To help the team of Atelier NL formulate their future plans for the projects ZandGlas and Clay Service, I organised a number of strategy and advice sessions in the winter of 2020 and 2021.
In 2018, Atelier NL were ambassadors of Dutch Design Week. I was then responsible for the project management of the iconic project they launched as ambassadors: ZandGlas. During our collaboration we grew quite close and got to know each other very well. So when I started my own business, Lonny and Nadine decided to ask me to help them with the overal strategy for their studio, and specifically the future of the ZandGlas and ClayService projects.
By then, in 2020, both projects had international recognition, but production complications made it hard to develop new collections that were so frequently asked about. I helped them in deciding on the priorities for the studio, discussed their ambitions for both projects, and made an overal year plan to create focus. By combining my knowledge of the design field, asking questions and reflecting critically on the daily business of Atelier NL, together we worked to an overal strategy.
Unfortunately covid-19 hit in March 2020, which turned our plans upside down. In the winter of 2021 we therefore decided to come together again and implement the new reality into a updated year plan.
More info on Atelier NL’s work: www.ateliernl.com
We rarely think of sand as a resource and its countless contributions to our lives, but this innovative project takes us on a journey that provokes contemplation of our connections not only with sand, the apparently most humble of materials but with the Earth as a whole.
– Michael Welland, geologist and author of Sand