D.A.T.E. with Antwerp from the 3rd until the 8th of November. We’ll show them the best hidden secrets, jaunt the hottest places, survive workshops together, enjoy the finest meals and much more. But most important they will meet that one important thing that fuels Antwerp to be the dynamic city that it is today: creative people.
We asked our locals to keep us upD.A.T.E.d (word plays, we know... but it's stronger then ourselves ) of what our guest are doing to discover Antwerp. Yesterday we asked our local Marie to join our internationals for a visit at Antwerp furniture designer Nick Bal's workshop.
Nick Bal is only 25 but has been a passionate furniture designer for almost 7 years now, although he doesn’t really like the word designer . The reason for that is that Nick never works with a preconceived idea but he lets the shape decide what the piece will look like. He changes it as he goes along, improvises the whole time and this way he always ends up with unique items.
Needless to say that This is Antwerp wanted to give the D.A.T.E. guests an inside view into Nick’s interesting work spaces and projects. First we visited his work place at , where he takes care of the interior in the store. Like him, there are different designers working for the brand in cities all over the world. All designers follow the briefing set out by Urban Outfitters each season, but they each do it in their own style which gives Nick a lot of inspiration but also the freedom he needs to make his own designs. Nick: “We all stay in touch via Instagram, we follow each other and get inspired by one another. It really is a cool way of working”.
After that, everyone was invited by Nick for a coffee in , the coffee place for which he designed the bar and other furniture in the interior. This gave us the opportunity to relax for a bit and meanwhile see how his work is used on a daily basis.
The final visit was to Hemiksem, where Nick brought us to his personal work space, an atelier at the back of his grandparents’ house. He showed us where he works but also where he used to do silk screen printing when he was younger. Everyone was amazed by how young Nick really is, while he is already such a hard working guy and so passionate about his job.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to miss a thing. We asked our This Is Antwerp locals to cover most of the workshops for you. So keep an eye out for our blog or follow us on , or !
Text by Marie
Pics by Nick Bal