Belgium elected as one of the top ten design countries

Like every year, the British, trendsetting magazine Wallpaper* has named the ten most important design countries in the world in their April issue. For the first time in the history of the list, Belgium was in it too. “Belgium was already on the long list for a few years, so it's not really a surprise for us that you're now on the shortlist”, says editor-in-chief Tony Chambers.

Wallpaper* asked the famous illustrator Noma Bar to create a local cover for each country in the top ten. For Belgium, Noma Bar transformed the designs of the Brussels based industrial designer Sylvain Willenz into an image for the cover. Willenz is one of the biggest Belgian talents, he's creating work for international renown firms like the Italian Cappellini, the Danish Hay, the British Established&Sons and the French Chevalier éditions.

Inside the magazine, there was an interview with Alain Berteau, an architect, designer and founder of Objekten, a young accessory and furniture brand. With Objekten Berteau wants to create good value for money and therefore sustainable products. At the Maison & Object furniture fair in Paris, experts and participants showed a lot of interest to Objekten.

On the other pages, Wallpaper* was presenting work by Bram Boo, Michaël Verheyden, Maarten Van Severen, Dustdeluxe and Vincent Van Duysen. The other countries in the 2012 list were: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and the United States.

Elien Haentjens

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