Column | Joost Overbeek
In 2018, I am at a low point in my life. I live in Arnhem and still have studio Overburen in Amsterdam. Driving becomes difficult due to my illness and I decide to quit the studio in Amsterdam. At the same time, my marriage is on the rocks.
The plan arises to stay in the big house and start something new there; I can’t do nothing. No more just for opposite neighbours (what does it matter what kind of chair you sit in and is being a bit ‘different’ for a creative sometimes actually not an advantage?). Now for all neighbours. Voila, the name; álleburen (All Neighbours).
It will be a foundation. First with 2 participants; a girl with autism and a boy with Duchene. We do some small assignments in Arnhem. The plan caught on. I am to score assignments and supervise the design, An de Cock joins us for the social aspect; supervising and ensuring that the municipality and educational institutes place the more difficult ‘cases’ with us and pay for supervision. After three years, we outgrew my house. We are now in a large studio near the nice house where I live now. There are 34 of us now. Six years on from founding. 10 permanent staff, including 5 designers and 24 employees, who fly out on average after 3 years and move on to work or training. Great atmosphere, where you see the participants noticeably improve. All sorts of things come in. Game addicts, psychosis, autistic spectrum, overworked. Distance to the labour market, they call it. More and more, the feeling arises that the labour market in particular creates this distance. The nice thing is that you don’t see or notice anything about most of them. Along comes a supervisor or someone from the municipality who sees me in my wheelchair. ‘What are you working on?’ Someone in a wheelchair must not be so savvy. An important lesson for the staff member; don’t conform to the ideas many people have of us.
Because of the unusual mix of people working at álleburen, we can handle more types of assignments and the ideas are often original and different from regular agencies. Under the guidance of the 5 experienced designers, Alleburen is now building a great portfolio; PostNL, Filmhuis Focus Arnhem, Introdans, Bio Vakantieoord, publishing house de Harmonie etc. etc.
Development site and business; it turns out to be a golden combination. My role in the coming years is to start trumpeting that around. At companies or at events. For many more companies … design firms but also whole other … this way of working can be fantastic. The future is inclusive.
