About | Roel Vandebeek

ABOUT ROEL VANDEBEEK

Roel’s creativity is a personal journey of design, object, installation, and even music. Some of those pursuits include: the Matra Simca project, his playlist and a new Spanish wind.

The world of Roel Vandebeek is a tactile experience. A natural observer and multifaceted talent, Roel shares his unique view of the way things can be through the quantity and diversity of his creative expressions. His scope of work spans art, industrial and interior design, often smartly blurring the line between all three.

Roel loves a challenge and finds freedom in the constraints. When left to work on a brief, he is at once in his element and at ease; dipping into the sanctum of his mind where the possibilities are endless. The quest for solutions is led by an interactive dialogue between subject and design, with design as the creative solution to the problem.

His consequential process is unique in that it is always the same, but with wildly original results: he listens carefully, absorbs deeply and ideates plentifully. Never starting with an idea in mind, he keeps close to the question and utilises the essential aspects. Through this, he is guided to a culmination of ideas, the execution of which is a dynamic tapestry of elements. It is rare to find him using the same fabrication twice, and yet, his style is distinctive. A humorous approach lends insight into the way he thinks and breaks the wall between art and design. Experiencing Roel’s work is to feel the pleasure of surprise, a surge of optimism and a wave of revelation. Not everything is as it seems: The world can be re-seen through questioning eyes—if you dare to ask and see.

Roel’s designs live the questions. They are solutions to the challenges he loves, but they are characteristically inconclusive, evoking in the audience an open-ended view of the world. It lands like a memory of what life was like before we so carefully defined it all, and lets you unroll your definitions back into sensing and feeling. This idea sits in the back of your mind long after you have interacted with a Roel. We can find in his work both an accessible and enjoyable exposure to high concept design, but one that also encourages our adaptability—he challenges us and so inspires us to challenge ourselves.

Design by design, Roel creates the world in which his mind has long been living.

Publications

Explore a selection of interviews and reviews of Roel’s work featured in the media.

“You can’t beat nature, and with a material like clay you just have to follow along”

—Earth Anthology 2: Clay Table

“Ik vind het belangrijk het DNA van een bedrijf te voelen en het metier met eigen ogen te aanschouwen”

—De Schone Slaper: Trends

“Ik teken eigenlijk een soort verlengstuk van hun persoonlijkheid, in een bepaalde vormentaal gegoten.”

—Kim Clijsters is een handtas: Knack

“Lize Spit zei dat het leek alsof ze bij de psycholoog zat, al kreeg ze geen diagnose maar een kunstwerk.”

—Ontwerper kruipt in huid van BV’s: (hBvL bijlage)

“De kern van Belgisch design is voor Vandebeek flexibiliteit.”

—Designbijbel: De Standaard Magazine

“Ik vind het belangrijk het DNA van een bedrijf te voelen en het metier met eigen ogen te aanschouwen”

—De Schone Slaper: Trends

“Lize Spit zei dat het leek alsof ze bij de psycholoog zat, al kreeg ze geen diagnose maar een kunstwerk.”

—Ontwerper kruipt in huid van BV’s: (hBvL bijlage)

“Ik teken eigenlijk een soort verlengstuk van hun persoonlijkheid, in een bepaalde vormentaal gegoten.”

—Kim Clijsters is een handtas: Knack

“De kern van Belgisch design is voor Vandebeek flexibiliteit.”

—Designbijbel: De Standaard Magazine

“You can’t beat nature, and with a material like clay you just have to follow along”

—Earth Anthology 2: Clay Table

In this edition, we introduce you to a designer who has more than earned his spurs in the design world. Roel Vandebeek started his own agency at the end of 1996 (initially Beek Design, later renamed Depot Roel Vandebeek) and his work can now be found in all kinds of sectors. The Hasselaar native can barely keep up with the number of awards he has won for his work under the brand name 'It's a Roel'.

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You don't have to read Roel Vandebeek's portfolio too carefully to notice that he is particularly all-round and active both nationally and internationally. Designing a new kind of brick, rethinking aluminium profiles, reinventing window decoration by means of an innovative folding curtain, questioning the concept of the 'bed', inventing a table based on clay tablets... these are just a handful of examples of his product designs. We also see him working with architects on interior designs and open spaces. As in Heindonk, a borough of Willebroek, where he designed an art object/transparent building for a village square...

Searching for identity

If you try to discover a common thread in Roel's work, it immediately becomes clear that each time it involves original, surprising products, objects and installations, in which there is often a touch of humour. You notice how he emphatically seeks the identity of what he designs each time. "I am a translator in forms. To do that well, you have to understand the subject matter well and know where the question lies," he explains. "That's why I always design from the identity and crawl all the way into the skin of the assignment, the client, the material, the question or the situation in order to put myself in the best possible position. Only then am I well positioned to come up with the right answer and a 'Roel' is created."

"The vast majority of my clients are companies, I estimate about 70 per cent of the total. The remaining 30 per cent are totally different assignments. Sometimes these include very limited items. I designed, for example, a 'one of a kind' light object that sits between art and product design. It illustrates how I am mainly interested in a combination of various domains; it is neither purely about working with art, nor purely about working for companies. What is central each time, though, is that design makes the difference."

"I am a translator of forms. To do that well, you have to understand the subject matter well and know where the demand lies."
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Team Depot

That the market appreciates Roel Vandebeek's work is clear from the size of his office in Maasmechelen, which he founded together with his wife and brother-in-law, both architects. Depot des Arts currently has no fewer than 28 employees. It is something he might not have dared to imagine in 1994 when he graduated from the SHIVKV in Genk, in the product design department.

"The great thing is that we can bring together so many creatives active in different fields within design under one roof. With all those people, we can also respond to various needs and desires. Say, for instance, a client comes in with an architectural project. Then very often that includes the interior and that client wants a special object. Then we sit down together, form a team tailored to the client and this temporary association of people jointly seeks the best and most complete answer possible."

"Equally, it can be a completely different commission. A tableware, for example, as I already did for Serax. In that case, I work out the project all formally and technically myself and can call on my collaborators for renders, technical drawings or 3D prints. That way, I can do what I'm good at: the design itself. In this context, I would also like to mention that I learned a lot from working with my wife and other architects. From them, I learnt a huge amount in terms of spatial planning and you can see this reflected in my work from time to time. An example is the library in Genk, for which I created a plinth for a work of art. This plinth rises from the floor and is literally incorporated into the stone floor and the space. This kind of thing results directly from my influence by architecture, which taught me to look wider than just the object. Incidentally, this cross-pollination also works in the other direction. Conversely, architects learn from me to look at the object-based and this is how we differentiate ourselves from numerous other firms."

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The story of the brick

At the start of the article, we talked about a wide range of designs. Of these, we obviously need to take a closer look at some of them. A nice one to start with is the design of a special brick for Nelissen Steenfabrieken, for which he received a Henry van de Velde award in 2017, a Belgian Building Award in 2018 and a German Design Award in 2019. With Dubio, he presents two types of bricks with shadow lines that create the illusion of two or three thin stacked bricks.

"It's always nice to win awards. And of course, in reverse, this is also nice for the companies because they can turn out with it. Although I didn't expect the huge attention for this product," he laughs. "Still, I am delighted that this product was received so well. Nobody expects anything from the design of a day-to-day product and yet they can have the biggest impact. You make people happy and give architects something with which they can design their own pattern. For me, this Dubio is above all a great example of a craftsman's product, which came into being after making special form bricks in wooden moulds, and eventually ending up with a product that also allows you to focus on the wider context of the façade."

"Of course, there are also many other projects I am proud of. Like one that is currently running with Danish company Woud, which makes lighting and furniture for the residential and project markets. After a chance meeting in Brussels with the manager of Woud, we kept in touch and one day she called me: 'Whether I felt like taking on a challenge with their production waste'. Of course I wanted to, if only for the sake of designing a new take on sustainability. The result of the question is the Hidn collection, a concept about precycling."

"Or another one very close to home, for Decoline in Pelt, for example. For them, I designed the folding curtain D-Random. The random placement of the tubes adds an extra creative dimension to the basic conditions of compactness and user-friendliness.

I also find what I did now for Magnitude, a brand known for original design, quality and comfort in the bed world, very special. With Starry Night, I translated their knowledge and capabilities in upholstering and stitching into a new kind of bed. I went looking for a way to translate this craft into an archetypal image of yesteryear, an antique French cast-iron bed, and by 'projecting' it onto a sleekly upholstered foot and headboard through stitching, two worlds merge: craft is given a new look."

Precycling

During the interview, Roel Vandebeek very regularly drops the word precycling. Surely that requires a word of extra explanation. "Everyone has an image of what this can be, while nobody really knows it. To me, what it's all about is optimising a production process and thus trying to find hidden treasures as a designer. That Hidn Collection by Woud is a perfect example of pre-cycling. Here, too, there is an explicit focus on the reuse of materials and residual flows. In doing so, my idea was to intervene earlier in the chain by optimising materials, crafts and machines even before the product is made. A search for all kinds of hidden opportunities brings out what is hidden. If you succeed in shaping these 'Hidn Treasures' into the product, it will come across as surprising and original, and in a unique design language."

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Finally Home: Social design in public space

A great example of designer Roel Vandebeek's 'other side' is the Finally Home project in Heindonk. Willebroek municipality went looking for places that could be enriched with art. Of the proposals submitted, five projects were selected for implementation, including one for a square in Heindonk. Roel Vandebeek set to work on this social project, in which the population was closely involved. In the end, a 6.5-metre-high design emerged with a basic frame made of steel and wood, finished with zinc.

"Driving into the centre of Heindonk, the old church and chapel stand out in the street scene. Together with the presbytery, they define the face of this village centre," explains Roel Vandebeek. "With my design, I wanted to create a symbiosis between these sacred buildings and my installation, such that they reinforce each other. In this way, my artwork is incorporated into the square and becomes part of the existing architecture."

"I designed a transparent building that faces the sacred buildings with its modest façade. The nice thing about this was that I was able to enter into dialogue with local residents on several occasions, and literally in the local community hall. That something can ultimately be put up that is supported in symbiosis with the people who live there seems to me the best possible example of social design."

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"I am from Hasselt, my wife from Beringen, but in Maasmechelen we have found our niche both professionally and privately," says Roel Vandebeek. He is manager of Depot des Arts - a multidisciplinary centre for architecture, interior design and product design - and a designer of international renown. On his CV are many domestic and foreign awards."

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There are dozens of witty aphorisms by Albert Einstein. It is impossible to pick out the perfect quote, but his statement on creativity comes pretty close: Creativity is intelligence having fun. If you talk to Roel Vandebeek (52) about his profession and passion, you inevitably get the impression that these three concepts - creativity, intelligence and fun - are inextricably linked with him. "Every day I enjoy the cross-pollinations that take place here," he stresses. His Depot des Arts employs about 30 people. He himself is responsible for product design, his wife Ingrid for interior design and his brother-in-law Frank Jaspers - along with two other associates - for architecture. "The three of us started. It was never the intention to become as big as possible, but rather to satisfy as many customers as possible. For that, you have to have a lot of know-how in-house. Not only for the creative process, but also for the drawing work, permits and other administrative obligations." Roel Vandebeek studied product design at the then SHIVKV college in Genk. "I was taught there by icons like Piet Stockmans and Hugo Duchateau, teachers to whom I owe a lot. They all shaped me into who I am. In fact, I'm still in touch with them."

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Five years ago, you launched a book called It's a Roel, also the name of your product label. Remarkable choice.

"I was regularly asked: are you now a product designer or an artist? I always had to remain guilty of the answer. Sometimes I make an installation, other times an industrial product. But often the dividing line between a utilitarian object and an artistic object is very thin. So I thought: no more pigeonholes, I'll just let the user or viewer know that it is a creation of mine. It is not the creator who decides whether something is art or not. The outside world decides that. Hence my standard response: Is it art? Or is it design? It doesn't matter, it's a Roel."

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For you, what is the difference between art and design?

"I'm tempted to say that design is about products made in series and that art has to do with uniqueness, but maybe that's too simplistic. To put it bluntly, a lithograph is made in series and still counts as a form of art. Therefore, to answer your question, I take my own situation as a starting point: an artist starts from his vision of life. I start from the client's question and identity, say from a challenge that I can solve or translate with design."
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It is not the creator who decides whether something is art or not. The outside world decides that.
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You start from the question and identity of the client, you say.

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"A while ago, I worked with electronics and nursing students from UCLL college to develop a dementia harp for residents of Toermalien residential care centre in Genk. This is an object with thick strings, which when touched - I'm just saying - produce music or a bird sound. A lot of research was done on this beforehand, but often little is done with the results of such research. In this case, I was the translator of all the facets studied by the students and worked out on paper. A simpler example: years ago, I observed that our son often struggled to put his socks on properly immediately. What did I do with that? Designed a sock with a line in the middle, so that he immediately knew whether they were right or not."

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Could it be that we may define design as functional and art as non-functional?

"Art can also be functional. Not in the sense of suitable for daily use, but as mental nourishment. I find that as necessary as food and drink. You get inspiration and strength from it."

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Where does sustainability rank in your professional pecking order?

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"For us, it's the Olympic minimum. It's only natural to use as many ecological materials as possible or to want to create something with the waste from a production process. Danish design brand WOUD recently gave me a recycling job, but I proposed the system of precycling, a different view of sustainability. It comes down to reducing waste by using the raw material more efficiently. A simple example: if I make a side table in the shape of a cylinder, I remove a circle from the side wall and use it as a table top. Then you actually have zero waste."

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When you think of sustainability, you almost automatically think of natural materials. Can nature inspire you?

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"Are you familiar with the term biomimicry? That is the application of ideas you get in nature. That can be about materials, colours, shapes. My wife and I live next to our offices, but within half a minute we are in the nature of Maasmechelen. We can enjoy that so much. We jump on our bikes and during our trips we marvel at the beauty of the Maas and everything related to it. Because of those impressions, I have built up a kind of library in my head. That could be a plant overgrowing another or a snapped tree, quite ordinary. Sooner or later, those details or elements can serve as inspiration for a new design."

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A project with art in public spaces is being developed in the Maasvallei River Park, part of which is on the territory of Maasmechelen. Are you pro land art? Because of the grandeur of nature, it is often overlooked or ignored.

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"Yes, but still I think landscape art is very meaningful. If you want to see it, you see it. Art in public spaces does have to have a surprise effect, provoke thought and be placed with respect for the environment."

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In a former liquor depot in Eisden village, Roel Vandebeek and his design team work on countless projects for clients at home and abroad. The bed he recently developed for Magnitude is one of the many designs Roel was able to show off recently. Interview with a thinking jack-of-all-trades.

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Parking out front. It is no longer possible everywhere. But in front of the depot where Roel does his thing every day, it can. The designer used to be based with his team in Hasselt, but because he was already working with his brother-in-law and wife's architectural firm in Maasmechelen, they started looking for bigger premises together. My brother-in-law Frank Jaspers lived nearby and knew where to find this place,' says Roel. 'In the old depot, trucks drove right in to load and unload. The place was empty but not for sale. But when the former owners felt we wanted to turn it into something beautiful, it suddenly could. And when the house next to the drinks depot was sold a few years later, we also moved privately to Eisden-Dorp, Maasmechelen.'

In the so-called 'depot des arts' (that's what it says on one of the original walls), we find an amalgam of old stuff (a vintage jukebox from Roel's dad!) and new designs. There are collaborators in every nook and cranny. Often they are (interior) architects, but also engineers, economists, planners and other profiles who manage the many activities of the staff. 'This depot is really a magnification of what we all do,' says Roel. 'It is a continuous cross-pollination of different talents and fields of expertise on a daily basis. Things are also constantly changing places here. We think that's normal, but not everyone understands that. For many people, you do everything and nothing at the same time, they want to pigeonhole you so much.'

Roel made headlines late last year with Starry Night, a bed line for Magnitude. A nod to the antique cast-iron bed he sometimes saw in antique shops as a child travelling with his family in France. Roel projected the image of those days onto a contemporary design and upholstered foot and headboard. The play of various colours within the collection adds an extra current touch. 'We had been working on it pre-Corona for a while,' says Roel, 'Exhibitions were postponed at the time, shops closed, the design was also put on hold for a while. Normally, Starry Night would be shown in a big way at Interieur Kortrijk, where Magnitude always launched a designer with a new design for the label. So now it was not possible, but that was cleverly solved: the launch in Antwerp did not go unnoticed. By the way, it was very nice working with the people of Magnitude.'

To call Roel Vandebeek a designer is an understatement. He is so much more: thinker, doer (technically inclined, moreover), problem-solver, visionary, even a do-gooder through his designs, that too. 'I have one big drawback,' he says. 'I am always thinking about what I still want or am going to do. I sometimes have to watch out for afterthoughts. That's kind of the nature of the beast: I like doing new things so much. And I don't shy away from anything.'

Roel has designs in many guises on his record of achievements. 'The craziest things,' he says himself. 'That ranges from all kinds of furniture to products with very technical challenges, to kitchen towels, a bookend, a walking stick that is also a vase, a Soft Seat in concrete (street furniture) to a harp for people with dementia. Companies like Atelier Vierkant, Drisag, Unic Design, Wolters, Jongform, etc could already count on him. 'Sometimes I am amazed at what I have already designed. Recently, I drove past a gate of a church in Sint-Truiden that they were restoring, and I had simply forgotten that I had designed that gate for an architect (laughs). 'I also see myself as a problem solver.'

Roel gives the example of the new collection for WOUD, a Danish brand that values sustainability. 'They challenged me to make a collection with residual materials from existing collections, i.e. waste. But that idea has been done too often for me, outdated even. I'd rather look for new ways to work around sustainability. Shouldn't it be the other way around? That we already think about recycling before we design. Optimising materials is one thing, but also optimising your machine, the people operating the machine... these are hidden benefits. And that's what it ended up being: the hidn collection. I put the word pre-cycled on it. We think before we start.

Recycling before the design exists at all'. 'That HIDN collection is out now. I see it as a kind of treasure hunt. A new design methodology. You can discover things as a designer if you get involved early enough in the design stage. Then you arrive at a new design language.'

From drawings it then goes to prototypes in cardboard or other materials. I regularly go through everything with my wife Ingrid and we come to interesting conclusions. Often I am no longer so convinced because I am already too used to it, but she says: do it! And then we do it. Often it is just what the customer chooses. I like to be challenged that way. I like to go that far. And stress? No, I don't when I am designing. When there are lots of challenges around my plate, I'm just at my best.'

In a similar, challenging way, he realised a new brick with a shadow joint. It became the Dubio, a now-patented brick developed by Nelissen Steenfabriek, which has already won four awards. 'That brick makes you wonder,' says Roel, 'how many bricks is it really? Not only is the extra groove an ecologically and economically interesting addition. With two different bricks, you can create numerous patterns. And that's just what architects find so interesting.' The brick is a good example of the diversity of designs and of the way Roel looks at things. Roel: 'There really is so much more to design than just furniture. In that area, I really like new challenges.'

With every question, Roel tries to capture the identity of the company, the people, ... From there, the name ItsaRoel was born. 'It doesn't matter whether I design a product, furniture or an art installation, it's always about a translation of an identity and consequently everything I make is 'a Roel'. It's not about me, it's about my designs.'

Five years ago, Roel, together with his wife Ingrid, realised a very special project in that context. Objet Portrait became a series he designed for a personality of his own choosing. To put names to it right away: Stijn Meuris, Tom Van Dyck, Guy Mortier, Wouter Torfs, Kim Clijsters, etc. The design process was always preceded by one or more home visits, during which Roel and Ingrid got to know the persons in question better and developed a first idea on the basis of that interview. Each character is accompanied by two designs: a utilitarian object and an artistic object. 'It was an exercise in identity,' says Roel. 'We were obviously looking for people with an aura. We started talking and from that flowed several sketches and concepts. With me, sketching then goes very quickly. I sketch every day, by the way.'

Roel: 'My work is enormously satisfying. It also only gets finer, because over the years you gain more experience and only get better. That gives confidence. To myself, the team, the customers.' For Roel, that helping also involves a surprise every time. 'I prefer it when people think: what's going to come out of this now? I want to amaze. So that people can experience things differently. And that ultimately makes them happy.'

The designer briefly pulls out his to-do list. A succession of ideas, of projects, of names. A table for Matière Grise and one for Kluskens, which has just been launched. A wooden fruit box in collaboration with UCLL and Belorta. Street furniture, lighting, fire dampers, another table for Atelier Vierkant that will soon be shown in Milan.... the list is (as always) very long and that's allowed. 'Because we work as a team, we can often check off ideas among ourselves,' Roel adds. 'But I still like to visit a customer myself. That is quite tiring but also inspiring. And you keep doing it for that anyway.'

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Awards

2023

BLT Built Design Awards (CH) Winner '23 — Dubio
BLT Built Design Awards (CH) Winner '23 — Woodface Acoustic
Muse Design Design Award — Starry Night
German Design Award Winner — Woodface Acoustic
Architect & Design Collection Gold Award — Woodface Acoustic

2022

Henry van de Velde Label — Space-R
Architect & Design Collection Gold Award '22

2021

Red Dot Design Award Winner — Space-R

2020

Good Design Award Winner Australia — Lever Handle Anvil

2019

Winner German Design Awards — brick Dubio
Second Prize ‘In4care’ — Digital Harp

2018

Winner Belgian Building Award — Brick Dubio
2nd prize BKRK competition ‘Bread’ — Baking Mold
Henry van de Velde Award, winner Efficiency — Brick Dubio

2016

Nominee Public Space Award — Finally Home in Heindonk (B)

2014

Ovam Ecodesign Award Pro nomination — Woodface
Henry van de Velde Label — facade cladding Woodface

2013

CORE 77 Award in Food Design — Facing Food
Henry van de Velde Label — Facing Food

2010

Flemish Monuments Award for Pietersheim — interior
Communication Award for Batibouw booth — Infobeton
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2008

- Henry van de Velde Label — kitchen towel Spot Towel
- Henry van de Velde Label — urban furniture Soft Seat

2007

Henry van de Velde Label — urban furniture Ensemble

2006

Henry van de Velde Label — chip bag Fork Pocket

2004