Warmenhoven is Dutch designer living in Hillegom, The Netherlands. Juliette presents: Everyday Growing

1. What is your story behind your product? With the Everyday Growing collection I let the viewer / user with a micro-eye look to organic growth and take them into poetic dreams of little stories which still leave enough space for own interpretations, memories and humor. I work associative and devoted much attention to the details of the product at the level of story, material, color, and shape. Every product I approach again as a new growth process. leading to a large variety of different exhibitions of the living grow.

Everyday things are a regular source of my exhibits. These Are Things that get little attention because they often are considered to be too simple. Such as living plants at home. Some time ago I made an observation that living growth is often seen as something that is easily replaced by a plastic version. As for me, this isn’t what a plant at home really means. Grow the transience and witness a daily development, and the spontaneous things that happen. When new buds like pearls in daylight show up for the first time. Like a climber that is nimble enough to make pirouettes around thin wires, turning day after day. Besides the development of nature itself, I also show the manipulated side. Creating a fusion of nature and culture that shows that the borderline between nature and culture isn’t so particular anymore.

2. What are your values of luxury? Luxury is in my opinion not as ingredients of a recipe to describe. When I look at luxury into material use, I don’t place materials in a category luxury or  not luxurious and I give more equal values to them. How something is implemented and the quality of realization, do have clear provisions for imparting luxury. Another aspect for a value of luxury is the experience the work will appeal to. To look at it from a differed view to dream, explore, wonder and continued to fantasy. What I find a beauty of luxury of making visual work.

3. Where do you find inspiration? My inspiration comes mainly from my everyday life, things I see around me, where I’m enlarge my interests but I also create a lot of inspiration from my own experimenting and recording of materials and compositions.

4. How and why do you engage in aspects of sustainability in your design? (what kind of materials do you use and how do you produce?) The Everyday growing collection is designed by an purpose of getting attention for organic growing especially to look closely of what a plant at home really means.Grow the transience and witness a daily development, and the spontaneous things that happen.  That can’t be replaced by a plastic plant which is just only  a picture of nature.

The materials from which the collection is produced are very diverse, glass, plastic, paper, Fiberglass, brass and ceramics. which materials perhaps could be reused and not be reused, but I intend to focus rather on a design that will not be reused. As a designer I am constantly balancing between design and art, This exclusivity is again define the durability of a luxury product / object.

5. What does sustainability (luxury) mean for you as a designer? Sustainability (luxury) for me as a designer means paying attention to the background of why that product is designed and how it’s made.

Also the edition from my opinion will be important. (For small and often exclusive) editions is it much more self-evident If theres lot of hand work going on thats for me a likely valuable element in realizing a design. ”The interaction of the designer and his product will also be reflected into the customer

6. What does sustainability (luxury) mean for you as a consumer? As a consumer I do pretty much second-hand purchases and when used will be not available or If new will be a better quality than I buy it new. My purchases are often not temporary. I’m not prone to buy gadgets doing a purchase, Purchase is a considered focus on quality and not for a hype.

7. What does sustainability (luxury) mean for you in general? Sustainability in general, for me quality, vision, confidence and exclusivity.

8. What is your vision on the future concerning design and sustainability? Besides ecological materials goes sustainable design often in a way of how to clean as possible to manufacture, reuse and recycle. Which in many sizes less attention to the maintenance of a product or rather a slowing consumption. From a demand for products with a distinct identity, exclusivity, emotional values, well-developed and thorough implementation, I think we definitely keep busy and not just to focus on luxury only. From my view shows that awareness and aesthetics goes together very well and the future not only new products wants but a story in one from beginning till end.

the things I like to do: material experiment, secondhand shopping / flee market. making visual poetic stories, go to the park with a nice picnic, doing research about technique, color, material, traveling, beach combing

my links: Steiner & Lenzlinger, CLUB DONNY, Miss Motley (I miss her), Midas Dekkers, t.e. - Thomas Eyck, Teylers Museum Haarlem