Social Label marks 10 years of turning disadvantaged people into professional makers

A pop-up dining room at Dutch Design Week features the latest products from Social Label, an ethical design brand that creates work opportunities for makers with disabilities.

Aiming to challenge perceptions around disability, Social Label offers products designed by established names such as Piet Hein Eek and Roderick Vos, and manufactured by makers “with a distance to the labour market”.

The brand is marking its 10th anniversary with Too Big to Fix, an exhibition at The Social Hub in Eindhoven. The show features a range of Social Label products in a colourful scenography that looks like a dining room.

It includes the brand’s latest offerings – a woven textile designed by co-founder Petra Janssen, a collection of wooden stools from Dutch designer Ineke Hans, and a book stand from design duo Kranen/Gille.

Janssen, who is also part of design duo Studio Boot, founded Social Label in 2014 with Simone Kramer of communications agency C-mone.

The pair describe Social Label’s approach as “positive activism” at “the intersection of design, society and economy”.

“Social Label is working to build a growing inclusive movement for an economy in which no one is left behind,” they said.

Social Label products are made at the brand’s factory in Den Bosch. Here, atelier teachers supervise different maker teams, with some formed of existing community groups.

Hans’ furniture collection, titled Trap, was produced with members of care organisation Plan Op Maat and affiliated maker workshop De Winkel die Werkt.

The series is made up of simple wooden stools that can be used in different ways. They can function as seats, tables, plant stands or steps, and one can also become a clothes stand.

The makers painted large dots on each piece as a form of personal signature. The focal colour duo is pink and blue, but there is also a black and gold version.

It is billed as “a quirky, cheerful and multi-purpose collection for young and old”.

Kranen/Gille founders Jos Kranen and Johannes Gille worked with the Atelier Assembly group – for which they are weekly atelier teachers – to create Look, a painted stand for a coffee-table book.

It is the latest in a series of designs they have created for Social Label, including the aluminium-wrapped Kluis table lamp that features in the exhibition.

The contribution by Janssen is Hart, a woven cloth featuring a pattern of pixellated hearts in different colours.

Created in partnership with TextielMuseum in Tilburg, it is produced by Social Label’s Craft Atelier makers.

Other key objects in the exhibition include Edwin Vollebergh’s illustrated Kom tableware, Kiki van Eijk’s drum-like leather Licht lamps, Piet Hein Eek’s wooden Hout chairs and Iris Toonen’s colourful handheld mirrors.

The exhibition concept was originally conceived with support from Isola Design District. Different versions of it have appeared at previous editions of Dutch Design Week, as well as in Milan.

Too Big to Fix is on show at The Social Hub for Dutch Design Week, which runs from 19 to 27 October 2024 at venues across Eindhoven. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

The photography is by Rene van der Hulst.

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