Dutch Design - Day 17 - Den Haag "So what do you do?"

Today was an awesome day. Robbie and I had our first interview today and we had both for the day. We left the apartment in the morning for Schiphol and taking the intercity train over to Den Haag (The Hague).
Our first interview was at 11am with Thomas Castro at LUST. I was nervous going in as I was the lead. We took some time to warm up but Thomas was really awesome. He gave us great insight into his perspective on design. Since a few of the LUST designers are teachers, we were able to gain a different  frame of reference in design compared to the other designers we have interviewed.

The LUST office was in a really nice house. They are in the historic house of Paulus Potter in Den Haag. The LUST office was on the first floor and the second floor was for LUSTlab. The secret garden or hofje courtyard had a nice table where we sat for one of our interview sets. There's also a cool wishing well in the back.

We took a lunch break after the interview at a local cafe and I had the option of white asparagus soup so I took it. It was an amazing decision because that was one of the best soups I have ever tasted.

Den Haag's historic old-timey tram lines

Our second interview of the day was at Typotheque with Peter Bil'ak. His interview was mind-blowing as he showed us some of his sketching process when designing letter forms for a typeface. He also gave us a crash course in digital typography with his fonts describing how analog typeface edges are drawn on both sides at once and digital typefaces are drawn twice as edges are separate curves.

Afterwards, a few of us went back to the bar beside LUST to relax and have a beer. We were about to go home when Thomas walked in with Jurgen Bey. Robbie didn't know who he was and asked him "So what do you do?" while Steven and I were shaking our heads at it, but it was nice to have a drink with him.

We were again about to head home, but Thomas convinced us to go for dinner with him. I was happy with dinner as we got to go to Istana, an Indonesian restaurant, as I've been wanting to try Indonesian food here in the Netherlands, as well as wanting to try the rijsttafel or rice table where it's much like a feast of many small dishes. (I had been trying to recruit others to go without much success so this was an awesome chance to do it and get it crossed off my list).

We got home late as we were out for a bit and also the train schedules at night aren't as good especially with going back into Amsterdam on slow intercity trains.

Food Notes
-White asparagus soup is AWESOME
-Rijsttafel is an interesting experience of feasting proportions

Highlights
-awesome interviews with both Thomas Castro from LUST and Peter Bil'ak at Typotheque!
-Indonesian food here in the Netherlands is good