Designers chosen for Heineken Open Design Explorations Edition 1: The Club
Amsterdam, 19th October 2011 - Heineken today announced the nineteen emerging designers that have been chosen to co-create a pioneering nightclub concept, as part of Heineken Open Design Explorations Edition 1: The Club. Esteemed designers working in the fields of product, graphic, motion, fashion and interiors selected the up-and-coming talent, which they believe have the vision and talent to create an exciting, prototype for future nightclubs.f
Designers were chosen from four different countries - Japan, Brazil, USA and Italy - where scouting events, supported by global creative network PechaKucha (www.pecha-kucha.org), were held in August and early September. Through these events, the best design talents were found. More than 200 designers applied to be part of the programme.
The nineteen selected designers, who all showed they love nightlife and proved their creativity, now have the chance of a lifetime to create their ideal club. They will form cross-discipline, cross-cultural design teams and will bring together an exciting blend of ideas, influences and insights, and through open innovation will collaborate and showcase their progressive ideas about nightlife. Their concepts will be brought to life by Heineken as a 'pop-up club' and presented to the world at Milan's prestigious design fair in April 2012.
Mark van Iterson, Manager Global Heineken Design & Concept said, "As a design team at Heineken we always believe in pushing the boundaries in terms of innovation and surprising with new and exciting ideas that make us part of people's conversations. In this project we've brought together an exciting collection of designers who we feel are going to influence the way we live our lives. Their outlook and opinions are progressive and challenging. Within the unique structure of the project, they have the ability to co-create their ideal club and in the process create pioneering concepts that could influence the clubs of the future, and ultimately enhance the social and beer drinking experience."
Forming a central platform to facilitate global design co-creation, a unique online creative hub has been developed where the designers and industry coaches can share inspiration, insights and concepts. Alongside the designers and coaches, a number of handpicked consumers are providing personal insights from their own clubbing experiences.
In the first stage of their design journey, the teams visited popular nightlife spots in their resident cities and observed the environments and behaviours of clubbers gaining a thorough insight into social interaction. These will help inform the designs and aid the creation of a nightclub that has the clubber's needs at its heart.
Yukihiro Shoda, a motion designer from Tokyo, shared his enthusiasm at being selected to join Heineken Open Design Explorations, "The project has given me an exciting opportunity to work with designers from across the world and from other disciplines. The collaboration element will allow each of us to really explore our potential, and the input from consumers is something that will help inspire me to push my ideas to new levels."
Graphic designer Sandra Garcia Pagola, a resident of New York City, said of the opportunity, "To present the conclusions of our journey during Milan's famous design week is an unbelievable opportunity for any designer. I feel really lucky that Heineken has created this opportunity and selected me alongside the other designers to showcase our work on such a revered global stage."
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Notes to editors
The 19 selected emerging designers and their design specialisms:
N.B. Content is available on request including headshot photographs and portfolios
New York City
· Philip Sierzega (Motion design)
· Lee Gibson (Interior design)
· Michelle Wu (Fashion design)
· Sandra Garcia Pagola (Graphic design)
· Kirkland Summers (Graphic design)
· Adam Aleksander (Product design)
Tokyo
· Alistair Townsend (Interior design)
· Yukihiro Shoda (Motion design)
· Kazuhiko Hayakawa (Product design)
· Miku Sega (Interior design)
Milan
· Emanuele Magini (Product design)
· Giuseppe Conca (Product design)
· Vicenzo Amendolagine (Interior design)
· Gianluca Macaluso (Motion design)
Sao Paulo
· Fabricio Lima (Motion design)
· Daniela Colnaghi (Interior design)
· Patrick Kampff (Fashion design)
· André Coelho (Graphic design)
· Brunno Jahara (Product design)
Design coaches:
Graphic design (including packaging and identity)
· Ramses Dingenouts: Creative Director at DBOD & Eugene Bay: Founder and Director of VBAT
Product design
· Henk Stallinga: The man behind Studio Stallinga
Fashion design (including textiles, clothing and wallpaper)
· LEW: The fashion duo Kim Leemans and Merel Wicker
Motion design (including lighting, interactive and video)
· Luc Schurgers: Founder of MiniVegas, state of the art interaction and animation design lab
Interior design
· Sergio Fabio Rotella: Founder and director of Studio Rotella, trend-setting architects of top-end clubs and bars
Media contacts
Heineken International:
Marnie Kontovraki: marnie.kontovraki@heineken.com +31 (0)20 5239 355
iris PR:
Robin Davies: robin.davies@iris-worldwide.com +44 (0) 20 7654 7657 / +44 (0) 7713 151147
Rachel Newman: rachel.newman@iris-worldwide.com + 44 (0) 20 7922 8190
About Heineken
The Heineken brand, that bears the founder's family name - Heineken - is available in almost every country on the globe and is the world's most valuable international premium beer brand. Additional information is available on www.heineken.com and www.heinekeninternational.com/presscentre.
About Design for Heineken
Design (and innovation) is and has always been a key driver for the Heineken brand
· The brand now has a new, fresh and consistent identity worldwide
· The packaging redesigns go beyond the expected and continue to receive accolades
· Throughout history Heineken has had a lasting influence and changed the way people enjoy beer: It was the first to introduce green beer bottles and brought draught beer to the home through DraughtKeg.
Award Winning Design
Heineken's STR bottle won an iF award in February 2011; a Silver Lion at the 2011 Cannes Lions; a Dieline award in Chicago, silver in the packaging category at ADCN; and on 29 September, in New York, it won the Platinum Pentaward in the Beverage category. On 24 September in Tallinn, the Design Management Europe Award jury honoured Heineken in the Large Companies category for its 'superior branding strategy and touch points execution'.
