Design Director Lauren van der Kolk: ‘I am addicted to balance.’

Designer Lauren van der Kolk: ‘I am addicted to balance.’

After an 8-year long career as a freelance designer, Lauren van der Kolk joined Ace & Tate in 2014. The eyewear brand is known for its fashionable quality frames, playfully balancing surprising shapes and colours. ‘Balance is everything when designing eyewear,’ says Lauren, also Jury Member of our Design, Packaging & Product category.

Which project/design are you most proud of? Why?

That would be the collaborations we’ve done in the past. To work closely with creatives outside of the eyewear industry and to combine and translate their visions in frames is inspiring and satisfying. Working together with Lennert & Sander’s was my favourite, their conceptual approach on sunglasses really gave a different view on wearing sunglasses as a statement piece.

If your creative work were edible, what would it taste like?

Not sure, but definitely something umi, as I am addicted to balance while designing. A good design is in balance. And 100% seasoned, cause let’s be honest, when food looks pretty, but tastes like shit, it’s not worth to take a second bite.

Can you recommend one thing that sparked your imagination recently?

That would be the podcast series “verwondering” from Harrald Dunnink, I love how they choose a theme, and approach it from a different angle.

What's the most interesting trend in your professional field for the next decade?

I’d have to say sustainability and how that will affect material usage and production. On a trend level it will be the marriage of technical innovations and eyewear. It starts now with smart eyewear and frames with intergraded headphones, but it will end in the VR world.

What do you do to get into your creative zone?

Drinking coffee, and doodling in my booklet, I am extremely dyslectic, so I barely write, and draw everything. Besides that, talking to other people, I get activated by other people’s stories.

What do you think defines the Dutch creative community?

Our down to earth approach to everything. Not always beneficial, but helpful for designing good campaigns and products and giving solid feedback.