Last month I was a guest at Renate Boere’s studio in The Hague a few times. She is not only a designer, but also a teacher at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. At our request, she had asked a number of young, recently graduated designers to make alternative election posters. You will see the result further on in this magazine. What you do not see there is what I myself, if I may say so mildly, was ‘all warmed up’ by those days: the unbridled enthusiasm of these young guns. Enthusiasm for the profession in which they had just graduated. But also for this specific assignment. Yes, politics, they had many ideas about that. Also about how it was marketed. And by whom. And what was happening to the country. What should happen. And what did not happen.

It will come as no surprise that their sympathies lie mainly to the left of the political centre. But they proved to be professional enough to also imagine the PVV, SGP or VVD as a client. In all cases they had beautiful, surprising and well-argued ideas. It sparkled, there was laughter, but there was also strong criticism of each other’s products.

In short, it was an inspiring atmosphere, which, as far as I was concerned, contrasted strongly with the doom-mongering that you encounter in The Hague. After each session, I got back into my car feeling more cheerful, back home or to work. With the good intention to tackle it even harder. To make beautiful things, to tell beautiful stories, important stories, in a magazine that is even more beautiful every month. As it is now before you. With the promise of even more, in a month. And every day on our website: hpdetijd.nl

Frank Poorthuis