UNSEEN PRODUCTS
2006 - ongoing, worldwide
An internet platform that aims to forge lasting commercial relations between European retailers and small manufacturers in developing countries.
Original concept: Butterfly Works for NCDO
Director: Hein Kop and Tom van den Berg
Unseenproducts.com aims to transform unseen and inaccessible products into immediately visible and accessible ones, in return for commercially interesting prices. Commissioned by the NCDO in 2006, Butterfly Works developed the concept of Unseen Products and performed the necessary preparatory research. In 2007 Hein Kop became the director of Unseen Products and is currently managing this on-line match-making together with Tom van den Berg,
As was the case for Return to Sender and Made in Fes, the aim of Unseen Products is twofold, for although this project is intended to contribute to the economic development of small manufacturers in developing countries, it has the added aim of putting high-quality, exclusive design-products from the South on the European market.
Design is in everything we make, but it’s also between those things. It's a mix of craft, science, storytelling, propaganda, and philosophy. --- Erik AdigardBrowse through quotes