Gerard van den Berg
A fundamental childhood experience is his training as a cabinetmaker. “I learned the craft technically perfect. Under the guidance of exceptionally experienced craftsmen, I learned to scrape and tinker with models, and had to try all possible materials and production techniques. My technical knowledge is an essential contribution to my artistic creativity.”“I enjoy coming up with beautiful things as a designer and then concretizing them as a skilled designer. In doing so, it’s great that your creations are appreciated by many different people from all kinds of cultures. That confirms you in the idea that the quality of good design is universal.”
Gerard van den Berg: “I know very well how people sit and how seating should be made. My technical knowledge is an essential contribution to my artistic creativities.”
A seating unit designed by Gerard van den Berg, so for example a Gerard van den Berg sofa, is in every way the result of designing and shaping. Furniture that offers what it is meant to do – sit comfortably. That obvious combination of creativity and craftsmanship ensures that many of his models are purchased by a global audience. Worldwide, his models are sold and recognized. Often the public sees that it is a Gerard van den Berg armchair. Also, of course, a Gerard van den Berg chair. These are models that really express his character.
The art of design, according to Gerard van den Berg, is to keep thinking very purely. He focuses on a basic idea and avoids the tendency to embellish and complicate it. ‘I try to hold the single, pure form from the first sketch to the final production. In my opinion, an idea does not get better if you keep adding more and more dings to it. The power is in the essence of the premise, not in the trappings. As soon as you need it, something is obviously missing from the idea itself.’
