Just after they graduated from the Dutch Design Academy, Joep Verhoeven together with Judith de Graauw and Jeroen Verhoeven founded De Makers Van. As their name implies ( The Makers Of ) is the beginning of a sentence, the beginning of a story. Curiosity is their biggest driving force, as most of their projects start with the question: what if..?
‘What connects us is we always want to know. Why, how, look for the edges and explore what is beyond. If it is not there, it does not mean it can’t be. Everything that is here, was at some point a dream in someone’s head. These are the dreams in our head. We are greatly inspired by the way things are made, from high end technologies to traditional crafts. It rubs off in our work.
According to De Makers Van, dreaming seemingly impossible things and going after its realisation with an endless enthusiasm is the key to their creative success. They are story tellers. From fantasy to factory, from statement to product.
Who we are
Although working from different places in the world De Makers Van currently have two design studios in the Netherlands. After spreading their wings in Amsterdam, they moved out of the city to a more rural site in Breda and Rotterdam.
De Makers Van’s work is adopted by Centre Pompidou Paris, die Neue Sammlung Munich, the Victoria and Albert museum London, the Museum Of Modern Art in New York, the Corning museum of glass US, Brooklyn museum NY, KREO galleries Paris and Boimans van Beuningen Rotterdam.
Auction houses: Sotheby's, Christie’s, Philips
Gallery: Carpenters Workshop
We have collaborated with:
Nike, MVRDV, Droog design, Hugo Boss, Wrangler, ING, Kuiper Companions, OMA (Rem Koolhaas), Fatboy, Amnesty international, UN studio, W&K, Swarovski, Piaget.
Where to find us
What else we do
Balancing on the line between contemporary design and art, they do not feel limited to either one. With the Verhoeven Twins, the brothers main focus is dreamscape art. www.verhoeventwins.nl
In De Makers Van Judith’s main focus with the brothers is contemporary design.
Redfort grew as a spin-off of De Makers Van’s Lace Fence in which they quickly cover ground designing architectural facades. www.redfort.nl