How Design Works: when design truly works

“With this programme, we aim to show how the integration of design can contribute to accelerating innovation. We want to help organisations move forward and, in doing so, play a key role in creating connections and realising social values and change,” said moderator Tiara Spalburg at the start. “In order to achieve economic development, we need products, services, and systems, all of which must be designed.”

When research, experimentation, and market introduction come together

Jos Oberdorf, professor at TU Delft and owner of the design agency npk design, said that he works in the shadow of his clients. “We make things that go ‘clonk’ when you drop them on the ground,” said the “hardcore product designer.” From matrix signs above motorways to trains and thermostats: you encounter npk designs everywhere, yet the agency itself remains relatively invisible. “We belong to the category of designers who do not present themselves under their own name, but who serve their clients.” In that collaboration, the central question is how new technologies can be applied in well-balanced designs. “We try to bridge the gap between research, experimentation, and market introduction. There is often a gap of several years between the moment when new knowledge is generated at research institutions and the moment when it is successfully brought to market by businesses. In that process, it is often about whether, as a designer, you can envision what might be possible.”

The more innovative the product, the riskier the business model, Oberdorf warned. “If you create a product that is merely a small adaptation of something that already exists, you face little risk. But if you deliver something truly innovative, the risk is much greater.” As an example, he showed ASML, with which npk design has collaborated for 37 years. At the heart of those machines lies advanced technology. “But the exterior is product design. The high-tech components inside must be optimally packaged in a way that is affordable, transportable, and maintainable. If such a machine comes to a halt, you must be able to remove a component within one minute.”

In this way, design creates financial value, Oberdorf explained. At the same time, there is a growing need for social value. One example is the Be Hybrid office chair made from recycled PET bottles, which npk design showcased during DDW. “It is important that the Dutch design industry acts collectively in seeking this kind of solution.”

2000 little lights in a dark tunnel

That search was also central to what Martijn Paulen, Director of Dutch Design Foundation, said. He began with a warning: although design has power, we must be honest and admit that we have also “designed quite a lot of rubbish.” According to Paulen, 80% of a product’s ecological impact is determined during the design phase. “Sometimes, when I make that statement, I show an image of a landfill. ‘Eighty percent of this was therefore a design choice,’ I then say.” Precisely because design has such a significant impact, there is also the opportunity to use it well from the very beginning.

Paulen illustrated this with the journey undertaken by Bob Hendrikx. As a graduate student at Eindhoven University of Technology, he began developing a mycelium coffin, a living coffin that transforms the body into nutrients after burial and can even absorb heavy metals. What began as a naïve idea evolved into the company Loop Biotech. Recently, Hendrikx’s invention was named one of the best inventions of 2025 by Time Magazine. “So do not dismiss so-called ‘naïve’ ideas too quickly; instead, engage in conversation,” said Paulen.

The Growing Pavilion also illustrates the power of perseverance. In 2019, Paulen still saw a lukewarm response from the construction sector to the mycelium pavilion: “A nice hobby. Nothing to do with my world of concrete and steel. That was more or less the verdict.” Two years later, out of frustration, a new building was constructed using 100 bio-based materials, with each material’s Technology Readiness Level clearly indicated. “Suddenly something shifted throughout the entire construction chain: people realised, ‘Wow, this actually does concern us. And we need to do something with it.’” A construction company even offered to help build it free of charge because they wanted their employees to learn how to work with these materials. And recently, Rabobank invested 100 million euros in bio-based construction. For Paulen, this was the ultimate proof of the power of design: from a small seed to an investment of 100 million. “DDW is, for me, the ultimate vaccine against cynicism. More than 2000 designers, each with an idea about how things can be made just a little bit better: to me, those are 2000 little lights in a dark tunnel.”

‘Internationalising is just as risky as innovating’

From waste containers to building tiles

Pretty Plastic is an example of perseverance, including in the internationalisation of a design. Hester van Dijk explained how an experiment grew into a serious business. Ten years ago, she received a waste container full of plastic, along with the question of whether something could be made from it. “We thought: let’s try to turn it into building material.” During that process, she discovered that plastic consists of different materials (PET, HDPE, LDPE, PP) in various colours, which made the challenge considerably more difficult. After sorting and developing a small in-house machinery setup, including a sorting system, washing machine, shredder, and injection moulding machine , they processed the entire container into building tiles. These were presented at DDW in 2016. The following year, they created the People’s Pavilion on Ketelhuisplein: a circular building for 350 people in which all materials were borrowed and returned undamaged.

That success led to calls from various architects who wanted to use the material as well. What began as a side project turned into so much work that a proper company had to be established. A major obstacle in the transition from exhibition at DDW to developing a commercially viable product was fire safety. “We worked on this problem for two years by switching from yoghurt cups to recycled PVC, which is inherently more fire-resistant,” said Van Dijk. Internationalisation was also complex at this stage: each European country has its own tests and regulations.

Pretty Plastic now supplies tiles in twelve colours for major projects, such as the Tongelreep in Eindhoven and an MVRDV building in Munich. Van Dijk deliberately brought in a professional team. “As designers, we may be good at coming up with new ideas, but not at running a business.” In ten years, Pretty Plastic has sold 15,000 square metres of façade cladding, given 350,000 kilograms of PVC waste a new life, and saved 1.3 million kilograms of CO₂ emissions.

Not how, but when design works

“How a design works exactly, I do not know either,” said Alain Dujardin of the design agency Greenberry. “There is no exact formula for that. I think it is better to give examples of when design works.” Greenberry works exclusively for clients with social challenges, combining social design with digital product development. For example, they developed Feely, an application that supports young people with their mental health. During DDW, Greenberry organised Un/School in collaboration with Dutch Design Foundation, a programme in which participants are introduced to the skills of the future.

Dujardin illustrated his vision with a project for the Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam, where his agency developed an application to guide young visitors through the museum. The first moment when design works, he suggested, is when you dare to let go of the original question. “At one point, the client said: you simply have not answered our question. And I said: yes, but your question was actually not really the question.” Creating an app was not the goal; the goal was how to get young people talking with one another.

“The second moment is when you truly rely on each other’s expertise and genuinely work together,” Dujardin continued. “We hold as few meetings as possible; we are always creating.” He employs co-creation as a working method, bringing together educational experts from the museum as well. The third moment, according to the owner of Greenberry, is when you dare to hold on once something works. “It is important to fail quickly and learn, but also to persevere when something works,” said Dujardin, describing that crucial phase of not just when, but also how design works.

Ministry of System Change

In the closing discussion between Hester van Dijk, Jos Oberdorf, and Alain Dujardin, attention was given to the question of how government ministries can contribute to finding better solutions. Van Dijk advocated for a Ministry of System Change. “The entire system must also cooperate, and all parties must be able to get involved,” Oberdorf added. “If you want to bring about change, you cannot do it alone. You cannot simply call in a designer to perform a trick and expect everything to work out.” Oberdorf referred to the DDD principle: dare, think, do. As an example, he cited the Delta Works. “When the need is great enough, we are indeed capable of bringing different disciplines together,” he said. “For the coming decades, the challenge will be to bring different ‘blood groups’ together. By engaging in dialogue from various perspectives, we can arrive at the best solutions.”