Hugo de Ruiter >>

Product Designer Hugo de Ruiter >>

Hugo de Ruiter is a graduate of the Design Academy in Eindhoven who earned his spurs in furniture design during a successful career at Leolux as a designer and design manager. In 2000 he decided to design full-time and he started his own design studio. This marked the beginning of his collaboration on various outdoor lines with Val-Eur. De Ruiter’s first design for Val-Eur, the Portofino, was ground-breaking in its use of teak and stainless steel in outdoor furniture. Since then he has been the creator of a number of Val-Eur’s best-loved collections. His instincts are honed by the practical as well as the aesthetic demands of a suc- cessful design and his rich experience has given him ample time to discover the secret of a comfortable seat.“I specialise in designing furniture. Chairs are my forte. With Val-Eur I saw a chance to use my skills to design outdoor chairs and recliners of premium quality with a partner that has an excellent reputation. The premium value of Val-Eur is not only due to the high-grade materials they use, but also a result of the standard of comfort they aim for. Take the Portofino chairs for example. The teak seats are curved to give you better sitting comfort. A typical Val-Eur touch.”“As a designer I’m also interested in sitting as a social activity and so I assess a good design idea from a conceptual angle. In this the relation between sitting space and human social inter- action fascinates me. I look for clients who are interested in translating my ideas into products that offer a user a multi-functional approach to the use of space and furniture. This is also clearly reflected in my designs for Val-Eur. My modular lounging system Nautica for example is multi-functional. It can be adjusted by the user to provide more seating space or more table space, as required. This gives a user freedom to use the same space for different activities and the same parts for different functions.”