Arnold’s place
This is where Arnold works when he’s not spending the summer in Greece. A flashing phone (he doesn’t hear it ringing), books, paper for notes, some pens and always an orange.
Astrid’s place
Astrid can work everywhere. And she’s never really not working. Even when she’s playing with her kids, which she does a lot, it’s somehow part of her work.
Dave’s place
This is Dave’s sound studio where he can be found most of the time, working on music with his students.
Diek’s place
Diek has a wonderful workshop, but this table — which he made himself — and this chair — we he made himself as well — is the place where he works most of the time. Thinking, sketching, drawing.
Harold’s place
This is not where he usually writes his songs. This just looks like a nice place. But now that he’s sitting here, that place over there looks nice as well. He likes quiet places, but not lonely. It’s good to have people around.
Irene’s place
This is where Irene works on her lessons. This is not where she mixes paint.
Joke’s place
This is Joke’s workshop. It may look like a mess, but if you look closely you’ll see that it’s tightly ordered.
Joost’s place
Joost finds it hard to work in this open office space. It looks empty now, but there are always people walking in and out, talking to each other, asking questions that need an answer right now. When he needs to get things done he prefers working from home.
Kiki’s place
Kiki has more than one place. This is her desk, under her bed.
Maarten’s place
This is where Maarten works. But he could work anywhere, his workshop has no special emotional value to him.
Marie’s place
This is where Marie works.
Marrije’s place
When Marrije needs to think she looks outside and sees this beautiful canal in the old center of Utrecht. The red cars are a nice coincidence.
Robert Jan’s place
This is where Robert Jan works on the products he cares about. And this is where he works with the people he cares about. He takes real good care of the people who work for him, and he makes sure they work in a safe environment. He showed me a presentation about what it means to work at Eend. And once you saw that presentation, everything in it seems so obvious! Unfortunately not all companies treat people as obvious as Eend does.
Stefanos’ place
This is the shop, Romios. Stefanos never works here up front, he doesn’t have the patience for people. He works in the back, in the kitchen.
Titus’ place
Titus works from home. He lives in a wonderful little house in the oldest part of Amsterdam, with an incredible view. His two cats hid themselves during my visit. I have no idea what they look like.
Vasilis’ place
When Vasilis needs to really get into a flow, he works from his hammock. And when he wants to relax he lays in his hammock as well. Or in his beanbag. Or his sofa. Or his lamzac.
Willemijn’s place
Willemijn works at Eend, which means duck in Dutch. She works on websites mostly. I asked her if digital things are very different from physical things (she’s an industrial designer by trade). She thinks they are similar. More often than not both physical and digital things are needlessly complex and unfriendly. It’s her job to fix that.