5 September to 18 November 2022
During this period, I did an internship at Blok Plaatmateriaal in Beverwijk. Founded in 1981 under the name Houthandel Blok Plaatmateriaal Beverwijk, Blok Plaatmateriaal Beverwijk has grown into a company specialising in the supply and processing of wood, sheet material and decorative sheet material such as MDF, multiplex and HPL of A-brands like Abet, Unilin and Formica and veneer from brands like Decoflex.
For several years, Blok has set up the BlokByCarina label together with Carina Riezebos. Designer Carina creates designs for Blok Plaatmateriaal using wood, sheet material and decorative sheet material such as MDF, plywood and HPL. She works with A-brands such as Abet, Unilin and Formica, and veneers such as Decoflex.
Hout Pro + 2022
From 1 to 4 November 2022, the woodworking trade fair 'HoutPro+' will take place in the Brabanthallen 's-Hertogenbosch.
All the characteristic features of each Blok Plaatmateriaal supplier will come together here to form a whole. All the work will be presented in four Blok stories that will trigger and amaze the visitor's imagination. In addition, in the middle you will all come together at the Blok Bar, and here the real story will be told.
Together with another intern, we got to design the floors and walls for the stand. This was a great challenge and certainly a lot of fun to have done.
The theme of the stand is Nature & Nurture. What is nature and what is our behaviour? What have we been handed down through our DNA and what are we responsible for ourselves. What do we let be as it is and what will we change. And what role does design and lifestyle play for us in this transformation into the future. What role does design play for our customer today?
Stand 1 - Underwater
The birds and the underwater scene are metaphors for the climate problems we have. In a surreal poetic way, they explore the signs of the times and awareness of these things.
This stand I had the pleasure of designing the floor and wall. Digital print was central to this stand. For instance, I chose an image where you are actually standing on the seabed and looking up at the sky and mountains. The image on the walls was made up of three separate images and these were combined into a beautiful design.
Stand 2 - Droedles black and white
The "droedels" are the metaphors of man's behaviour to express and explore himself. In a surreal poetic way, they symbolise man's subconscious mind and the power of creativity.
Initially, the others intern here had started the design, here the idea was to cover the whole space with droedel drawings, but we ended up working on this together.
She had first made some little drawings and then I added my drawings and by adding some small things we made it blend together nicely. After this, we put this in an app where we could play with mirroring the design, which is how we actually ended up with the design below, which really fits the theme perfectly.
On Friday 28 October, we set off early to Den Bosch, where we are building up for the hout pro plus fair.
Here are some photos of the build-up process. It's super fun to see where it started and where it will eventually become.
1 November, it's the first day of the fair. And together with Pip, I was also allowed to stop by to have a look at the fair.
It was great to see what the final result turned out to be. I am very proud of all the work we put into it. And certainly what the end result turned out to be.
(01 The Unilin Story
The ''droedels'' are the metaphors of the behavior of men to express and explore. In a surrealistic poetic way they symbolize the subconscious mind of men and the power of creativity.
(02 The Arpa Fenix / Formca Group
The birds and the underwater scene are the metaphors for the climate problems we have. In a surrealistic poetic way they explore the signs of the times and the awareness of these things.
(03 The Abet Palazzo Collection
The Palazzo collection can be seen as a metaphors for nature and time. The Palazzo's will be there long after we are gone, like mountains and the earth.
(04 Decospan Black Veneer
The Black Veneer collection can be seen as the pure gold that nature gives us. The power and force of the irregularity of nature is a metaphor for our weakness for control. Nature will always adept and grow by circumstances.
Below is a video that takes you through the booth. It really looks like you are walking through the space yourself.
Qpanel
After we finished the designs for the stands, the three of us (Carina, Pip and I) went to Qpanel in Kerkrade. Qpanel is a company that makes digital prints for walls, floors, ceilings and furniture. These prints are durable, impact and scratch-resistant.
Similarly, Blok Plaatmateriaal has now entered into a collaboration with Qpanel. Because digital prints will really become a part of the future and it is therefore important that you can show your clients that you too are going along with this.
We visited their company to take a look at the process and to discuss the designs for the Hout Pro+ fair.
Finally, we also got an explanation about the scanner they use, which can reach up to 1000 dpi, which is really a lot. And this is certainly reflected in the scanned images. It was great to be able to take a look around and we learned a lot about everything concerning digital prints.
Dutch Design Week 2022 - MondiArt
Carina is at mondiart with BlokByCarina at dutch design week. This is where we went to build this and also got a tour of the company.
Modiart has a showroom with Weavings, Velvet Decopanels, Embroideries, canvas, Mirrors, AluArt, AcrylicArt, Walltextiles, Cushions, Art carpets, Framings, Changeable Artframes and more.
They design, develop and produce many of their products themselves in their own 1500m2 workshop in Eindhoven. More and more of these products are becoming circular.
They do more than just wholesale. Hotel projects, White labels, Private labels, we can help and support you in many ways.
So for dutch design week, we set up a small stand with some of Carina's well-known and new products. We also consulted with Mondiart on the background. Here will now be a canvas with an image by Edland Man, who had created this image for this year's Milan fair.
Christine Boland
This period, we had the opportunity to attend two trend lectures by Christina Boland. This was a really cool thing to attend and I learnt a lot from it.
If you want to know what this was all about, keep an eye on my blog, I will post about it soon.