Sander Manse

He is now the co-founder and creative director of Berlin-based communications agency Send/Receive, shaping the cultural image of museums, architects, cultural firms, artists, and even countries. Manse spoke with independent curator and writer Tiiu Meiner about how he went from model-making to PR and what it’s like to work in the media landscape today.

→Tiiu Meiner: Your graduation project was about maquettes, models and making. How did you go from a production background to a communications practice?

Sander Manse: It began with my graduation, where I did some material research, looked at design history, and tried to write up a theory or comparison between how models and maquettes are used in design and architecture. This text won the Simon Mari Pruys prize, and Louise Schouwenberg was on the jury and recommended me to Hella Jongerius. I was invited to do a writing project for her, focusing on colour research. She was working on quite a few large projects for exhibitions and larger research projects, so she needed a kind of overarching theory or narrative.

After working in Berlin at the design studio of Hella for three years, I moved back to Rotterdam because most of my network was still in the Netherlands. I was writing and editing for people,e but I began looking for more permanent positions. Then I saw an ad for a PR and Communications job at OMA, and to my surprise, I got the job. I really admired OMA, so I was very happy about that – I mean when I applied I never thought I’d get the job.

And then I had this position that I wasn’t sure I even knew how to do. But thanks to that attitude from DAE, where nobody really knows what they’re doing and you just kind of have to make it work, I realised I kind of just have to figure it out. It also meant I made this shift as a designer from more production to writing and communication and thinking about the more external aspects of the field.

“It’s a problematic mentality that you have to do everything on your own”

→TM: How did that lead to founding Send/Receive?

SM: At OMA I was working with Jeremy Higginbotham in the PR team, and we had a very efficient team. OMA was so interesting for me because it was never only about architecture. They always spoke about larger contexts like finance, economics, fashion, history, and art. We were super close to the art world for some reason, maybe because a lot of our clients were art collectors or interested in art. These domains really blend together at some point and that’s what we wanted to continue.

So Jeremy and I decided to leave OMA at the same time to start Send/Receive. We had worked on great campaigns with OMA, and we thought that principle could work outside the architecture context too. So that’s how we started our own agency.

We work between various fields and domains, with artists, museums, architecture firms, and large corporations, but also with foundations, political bodies, cities or even countries. Across all of that, it’s all connected through culture, and it’s really very fun.

→TM: Can you reflect on what it’s like to work in an agency rather than being an independent designer/creative?

SM: I think it’s a problematic mentality that you have to do everything on your own, or the myth of the individual designer who solves the world’s problems. I mean, you can be that, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. You can also be a part of a team and learn from people who have been doing something for many years. I think that’s really underestimated.

When you’re young, you can be part of something for a few years and then leave and do your own stuff. You can basically continue your own education if you try many different things and disciplines that you’re interested in. Follow your intuition, and if you have a hunch for something, then pursue that seriously. Trust that process.

“The Netherlands is becoming a desert landscape for cultural criticism in the daily press”

→TM: What are some of the main issues in the media landscape that you are seeing develop now?

SM: I think people are not really aware that a lot of these lifestyle magazines that we enjoy reading are not necessarily independent any more. Most of them are commercial, so they make money by offering editorial services to brands and corporations, which means they cannot really be critical. So it’s important to identify the publications that are still independent.

Also, I think it’s happening all over Europe, but especially in The Netherlands, that it’s becoming a desert landscape for cultural criticism in the daily press. When Issey Miyasaki died, one headline in the Dutch press read, “The Guy Who Designed Steve Jobs’ Turtleneck Died”. They offer almost no space for art or deeper cultural stories because I think there’s a level of cultural illiteracy that the Dutch seem to assume. Not being taken seriously as a reader is somewhat of an insult.

I’d like for media not to separate things, to connect culture to finance and politics because, in the end, it’s all connected. There’s a level of higher quality that I’d like to see more of in that sense.

→TM: What’s next for Send/Receive?

SM: We see ourselves going more beyond the Western market and cultural scene. For example, in the US and Europe, there’s less money being spent on culture, and there are shifting dynamics that we should engage with. We’re super interested in exploring working in areas like the Gulf, Asia, and Western Africa. I think a lot of the attention is shifting in that direction for us. There are a lot of new things happening in these regions – new ideas, new platforms and also really basic economic influences that will shift cultural landscapes and geopolitical relationships.