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Interior designer
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In Conversation
Roy looks young and has a boyish demeanour, however, he has been in the business for nearly 35 years. Coaching clients and discovering their personal style, that is what it is all about.
Roy’s younger years
Sketching and designing is in his blood. From an early age, you would not find him without his trusted pencil and sketchbook. He is always drawing, designing and creating. Being a headstrong young man, he decides to go for an entrance exam at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He is told he is talented but too young.
So, he just bides his time and during his military service he is given the opportunity to develop his technical drawing skills. After that nothing is going to hold him back. He is admitted to the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht where he is allowed to start in the second academic year. Even during his time at the academy, Roy made a name for himself with a design project for the legendary fashion duo Puck & Hans. Known for their trendy and somewhat eccentric style, Roy designs a completely new and successful interior for their first store in The Hague. This project turns out to be the basis for his career as a designer. Puck & Hans teach him that courage and character can lead to great success.
A furniture designer’s flying start
Shortly after completing his studies, Roy experiences his breakthrough as a furniture designer. He is assigned to design the interior for the House of the Future (1989) of futurologist Chriet Titulaer where he only applies prototypes. One of these prototypes is a ball-shaped chair, a futuristic airy looking chair. Furniture designer Leolux, the main sponsor of the house, sees a future for the design and starts production in the same year, naming the chair Pallone, the Italian word for balloon. It turns out to be a huge success, the chair quickly becomes an iconic design for Leolux and wins many design prizes, such as ‘Best Dutch Furniture Design’. The chair is still in production and over the years, tens of thousands have been delivered worldwide.
Design, freedom & trust
Roy realises that he has achieved the top in furniture design and decides to move to interior design in which total design is his focus. A discipline balancing design, art and styling and a discipline which allows these elements to go hand in hand. To this day, this is what he works on, and he enjoys every minute of it. He designs projects all over the world from his design studio in his home in the heart of Amsterdam or from his ‘casita’ on Mallorca. He enjoys working in the Netherlands but also feels right at home when he is abroad. His projects stretch far and wide, locations that can only capture the imagination such as Mallorca, Locarno, Cape Town, Johannesburg and even Panama City. These projects could not be more diverse. Ranging from gorgeous residential projects to retail designs for all the Skins Cosmetic boutiques worldwide. They do, however, have one thing in common: the ultimate goal is achieved together with the client! With time, it has become increasingly important for Roy to experience a sense of freedom when working on projects. Free to choose his office. Free to choose his colleagues. Free to allow his ideas to flourish wherever he desires. For each project, he will search for a collaboration with a suitable and experienced team of innovating professionals, project managers, 3D-illustrators and interior builders.
‘It is all about ideas, and ideas…. created in freedom’
This connective collaboration is also what Roy wants to achieve with his clients. Key in this is a sense of trust. Trust is the foundation, and it determines your team’s level of success. Designing to him is like playing a game of table tennis, moving in both directions and achieving the next level together. According to Roy, this is only possible if both parties feel connected and so trust is an essential element.
‘Designing is like playing table tennis, moving in both directions and climbing to the next level together’
Coaching
Roy ‘coaches’ his clients into finding their personal style which he, consequently, translates into a contemporary living or working environment. He does not decide. It is his goal to have the client discover together with him, to have them find out what their final destination is, a destination that needs to be discovered yet. Roy always sets off on this voyage of discovery differently. He believes it is important to adjust each time and to not develop a set signature design style. His aim is to see through the eyes of each client and then apply his creative and technical knowledge. He tries to assess exactly what the client’s wishes are. In the case of renovations, he does not only listen to the client but also focuses on the building and considers how he can give it back some of its lost character.
‘I want to give a property back what it has lost, such as a piece of character’’
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