ONE WEEK ABOUT Driving Dutch Design by curators Patrick Aarts Sen (BNO) and Katja Lucas (DDF). Over the next few days, we show the Drivers of 2024, Vanessa Horig is one of them.
Vanessa Horig is a furniture designer and maker based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. She grew up in India, where she studied furniture design, and moved to Germany to pursure a carpentry apprenticeship. Since 2021, she works as a furniture maker in Amsterdam.
Vanessa makes bespoke furniture for clients, as well as her pieces for her own collection. She designs and makes contemporary handmade furniture that is sustainably built to last a lifetime. These designs are simple, beautiful, everyday objects that are intended to be a pleasure to use and to look at.
She enjoys working with wood, which she finds to be an incredibly warm and versatile material. She loves developing and working on small handmade details that add interest and depth to her pieces, whether it be a bespoke or design piece. Being a designer and maker gives her full control of the furniture pieces from A to Z, making them unique and of a high quality.
Vanessa is also a strong advocate of empowering women to work in male dominated field like the furniture industry. Through her work and experiences, she hopes to inspire other young women to pursue a career in crafts and creativity. She is part of the Stichting Vakvrouwen, a group of 4 female furniture makers who share a workshop in Amsterdam West.
As part of Driving Dutch Design 2024, Vanessa has come in contact with the Dutch design world through her contemporaries. The masterclasses have taught her many valuable skills to help her business grow and flourish in the future.
Driving Dutch Design is the professionalisation and networking programme of Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers (BNO), Dutch Design Foundation (DDF) and Stichting Stokroos that helps talented designers get started in the world of entrepreneurship.
Portrait photo: Ella Hansmann
