The design practice of Nina van Bart is dedicated to increased sensorial experiences of space, shape and surface. By rethinking the arrangements of our environment or the outlook and feel of their components, Nina van Bart creates unexpected encounters with what surrounds us. As such, she aims to change the physical and emotional interactions between people and their settings, led by texture, colour and motion. She works in the field of art direction and set- and surface design.
The overall objective of Nina van Bart’s design practice is characterised by faithful attention to both the sensorial qualities of objects and their surfaces and the interactivity between people and their settings. And so, Nina’s practice can be considered as relational: she challenges the ideas of how we usually connect with our environments and the objects they include – the aspects of a situation, the creation of a mood, the arrangements of our spaces and the rhythms of their elements, a different outlook and feel for surfaces.
Nina van Bart reconsiders the original conditions and, with the outcome, intensifies our relationship with and the experience of our settings.
Nina van Bart merges manual techniques and automated processes: the analogue and the digital. She sees this hybrid approach as a way to maintain a personal, authentic signature. In conjunction, Nina combines an intuitive and experimental attitude with intensive research and theory; allowing both the emotive and the conceptual to shape the results.
Guided by the context and the objectives, Nina van Bart navigates through different fields of focus:
Sometimes she concentrates on the situation as a whole, understood as the overall composition of time, space and circumstances. She recomposes these elements and introduces a mood in order to affect those who will become part of the renewed atmosphere.
At other times, Nina van Bart focusses on a single element: a wall, a rug, even a certain habit or ritual, … Here, Nina aims to change the way we act or how relate to the things that surround us: how we use them, how we see them, feel them and move through them.
A third field of focus goes beyond what is immediately visible. It applies to the characteristics of surfaces, to textures and tactility. Nina van Bart believes that a commitment to details – even the subtlest ones – evokes concentration and increases our involvement with our settings.
Nina van Bart engages in ongoing or planned projects of others. Within these commissions and collaborations, she always respects the specific identity of her clients, considerate of their own interests and character.
Working closely together with her clients, she formulates and creates innovative solutions for every challenge encountered: the elaboration of a concept; the visualization and communication of ideas through films or settings; the selection and improvement of materials evoking touch and activating the senses. She provides her clients with creative and strategic direction to help them achieve their ambitions.
Nina van Bart collaborates with design studios, architects, curators, film makers, design magazines and research institutions. She also works with companies and studios in the fields of product development, product improvement and industrial design; where she specifically focuses on a new, innovative texture or feel for fabrics and materials, such as surface materials, curtains, building blocks, facades, walls, leather and ceramics.
Besides the commissions and collaborations, Nina van Bart fuels her capacities and knowledge with personal projects, research and experiments.
Nina van Bart (1988, ‘s Hertogenbosch, NL) studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven – dpt. Man&Identity. Her graduation project included the atmospheric, evocative film The Alchemist, about a series of innovative, tactile objects, substances and rituals for the wellness industry.
Nina collaborated with, among others, Ecco Leather, Dutch Invertuals and Studio Müller van Tol. She showed her creations and concepts in several group and solo shows, including DDW (NL), Van Abbe Museum (NL), Plusdesign Gallery (IT) and Operae (IT). She was invited to give guest lectures at The Willem De Kooning Academy in Rotterdam.