Interview Esther Jongsma Pure Talents Contest

I saw many beautiful things during the evaluation - not just renderings, but also models. Above all, however, it was not the individual themes that struck me but the principle of dealing intensively and responsibly with the project and the entire design process. That was really nice to see. Many of the participants delve deep into the subject matter – whether in the form of research into social aspects, material studies or something else. This also corresponds to my training and way of working. The experiment was at least as important as the aesthetics or commercially motivated results. Many of the design ideas were material-based, tested new techniques and covered all areas of living, right down to the roof tiles! But as we at VANTOT also deal a lot with light, I was particularly struck by the playful lightness which the younger designers experimented with different light sources.

Sustainability is omnipresent, yes, but not a major issue. At the very least, sustainability is no longer the actual purpose or message of a product, which also must be convincing in aesthetic and ergonomic terms. The designs no longer shout so loudly: "Look, I'm sustainable!" Instead, the concept of sustainability is now an integral part of every good design. Designers are tackling the problem from all angles - primarily through materials and technology

In addition to the minimalist character that dominates design today and which also tends to characterise our work, I think we're seeing a tendency to break out into the opposite and enjoy the excess of details, colours and patterns. The new generation of designers is perhaps fundamentally more free and less burdened when it comes to the use of ornamentation. In everyday life in the Netherlands, where I come from, a playful approach to all kinds of decorative shapes, plastics and colours is also noticeable - perhaps we need that in these times.

That many of the works were created in teams. There were a surprising number of multinational and interdisciplinary teams from very different design schools, especially in the submissions in the Spaces category. It is almost like an intercultural collaboration in public space projects, which is often still seen as a primarily national task - that's encouraging.

I don't know if it is because of the time of isolation due to the pandemic, but the communicative side of design is a common weak point in student projects. Some things are too far-fetched or too complicated. A design must be communicative and intuitive to be convincing and successful at a trade fair.

It seems to me that many people are very focussed on themselves and their world. We're all still living in our bubble a little. That's why it is such a fantastic opportunity to exhibit at imm cologne, meet people from all over the world and compare yourself with them. Sometimes it is also good to realise that you're not as unique as you think. For me, it was a great experience back then, after graduating, to get feedback, to see what works and what doesn't, and that you might not be the only one dealing with a certain topic.

My nominated entry at that time - the two-level "Passage" carpet made of wood and glass, whose pattern changes when you move over it - explored low-tech possibilities for interactive design. My partner Sam van Gurp won with the Exploded View luminaire. We founded our studio immediately afterwards. Today, we mainly create lighting concepts, some of them are interactive, as we are always thinking about how people can interact with light and change it intuitively.

I'm just grateful to be able to do this job and work with my hands, to be able to go to a trade fair and meet people from all over the world. All of this has taken on a whole new meaning for me after the pandemic experience. The fact is that the generation of designers whose work we are now seeing in the Pure Talents Contest have a very unusual education because a lot of it had to be done from home. It will be interesting to see what they make of it.