DAE students’ collaboration with Hermès’ Petit H initiative to feature at Design Fest Gent

Taking place at the end of April, the festival is focused on sustainability ‘in all its facets’, encouraging projects that challenge both visitors and residents of the city and inspire new conversations.

Petit H is a project started by Hermès in 2010 that invites designers to find new ways of using the leftover materials from its ateliers. Its previous collaborators include famous designers as well as design schools.

BA students from DAE’s Morning Studio, led by Thomas Lommée, joined the initiative in 2020 as part of DAE’s ongoing Friend programme, which seeks to connect students to industry.

Under the leadership of tutors Claire Warnier, Dries Verbruggen, Sander Wassink and Earlwyn Covington, students developed a range of products and other outcomes, including digital platforms for the archiving and preservation of crafts and materials, workshops and more. Find out more about the project here

Warnier and Verbruggen, founders of Unfold, are among the six co-curators of Design Fest Gent, which will include exhibits by several DAE alumni including Erez Nevi Pana, Christien Meindertsma and Irene Stracuzzi.

“Design Fest Gent demonstrates what design can (and indeed should) be: inquisitive, experimental and activistic,” said the organisers. “The festival encourages creativity and will become a matchmaker for new collaborations between designers, knowledge institutions, organisations and the industry. These parties join forces because design is so much more than making objects.”

Find out more about Design Fest Gent.