PROUDdesign | Steven de Cleen
Where
De Timmerwerkplaats | SugarCity | Halfweg
What
A creative workplace
Unique
Bustle and creativity
Wow
Steel stairs and beams
It happens more often with creative hotbeds: the dynamics shift from creative to more businesslike. For PROUDdesign – design agency specialising in packaging & brand design – this was the reason to look for a new workplace.
Goal: back to the creative roots, preferably framed once more by steel stairs and beams.
Until then, they worked from a former bicycle factory in the capital. Amsterdam became the search area again. However, the inspiring surroundings, excellent accessibility and the character of the former sugar factory made the SugarCity development area in Halfweg the perfect choice for PROUDdesign. For foreign Clients, whether Amsterdam or Greater Amsterdam hardly mattered and even the 020 area code could be retained.
We are makers, doers. We need somewhere to settle. That is possible here. Our clients – often marketing people and business owners – are also enthusiastic about an area in development with the accompanying activity, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit,’ says Steven de Cleen, founder and owner of PROUDdesign.
On the factory site, PROUDdesign had its eye on the Carpentry Workshop, at that time still rough and unfinished. They had only one month before they were due to move. Personal contact, energy, and short lines of communication with Cobraspen ensured that PROUDdesign could actually move in within a month.
‘Just as with a brand we always incorporate the past history of a brand into a contemporary product – preserving what is good and adapting it to the present time – so Cobraspen does with landmark and industrial real estate. Moreover, the creative and commercial ambitions of Cobraspen and PROUDdesign are an extension of each other; they reinforce each other and ensure a fruitful collaboration.’
‘Personal contact, energy, and short lines of communication’