During Dutch Design Week 2023, the Design Academy Eindhoven once again presented its latest class of graduates. The show is often filled with inspiring conceptual design projects, and is a perfect place to find the next set of rising stars – making it a must-visit for most of those visiting the city-wide festival.

This year, more than 220 projects took over the Heuvel shopping center in the middle of Eindhoven, presenting projects that were accompanied by a digital and physical public programme. “Presenting the Graduation Show 2023 in this central, active location will prompt visitors to reflect on how design shapes the way they dwell, work, travel, and play in cities today, and how this will inevitably change as we face the social, technological, and environmental challenges of tomorrow,” the school said.

From those on show, we’ve whittled down the graduates to watch:

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Jiheon Chae

“When It Comes Out” is designed to blur the boundaries between URL and IRL realities in the form of a set of tableware. The project takes on a digital aesthetic, but applies it to things fully existing in the real world. “Jiheon Chae suggests seeing digital no longer as a tool or medium but as a style,” DAE says. “To test this idea, she asked herself what objects related to the behaviour of eating—in a way, the farthest you can get from the digital realm—would look like if they had a digital style.”

Tycho Willemse

Metal is certainly having a moment in furniture design, but for Tycho Willemse – the material remains undervalued. As such, the designer wanted to showcase its endless possibilities through “Dent By Dent”, and crafted pieces that pushed the limit of metal while reducing the amount actually needed to create a ubiquitous object, such as a stool. “Metal can take any shape or form that you want,” Willemse said. “I see it as a rigid plastic that will stand the test of time and can easily be recycled when it reaches the end of its life span.”

Dario Erkelens

Abandoned objects provide the foundation for Dario Erkelens’ graduate project. Having moved to the Netherlands form Switzerland, the designer was surprised at the amount of discarded objects left in the city’s streets. Soon, he began to collect the so-called “abandoned treasures” and built them into new sculptural furniture pieces for a restaurant and bar. “Trash for you is a treasure for me”, Erekelens adds.

Eline van Dijkman

Waste material was a strong theme throughout this year’s graduate cohort, it seems. For Eline van Dijkman, rubber is what came into focus. Using chunky cut-outs of sheet material, Van Dijkman has designed an outdoor furniture set that is circular. While industrial in its aesthetic, the collection is polished in its clean, sharp lines. “Working with the company DRI Rubber which processes and mechanically recycles rubber worldwide, van Dijkman explored the circular economy of rubber as an opportunity to create new and innovative products which fit into the world of design,” DAE added.

Eric Treillard

A childhood spent playing streetball in suburban Paris informed Eric Treillard’s project, “The City is a Playground”. The goal of the project is to allow those who do not have access to formal courts a place to play – wherever they are. The aesthetic of the multifunctional mobile object is inspired by the streets of Paris, while conceptually, Treillard drew upon the writings of Henri Lefebvre, and the imperative to reclaim existing spaces in order to produce new space.

Lucien Nicou

We’re not often encouraged to play with our furniture and lighting. But in the case of Lucien Nicou’s LLL_01 lamp system – messing around is encouraged. The LL_01 (Light Lenses Lab) piece shapes its light through a set of various lenses. Users are able to change the projected beam to create either a soft, diffused glow or a strong spotlight. “The set demonstrates a love for precision and clean industrial aesthetics,” the designer says. “It is designed for those who are passionate about light, technical components and curious about how objects work.”

Mil Gevers

This inflatable house desinged by Mil Gevers features seven ways to enter. Colors are used to represent different identities, and are intended to draw different characters into the center of the structure. For Gevers, this represents the way that we exist as a collective, rather than an individual. “When we jump together, we playfully move through gravity’s pull, creating a collective experience,” the designer says. “It presents a space that takes away the pressure of explaining and lets the act of bouncing together take over.”

Willem Zwiers

These objects may look to be made from stone, but they have actually been constructed from old books. Designer willem Zwiers developed a method that began with slicing thrift store books into parts, before joining sections togeter and hardening the material using water and wood glue. “The resulting flowing lines of and variety of colour due to the combination of new and aged paper creates a texture resembling marble,” the designer said. Zwiers also presented a second project named “Willem’s Ceramics Atelier” (pictured in header), where playful ways of making with clay were encouraged.

Niels Nijman

Niels Nijan employed an AI image generator in order to explore the notions of authenticity and desirability in the fashion world. Using keywords like “Louis Vuitton”, “Lacoste” and “shoe bag” – selected for their association with Parisian youth fashion – the designer generated AI images that were then transformed into 3D models and printed with a smooth paint finish. The final products were presented in a showroom – as if they were luxury items themselves. “The substitution blurs the significance of what is authentic and what is not,” the designer says. “These material illusions explore notions of worth and desirability embedded in the fashion world.”

Ralf Gloudemans

Another designer exploring the fine line between our digital and physical realities, Ralf Gloudemans developed a series of objects that come from a craftperson’s perspective. Titled “Transcending: Mesh to Matter”, the project makes use of virtual reality, with 3D mesh models sculpted and finished by hand to create a partially handmade, partially machine-made aesthetic. “It pays tribute to the importance of handcrafted items of cultural exchange, while offering a glimpse into what is possible when the physical and digital realms collide,” Gloudemans adds.

Dutch Design Week took place from 21 to 29 October, 2023.