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01. So, what is this site about? We aren't exactly sure ourselves. What we do know is that this isn't a portfolio site, displaying case studies to attract potential clients. This site would sooner scare clients away than attract them. We see this site more as a collection of tiny 'The Making Of...' documentaries, or as one of these extra DVD features, where you can hear the director talking over his/her own movie. Information only intended for the small group of people really interested in our work. Who are these people? Mainly students sending us questionnaires, classes wanting to visit us in our studio, and people requesting specific information about specific projects. It has been our wish for quite some time to have all the background information written out, in an easy accessible format, so that we'd never have to repeat it again, sounding like a broken record-player.
Added to that, we thought it also might be an interesting process, describing our own work. Whether you call it re-evaluation, post-rationalizing or simply navel-gazing, we feel we can gain some insight through it. We can easily imagine that some of you are quite allergic to this kind of outpouring. If you are, you should leave this site immediately, as it will be pure torture for you. As we already wrote, we intended this for a small group of people anyway; it's an acquired taste.
02. As for the specific way in which we show our work on this site, we'd like to mention that we were quite influenced by Bob Gill.
As students at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam), we discovered in the library a dusty copy of 'Forget All The Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design - including the ones in this book'. (It might as well have been one of his other titles, as all his books are practically the same). This book had an immediate impact on us. What impressed us most was its consistent use of the 'problem/solution' model. It's a dialectical model that some might find outdated, rigid, one-dimensional, didactic, archaic. To us, the problem/solution model is most of all beautiful. Of course, it has a tragic side, as every solution only brings forth more problems; and besides, we all know there is no such thing as an objective solution, let alone one perfect solution. But it is exactly this inherent tragic dimension which makes this model so beautiful to us. (In a way, the 'problem/solution' model reminds us of a quote from Jorge Borges: "Nothing is built on stone. All is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone". We think this perfectly sums up our view on design in general: building on sand, as if it were stone).
03. We started with this site in 2003, but soon had to move on to more pressing matters (as there always seem to be more important projects than your own site). A few weeks ago we started working on it again, when we quickly realised there was no way that we could actually finish this site any time soon. So we decided to see this site as a work in progress, and finish the site in installments.
In the Online Archive, you can visit the sections showing the work that we did in 2004 and 2005. In the following months, we hope to finish the other sections (2003-1998), one section at a time. When we will have completed that, we will open the News section, which will basically be our weblog. Around that time, we will also have some sites selected for the Links section. In the future, we also hope to add a Download section. As you see, it'll be a five-year-plan, but we're sure we'll get there.
You can navigate through the Online Archive by using the 'Previous', 'Back to archive' and 'Next' buttons at the bottom, but it is also possible to click on the images. In fact, some images are 'hidden' behind other images, as added bonus tracks, and can only be reached by clicking on (or rolling over) the images. Just try it. It's fun.
We aren't exactly tech-head usability experts, so we have no idea how this site looks on all different combinations of computers and browsers. We have tested it on Apple computers running Mac OS X (10.4.2), using Safari and Firefox browsers. We designed the site in such a way that the whole page should be visible on a 1024 x 768 pixel screen.
04. You'll notice that (in the description of our designs) we often mention the names of printers or other parties that were involved in the production. This is not because of some shady sponsor deals. We just want to give people the credits they deserve.
We live in a society where there is already too much of a separation between manual work and intellectual / artistic work. It's a separation we are strongly against. So, wherever possible, we tried to include the names of all parties involved. (Also, it is our opinion that including this kind of information adds some transparency to the object, and underlines its 'thingness').
While we're handing out credits, we'd also like to thank the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (and to a lesser extent, also the Mondriaan Foundation). Their grants helped us through some financially pretty miserable times in our past. It's a shame that it's nowadays quite fashionable to claim that these subsidies breed a generation of spoiled artists and designers. Those who say that know absolutely nothing about the way these subsidies work, or about Dutch social-democracy in general. For now, let's not get too deep into this matter; we just want to say we're proud to have received these grants, and we're equally proud to live in a society that enabled us to get these grants.
And now that we're thanking people, we also like to mention our friends, and especially our parents. Without their moral support, this site would be quite empty. Finally, we like to dedicate our work to the memory of Rob Stolk.
Experimental Jetset
Amsterdam, 9 March 2005
(c) Experimental Jetset 97-06
Related Link: EJ at Designmuseum