(People searching for Erik De Nijs have been hitting on "Beyond the Beyond,"

because I was doing precisely that myself. Erik, who lacks a website as he is laudably busy actually learning his craft, has kindly sent me this statement, so that journalists and TV producers will stop asking me so many questions about him.)

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More about me: My name is Erik De Nijs, I’m 22 years old and I’m a third-year product design student at the HKU in Utrecht Holland. HKU means "Hoge School voor de Kunsten Utrecht," which means high school for arts Utrecht.

I know I should make some kind of internet site so people can contact me if they want something, but I just don’t have so much time for that.

I promised to explain my concept of the beauty and the geek jeans, so here it is. I also send some pictures.

The jeans were designed for an assignment for school. The teacher’s name is Guido Ooms (www.oooms.nl). He has been a student at the design academy in Eindhoven.

The assignment was to take two brands and combine them so that there would be a new product. Important was that there would be some tension between the two brands and that these brands weren’t an obvious combination. The example he gave was the Senseo coffee machine by Philips and Douwe Egberds (Douwe Egberds is a coffee company), only this cooperation between those two brands is too obvious for the assignment. The assignment was called branding.

I did the assignment a little bit different. Instead of picking two brands and finding a combination, I was looking for a combination of two products, which would create a new kind of product which would be special. And afterwards I could brand them. So I came up with the idea of putting a keyboard in your pants, and to make jeans with all the important computer stuff (like a mouse, keyboard and the speakers) in it. Besides the new look the jeans would get, there was some sort of freedom behind your computer screen. You didn’t have to be stiff behind your screen, but you can move in any position you want because the keyboard would be in the same place.

I made jeans I would like to wear. In holland, we say baggy jeans. These jeans are a bit loose, so there was enough space to build in the keyboard and the speakers. The jeans I made is a concept which is designed to work with a wireless bluetooth connection. In the model I made, this connection is not there, but a plug is connected to your laptop. This plug looks like a belt, which is put around your waist when you’re not connected. If I develop the model, I will make it with a full wireless USB connection because it is possible. But for the model I had to make in 3 weeks, I used a plug connection. If I would design a new model, I would do some things different.

The jeans have stitches like the pattern of a mother board from your computer. This gives the jeans some technological look. I designed the back pocket for the wireless mouse in a way that sticks out a little bit, so the mouse fits in perfectly. The speakers are on the side of your knees where your leg bends. The mouse is connected to your pants with elastic, so if it falls, it does not break.

So I did not create the jeans to solve the problem of sitting still behind your screen. It was an outcome from another perspective. I wanted to create something that had something playful over it. I don’t know how I should describe it, but what I’m looking for in all my products is an extra twist, not just a product that looks good or functions well. I want to put something extra in it. I hope you understand it a little bit because i think it is hard to explain in English. if you look at the products Guido Ooms makes, you maybe can see what I’m talking about. He says his products are to make life more fun.

I’m not saying this is my philosophy because, to be totally honest, I don’t know what my philosophy of designing exactly is yet. I’m also not saying these are the kind of products I will be making in the future, it’s just that his products have an extra twist, and I find that very interesting. I’m not specially interested in designing technological products. If there needs to be some technique to create my concept, I will use it.

Erik De Nijs

(((More pics direct from Erik archived here:)))

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucesterling/sets/72157605496145298/