Our Partnership with Droog to Make The Brain Dead Rag Chair

(Tue, Jun 07, 22)

When talking about conceptual design, Droog is no stranger. Just like Brain Dead, the design powerhouse is hard to pinpoint under a specific category. Droog was established in 1993 by product designer Gijs Bakker and art and design historian Renny Ramakers with the goal of showcasing Dutch design. Working with a wide array of amazing designers Droog focused on everyday materials and flipping them into playful, beautiful objects. The name Droog translates to “dry” in Dutch, which represents their fun and playful dry humor that they convey with their work. The Rag Chair was one of three designs Tejo Remy presented when he graduated from HKU University of the Arts Utrecht in 1991. The Rag Chair was included in Droog’s first design exhibition in Milan design week, 1993. The chair was a prime example of progress upcycle/sustainable contemporary design and has become one Droog’s most iconic pieces.

We have have teamed up with Droog in making the iconic Rag Chair out of our left over samples, flawed items, and other pieces that would usually be thrown away to create a unique one of a kind series of chairs. Each piece will contain over 50 pieces of Brain Dead tees, shorts, sweatshirts, etc. and give them a new life through design.

The Brain Dead Rag Chair has been captured by legendary Dutch photographer Paul Kooiker in Tejo Remy’s studio. The first piece will be shown at Spazio Maiocchi during Milan Design Week, from June 6th to the 12th. The Rag Chair will be available online for preorder on Tuesday, June 7th via wearebraindead.com.

You can now sit on a Brain Dead t-shirt.

More about Droog

“Was Droog Design a generation of young designers? That’s what it appeared to be. Or was it a movement? Not really. A collective, perhaps? A label? A manifesto? It was none of the above and all of them at once, but never at the same moment – certainly not for the long term.” – Wim Pijbes in “Renny Ramakers – Rethinking Design” by Aaron Betsky, 2019.
It all started in 1993 when art historian Renny Ramakers and designer Gijs Bakker presented a collection of works from a group of young Dutch designers at the Salone del Mobile in Milan under the name ‘Droog’. Ramakers and Bakker had noticed a fresh trend in design in the use of everyday, recycled materials, combined with a down-to-earth mentality. The designs where simple yet humoristic – literally ‘dry’; ‘Droog’ in Dutch.

“Since then, we worked together with numerous designers, launched innovative projects such as Dry Tech, Do Create and Design for Download. We organized events, dinners and festivals, we published books, we had shops in New York, Hong Kong and Las Vegas and carried out projects and exhibitions all over the world, from India to Senegal, from China to New Zealand. Many of the designs from the Droog collection are icons nowadays. With Droog, Dutch Design has a place on the map for good.”
Over the years, Droog became less about things and more about ideas. In 2012, we opened Hôtel Droog in de Staalstraat in the center of Amsterdam. A hotel with a twist. There was only one bedroom, the courtyard is not outside, the flowers in the garden are artificial, and the lobby is actually an art gallery. It was the start of what Droog is today: @droog, a place where you can shop (online), eat, drink, work, meet and think. A place where creative minds meet and where ideas for the future flourish.