ARK is the acronym of Atelier Roosje Klap, an Amsterdam-based design studio that can adapt to any type of assignment. ARK works with a festive team of regular collaborators from all over the world. We satisfy design needs, from the monumental to the minuscule. The research-based interdisciplinary design approach enables ARK to challenge the boundaries of graphic design and create new forms of communication.
ARK has many faces. For each new project, we draw on an extensive, international network of artists, designers, architects, curators, historians, conservators, thinkers, makers, and doers. Projects are brought to the ARK, but projects are born on the ARK as well: it is an open space, to encourage all manner of design alliances. ARK represents a new generation of graphic designers that not only work on private or public commissions but also define their own assignments, creating a new global design membrane.
The ARK spans wide and digs deep. Each project, assigned or independent, is approached as a research adventure. An ARK design is present, powerful, intelligent, refined, historically aware, context-conscious, sometimes cheeky and always fresh. We work with some ridiculously talented people, scattered across the globe. Hence this ARK of ours: a spandex-stretchy design community that can adapt to any type of assignment in our hyperlinked, 24-hour world.
CLIENTSARK has established collaborations with the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), Kunsthal Rotterdam, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Netherlands Film Festival (NFF), KRC Collection, Kröller-Müller Museum, nai010, TAAK, Repair Café, De Zwarte Hond and The Istanbul Design Biennial. The work of ARK was exhibited at a.o. International Typography Biennale in Korea, the Graphic Design Biennial in Chaumont, France, the Porto Design Biennial in Portugal, and at the DEMO - Design in Motion Festival in Amsterdam.
ABOUT ROOSJE KLAP ROOSJE KLAP is the founder of Atelier Roosje Klap, also known as ARK. Klap studied Graphic Design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and fresh out of school began her own studio, quickly developing an international network. Her interests lie in unconventional, artistic research and playful collaborations with artists, curators, architects, (type) designers, and writers. The research-based interdisciplinary approach is reflective of a generation of designers that define their assignments alongside commissions. In 2014, Klap initiated the collective 'Design Displacement Group' (DDG), which focuses on the discourse of graphic design in the rapidly changing media landscape and its trans-disciplinary development towards other disciplines. DDG formed the blueprint of her current collective ARK (Atelier Roosje Klap) that collaborates on self-initiated projects and commissions in varying compositions — a methodology that she coins coins as ‘post-signature.’As an experienced educator and coach specializing in graphic design, media art, and digital humanities, Roosje led and designed curricula and workshops for international art academies and universities to inspire creatives and enhance equitable relationships in their habitats. Roosje Klap is chairman of Valiz Publishers, board member of the Wim Crouwel Institute, and member of the supervisory board of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.
ARK COLLABORATORSARRAN LYON is a multi-disciplinary coder who explores the story telling potential of technology, and asks what artifical intelligence can do, rather than what it cannot. As a proponent of open source software, he develops custom solutions for artistic practices and helps to bring the forefront of technology into new domains. Arran graduated with a masters degree in computational science from the University of Amsterdam in 2020.LOUIS BRADDOCK CLARKE moves between researcher and creative practitioner interpreting notions from design, geography, electro-matter, and esoteric philosophies. Via this holistic approach, an experimental inquiry unfolds, blending scientific and conceptual theories to materialize in contemporary mediums. By producing ‘Geo-tools,’ Braddock Clarke measures and records ancient, current, and future surfaces of the ever-shifting Earth.LOES CLAESSENS believes in system focused design and pushes strong typography while embracing the power of editing whose persona is an integral part of the practice as well – part glam-rock, curating radio and making sound, and part high-theory. There’s something unmistakably ‘Brian Eno’-esque about her and her dedicated investment in conceptual pop-culture. In 2019 she received a master’s degree at Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem.NINA VAN TUIKWERD has a playful approach to design to show visual research and engagement to speculative thinking. Extrapolating on possible future scenarios of our planet she raises awareness on our environmental issues by pulling us in a magical world, where nature will always survive, with or without humans. Nina graduated from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague in 2019. NÓRA BÉKÉS is a typographically obsessed visual storyteller, who is characterized by a focus on design research, typography and interdisciplinary approaches. Her experiments show visual tactics of multi-layered storytelling. Nora graduated from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague in 2018.SENKA MILUTINOVIC is a designer obsessed with fictional and political storytelling that aims to raise awareness about social issues that are connected to the communities they inhabit. They believe that there is no such thing as apolitical design and use research as the backbone for any hybrid project they start conjuring up. From designing events for the queer community to making exhibitions about the political influence of memes, Senka always tries to find the right medium for the message. Senka is currently studying and working at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, and will graduate in June 2022.VALENTIN VOGELMANN is a computer scientist and a researcher at the KNAW (The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) for The SociAl BIas Observatory, where they are investigating bias in the digital collections of the members of the Dutch Digital Heritage Network. SABIO makes prejudices and imbalances in the data explicit such that they can be addressed, as well as taken into account by users of the data. ZUZANNA ZGIERSKA is a cross-media designer with a strong interest in media theory. She makes science-fiction objects, which challenge the tender interfaces between the human and the technical. Her research invites to view technology in a non-hierarchical, non-binary way: beyond the cold tokens of 0 and 1. Zuzanna has exhibited worldwide, her visual and written work was published in design magazines. Unless caught red-handed hacking a bean sorting machine, she can be found roasting screen surfaces into portions of biological substances.Our current intern is MAÏWENN BROCHEN, who studies Design and Digital Creation at Estienne, Paris. Having a cross disciplinary approach to design, Maïwenn loves to experiment with visuals and interactiveness. She is particularly interested in our relationship to ‘reality’ through the digital world. PREVIOUS INTERNS AND COLLABORATORS OF THE ARK (in alphabetical order) Amanda PunaChiara ZarottiJean-Baptiste CastelJessica HollinsheadJochem RuaresJustine Corrijn Guillaume RouxKatherine WimnettMira 't Jolle Pauline Le Pape
(part of) the ARK collective, 2021: Louis Braddock Clarke, Roosje Klap, Arran Lyon, Senka Milutinovic, Zuzana Zgierska, Valentin Vogelmann. Photo by Iris Duvekot
Westerdok 610 1013 BV, AmsterdamThe Netherlands
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Sorry, we have no vacancies at the moment! You are always welcome to send us an emailatelier [at] ark.amsterdam
