What is the design challenge?
Kikkerland Design Challenges serve as a valuable platform for young designers and emerging talents, offering real-life experience in bringing their innovative ideas from prototype to market-ready products. The winning designs get the chance to be produced and sold globally by Kikkerland.
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Since its inception in 2009, Kikkerland design competitions have expanded globally, including in Korea, China, Mexico, and the Netherlands. Through these initiatives, Kikkerland discovered that the impact of these competitions exceeded expectations, far beyond the initial vision. Design Challenges are constructed as a collaboration between Kikkerland, established design academies, and a major retailer. The final result is a collection of original and captivating designs that enhance the overall aesthetic of the brands involved. For Kikkerland, these collaborations serve to contribute to the design community. By providing students with the opportunity to see their work materialize and be sold in stores worldwide, both the educational institutions and the winning designers receive a royalty fee along with significant media exposure. This collaboration not only allows these retailers to infuse their brands with exclusive design relevance, but also fosters engagement with the local design community.
The design challenge is a platform for new designers.
About the 2024 Design Challenge
Readers are inspired by books because they connect with the narrative or gain new perspectives on life. Students will learn how to create their own narratives through designing objects. Their object could be inspired by a story or book they know, while acknowledging product typologies and needs of a large book retailer.
Students will have to conduct market research to understand Barnes & Noble bookstores and their customers.
Final projects will be judged by representatives of both companies, and also presented online for public voting for the best popular design.
Who’s involved?
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CEOJames Daunt is Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, and of Waterstones, the largest retail bookseller in the United Kingdom. Mr. Daunt currently oversees approximately 600 Barnes & Noble stores in the United States, and 293 Waterstones locations across the U.K., Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium.
Mr. Daunt has over 30 years of experience in bookselling. In 1990, after an early career as an investment banker, Mr. Daunt opened his own bookstore in London, called Daunt Books. Daunt Books now has nine locations, mainly in London, and remains independently owned by Mr. Daunt.
In 2011, Mr. Daunt was appointed Managing Director of Waterstones when the struggling bookseller was bought by Russian businessman, Alexander Mamut. Waterstones was subsequently restored to profitability, a success that led to the acquisition of a majority stake in the business by Elliott Advisors in July 2018. Elliott acquired Barnes & Noble in August 2019.
Besides his successes in bookselling, Mr. Daunt was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2017 and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to the publishing industry.
Mr. Daunt is a graduate of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he studied history. He is married and has two daughters.
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Chief Merchandising Officer
Ms. De Leo joined Barnes & Noble in February 2020. Having leadership of both the book and specialty merchant teams, her responsibilities include purchasing, merchandising and assortment development across the company, as well as customer communication.
Prior to joining the company, Ms. De Leo was the VP of Sales at Disney Book Group and a VP of Product Management and Merchandising at Readerlink. She has been an active member of the publishing and book retailing industry for over 20 years.
Ms. De Leo holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from San Diego State University and an MBA from Walden University.
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Art Director, GMM
Erin is an artist, designer and maker that has been at Paper Source for over a decade as a designer. She now manages the Gift and Paper merchant teams and the Design team. Erin graduated from University of South Carolina with a BFA in Graphic Design. She is inspired by symmetry, fiber art, and hardware stores.
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Senior Merchant Manager
Kali joined Barnes and Noble in 2022 and brings with her over 15 years of corporate retail experience across merchandising, planning, and buying at top-tier domestic and international companies. She graduated from Cornell, is a native New Yorker, and has two twin boys.
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Merchandise Manager
Monica has been with Barnes & Noble for 14 years and has managed several different categories, ranging from Paper product to textiles and hard goods. She currently manages the seasonal gifting category for Barnes & Noble and Paper Source. Before starting her career at Barnes & Noble, she studied marketing and psychology at Boston University.
What would you design?
What would you design?
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Designer
Constantin Boym founded his design studio in New York in 1986, together with his partner Laurene Leon. Boym Partners bring a critical, experimental approach to a range of products and environments that infuse humor and wit into the everyday. In 2009 Boym Partners won the National Design Award in Product Design. Their work is included in the permanent collection of Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Constantin Boym taught at Parsons School of Design, and at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. From 2015 to 2022 he served as Chair of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, where he is presently a Professor of Industrial design.
His most recent books are Keepsakes: A Design Memoir, published by Pointed Leaf Press (2015) and Ecophilia, published by Available Items (2023).
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Kikkerland Owner
Jan van der Lande was born and raised in the Netherlands where he pursued agriculture and environmental studies. A lack of farming opportunities compelled him to pursue greener pastures in New York City.
While taking environmental engineering classes and working as a bike messenger in New York, Jan would bring products back from his designer friends in Holland and take them around to shops on his bike. Jan then started working at the design store Gallery 91 in Soho (1989-1991). He learned a lot about the design business there and met a number of designers.
In 1992 Jan went out on his own as Kikkerland Design, a nickname for the Netherlands, Kikkerland translates to “land of frogs.” Organizing it all from his houseboat on the Hudson River, where he still lives to this day.
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Design Director
Jay Lee is the design director in Kikkerland Design Inc. He was born in Seoul, Korea and graduated from Hongik University & University of Arts in Philadelphia. At Kikkerland Jay Lee has worked on a wide range of products which represents Kikkerland style and quality for many years. He also collaborates with independent designers internationally on various projects in arts, craft, furniture, graphics, corporation branding, architectural projects. His works have appeared in New York times, Dominos and many international Design magazines.
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Marketing Director
Daisuke van der Lande is a native New Yorker, raised on a houseboat on the Hudson—the very birthplace of Kikkerland Design. A graduate of SUNY Purchase, he transitioned into his family's business, initially at their flagship store, progressing through roles in sales management, and currently serving as the Director of Global Marketing Strategy. Daisuke's journey with Kikkerland has been a rich tapestry, allowing him to immerse himself in diverse areas of the business.
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Key Account Sales Manager
Kristina joined the Kikkerland team in 2022, bringing with her a wealth of experience—15 years in sales within the jewelry and housewares industries. A Marist College graduate and native New Yorker, Kristina Combines an extensive and professional background with a dedicated approach. Beyond her work, she treasures time with her family.
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Kikkerland supports and represents independent, self-producing designers from around the world.
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Barnes & Noble is the world’s largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company operates approximately 600 Barnes & Noble bookstores across the United States, and one of the Web’s premier e-commerce sites, BN.com.
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Pratt Industrial Design students become designers, artists, educators, entrepreneurs, researchers, and corporate leaders — diversity fostered by a program that encourages exploration and professional growth.
Stories
