Open Set Design School (Foundation)

Open Set is a design and education platform located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, that operates internationally. It was initiated as an independent summer school in 2012. Open Set has the legal status of non-profit Foundation, with the following board members: Max Bruinsma (chairman), Joanna van der Zanden, and Vlad Butucariu.

Open Set applies design thinking to education, while facilitating collaborations, exchange of experience and knowledge, and building new networks of young creatives. Open Set’s programmes introduce participants to different schools of design as well as broader cultural fields: from graphic design to performance art, urbanism, media art, curation and also academic research on literature, cinema, media, sociology, ethics and history. Open Set offers a perfect opportunity for young talented people to work closely with international multidisciplinary groups and challenge their definitions of contemporary design practice and their visions for its future.

The focus of Open Set as a design platform lies in redefining the role of the designer within society in order to remain competitive and valuable in the production of visual culture. To explore the definition of design today and tomorrow we look at four demanding issues:•The necessity of a platform for professional network building based on solidarity and experimentation•The effect of design on relationships within society•Collaboration between design and other disciplines•The application of socially meaningful design and its effect