Rick Tegelaar

Rick Tegelaar is characterised as a material-oriented designer; he creates original, iconic designs which utilise unconventional materials. During his studies, he developed a process of manipulating chicken wire, creating his own tools to mould the wire into different shapes for his designs. Tegelaar graduated from ArtEZ University in Arnhem in 2011. Having originally studied engineering, his work is often distinguished by his innovative approaches to materials and techniques.

Rick Tegelaar had a strong interest in mechanical processes from a very early age - this fascination for engineering is reflected in his designs, which shed a new light on undervalued materials and existing techniques. Tegelaar often develops new machines, tools and even techniques for each new project he designs, in order to recover new properties of a given material. Working with a material in different ways and using different methods creates a new aesthetic.

“I’ve always gotten a lot of satisfaction out of the processes of making something. When I was a kid, I was always playing with technical Lego. Even now, I sometimes use Lego to make a scale model. I’m a designer who combines thinking and doing for developing new designs.” - Rick Tegelaar