http://cherylgallaway.com

A visit to the London Design Festival '09 and participating in the Dutch Design Week '09 got me thinking again about how these different cultures might shape design and the design process.

Cultural Creatives
After 8 years developing as a designer in The Netherlands, next year I will return to the UK and continue my practice. When I arrived in The Netherlands, I was taken aback by the many cultural differences between the Brits and the Dutch. I had to work hard and adapt quickly. I was motivated to learn a foreign language and this helped me tap into the Dutch ways of thinking and seeing.

With a move back across the channel on the horizon I am reaching out once again to learn more about a design culture, this time my own, British. For this move I am preparing myself for what could be another design culture shock.  Exploring the two design cultures and talking to other designers, here and there, seemed like a good place to start this exploration. Last month whilst visiting the London Design Festival and this week in Eindhoven at Dutch Design Week I have been asking a number of participants and visitors what their experiences of  British/Dutch design cultures are?

To paraphrase British Design Journalist Liz Farrely  ‘Clients tend to know what they want, and the designer is functional in producing that.’ The designer does what the client wants. The English know their place. The Dutch on the other hand don’t like to be told what to do. They use the Polder Model, which is a consensus decision-making model, where everyone has a chance to voice his or her opinion, including the designer.

Dutch designer – and writer for the column: Daily 500, has given me some interesting food for thought during this week. We met over dinner and quickly discovered a shared dislike for a typically Dutch expression: ‘Doe maar gewoon en dan doe je al gek genoeg’ which roughly translates to ‘be normal and you are wild enough’. What this expression makes apparent is how there is a lean towards moderation and conformity within Dutch culture. As much as we dislike this cultural trait, it has an upside. A designer only needs to do something slightly strange to stand out from the rest. It seems that doing just a little more (in moderation of course) than conforming has its rewards.

I don’t believe that by just being in Holland, your creativity will be stifled, I do believe it can if you let it. I can also hear the cries ‘you Brits are the ones who are repressed! Just look at your class system and hierarchies!’ I cannot disagree with this, we are repressed. What is interesting is that British designers can also turn what could be a disadvantage into an advantage. When speaking to Welsh designer Alex Rich (Field Trip), he told me that ‘struggle is a big part of the British design process, the British like to struggle and moreover it produces good work.’ Hearing this took me back to my student days at Central St Martins in London, where the competition was fierce and life as a design student ‘a struggle’.

In comparison to this The Netherlands has been a very comfortable haven to develop as a designer, with ample time for discussion and experimentation with peers as well as with clients. From the outside, it may seem that in the UK there is a more noble fight being fought. Where the monster ‘Hierarchy’ is very visible and designers can conquer  the roles ‘Junior, Mid-weight and Senior’ to become superheroes. A status which exists to justify the hard climb and encourage others to do the same.

An invisible but no less noble fight is raging in the Netherlands, where conformity is not only suffocating but can also offer comfort in times of creative doubt. The British battle has both sides clearly defined, whereas the battle for the Dutch is somewhat harder to see. Either way working on both sides of the North Sea presents it’s own challenges and when you know your fight, it can be a lot of fun.