A smile is difficult to suppress when entering Butterflyworks’ new design studio in Amsterdam-Noord. A spacious, colorful studio with about fifteen people working diligently amongst high shelves filled with books on art, design and technology and the walls hung with a web of cards showing the timeline of all finished and ongoing projects.
“Being a part of TEDxAmsterdam was really nice”, is how Emer starts her recollection of the day, “also because I had the chance to meet fellow speakers beforehand, during a workshop, and of course, during the speaker’s dinner. A truly bonding, and cross-disciplinary experience. I’m still in touch with Martine de Wit from DUS Architects, for instance. Floortje Dessing also approached me after my talk, because she was interested in selling !SYOU-shoes, designed in Burkina Faso.” Explaining their work at TEDxAmsterdam paved the way for other opportunities, since Butterflyworks is increasingly recognized as an agency with expertise in social change, leading to invitations to speak at conferences such as SOCAP and What Design Can Do.
Emer was actually not new to TED, she occasionally runs projects with TED Fellows and had her brain picked at TEDxChange. “To me, TED is an inspiring community of multi-disciplinary actors where new ideas take root, and people have the courage to think and act out-of-the-box. TED continuously reinvents itself… and manages to break ground over and over.”
During TEDxAmsterdam, Emer introduced us to the children’s book character Yoyo the sloth, who is based on the design heritage of Dick Bruna’s Nijntje. “Luckily, the Venezuelans really loved Yoyo. The book’s actually finished now and we found a publisher. At the moment we are finalizing the negotiations for the business arm supporting the launch of Yoyo as a new brand for early child development products”.
Whilst Emer’s colleague Ineke is wrapping up the Yoyo-negotiations, Emer is preparing for a trip to Afghanistan. “Our latest project is called Great Idea, and it’s really exciting. We’re designing mobile-based educational tools for children in rural Afghanistan in collaboration with Oxfam/Novib. It’s a distance-learning project, and we were asked to make it interactive by using mobile phones. A real challenge, but so far we’ve had lots of parties willing to share their knowledge or donate equipment. That way we can keep our operational costs at a minimum.”
Butterflyworks uses a project-based approach to run their studio, putting a social need at the centre of their design process. “So far, we receive support from large external parties, but we also want to enable individuals to contribute to our projects. One way to do that is to donate your mobile phone to Butterflyworks. We partnered up with Zonzoo, a mobile collection-company, to set up the infrastructure. That way, your old phone can be translated into educational equipment for our Afghanistan-project, Great Idea.”
So, find yourself a Butterfly-box, or check the website - and help Emer unleash an educational revolution!
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