Amsterdam Weekly joins Brazilian flip-flops and biodegradable toilet paper rolls in an exhibition opening Dec. 3 at London's Design Museum.
AMSTERDAM — December 17, 2004 — Amsterdam Weekly, the city’s free weekly cultural paper, has been chosen to appear in a new international exhibition opening this week in London’s Design Museum.
Examples of the paper will appear in the exhibition ‘Under a Tenner: What is Good Design?’ Guest curators from around the world were asked to choose objects that are both well-designed and cost less than 10 British pounds. (In fact, the Weekly costs nothing: it is available for free at more than 450 locations in Amsterdam.)
Amsterdam Weekly was chosen by the Experimental Jetset, a Dutch graphic design studio, as one of their 10 examples of inexpensive good design.
‘We’re living in a culture where a strong distinction is made between the “mainstream” and the “underground”. It’s an artificial dichotomy we absolutely don’t believe in. To us, the best manifestations of culture— whether it’s a Beatles song or a Hitchcock movie—transcend this division,’ says Danny van den Dungen of Experimental Jetset. ‘That’s why we like Amsterdam Weekly so much. It shows that an aesthetic you might expect in the context of progressive magazines also functions perfectly within the context of a freely distributed, mass-produced weekly newspaper.’
‘In short, in addition to the fact that Amsterdam Weekly is well designed—as in clear, logical and efficient—it also confronts a wide audience with a sort of design it might not be used to. Which, to us, makes it an example of good design: it shows that things can be different.’
Amsterdam Weekly’s eye-catching design was created by art director Danny Calvi; he is assisted every week by artist/designer Aquil Copier. The paper also carries the innovative work of local freelance photographers and illustrators.
Besides the Weekly, Experimental Jetset selected an issue of National Geographic, a ‘Magic Tree’ car air freshener, a PIL (Public Image Ltd.) CD sleeve, and the Fed Ex box that they used to mail their selections to the museum.
Experimental Jetset was founded by three former students at Amsterdam’s Rietveld Academy: Van den Dungen, Erwin Brinkers and Marieke Stolk. Since they formed the studio in 1997, they have worked for such clients as Artimo, the TPG Post and the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands as well as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Purple Institute and the fashion store Colette in Paris.
The exhibit runs from 3 December to 27 February 2005. For details, see www.designmuseum.org.
About Amsterdam Weekly
Amsterdam Weekly, a free cultural paper publishing since March 2004, was inspired by North American free weeklies like the Village Voicebut is something new in Amsterdam: a free city paper combining quality journalism with a critical guide to arts and entertainment in the region.
The paper has a free circulation of 21,000 and is distributed to nearly 450 locations all over the city, including cafés and restaurants, bars, bookshops, record stores, fitness clubs, and the Amsterdam Uitburo.
Amsterdam Weeklyis English-language, and the editors and writers are offering stories they hope will appeal to curious Amsterdammers of all backgrounds, both international and native Dutch residents.
Upon its debut in March 2004, Het Parool said: “Amsterdam Weekly is visibly made with a lot of love.”
