Text by Annemiek van Grondel
Photo by Boudewijn Bollmann
Life is all about colour and identity. Daniera ter Haar (31) and Christoph Brach (34) are Raw Color. Textures and textiles are recurring themes in their work. In their studio, in Het Klokgebouw at Strijp S in Eindhoven, they are doing research into materials and colours in graphic design and photography. And they are becoming more and more intrigued by moving images.
The couple was formed out of love for design and for each other, after having met at Design Academy Eindhoven. They graduated in 2007 and founded Raw Color that same year. Looking for natural dyes, the duo experimented with vegetables and vegetable juices; they decided to start a long-term study of natural colour pigments, new compositions and colour tones. The results are used to create all kind of textiles and installations. Tinctorial Textiles is a new step in the research into natural pigment and experimenting with plant dyes. Together with Ecological Textiles, they developed UV resistant wool textiles that can be dyed on an industrial scale.
Christoph Brach and Daniera ter Haar of Raw Color
Lucky
Raw Color work for various clients. For instance, in an assignment of Merkx & Girod they designed the graphical language for a new ANWB store, and a short film was made for The Nederlands Fotomuseum as part of the large WIT exhibition.
“We have been fortunate to rarely have to acquire and promote our work, other than in exhibitions and publications”, Brach says. “But sometimes we push our luck. The past year we asked the national TextielMuseum for advice about weaving, concerning a project for tea towels and blankets. They responded positively and asked us later to take care of their visual identity.”
News clock
For Raw Color, this assignment is a dream come true. In it, all their interests come together: textiles, colour, graphic design, including the website, and photographic elements such as images for the flyers. Brach: “If we had not sought contact with them, we would not have been on their radar in the search for new designers for their identity. Guts and luck came together. So I am calling for action rather than acquisition!”
During DDW Raw Color will be part of the Dutch Invertuals group exhibition. They offer a different perspective on the value of time, presenting an ingenious clock with different coloured lenses. The clock is not only related to time, but also connects to information, in the form of newsfeeds, and has an interactive element for us visitors. Prepare to be surprised.
www.rawcolor.nl
This interview was published in Connecting the Dots #8 for the Dutch Design Week 2013.
For entire magazine click here.
