VEENHUIZEN
Veenhuizen has a rich history of hierarchy. Since its beginning as a colony for the poor, to its more recent history as a prison-village. The class-difference between the inhabitants have always been made clear in many ways. Most noticable are decorative differences on the facades - still visible today.
I took these different 'decorations', abstracted them into shapes and made a method for patternmaking based on these strict rules. The publication below is the 'manual' that can be used to make all kinds of different patterns.
Patterns & Products
To show the variety of patterns, I made a book where I collected about a 100 different patterns. These patterns were translated to a few products; packaging paper for the local museum, cupboards screenprinted with prisoners, fabrics for me to wear, and a knitting pattern developed with the local knitting store.
The knitting pattern consists of a few different 'blocks' that can be arranged in any way. The knitter can create their own design by choosing their own combination of blocks and colours. Product-examples were made by local knitters.
Communication & Participation
During Dutch Design Week, I didn't just want to show what I did but also let people experience it. I created stamps from a few shapes and printed out 3 basic grids. Visitors could stamp their own design, I scanned them in, turned it into a pattern and emailed it to the participant. More than 1000 patterns were made.
