Get to know: We are out of office

Love colourful, striking graphics? Then don’t miss Dutch creative duo We are out of office at our upcoming Amsterdam fair (26 – 30 October, de Kromhouthal). Made up of two multi talented artists Felix van Dam and Winneke de Groot, they create fun, beautiful works from prints and paintings to sculptures and ceramics.

They’ll be presentinga large still life installation during the upcoming Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam. Also make sure to stop by their stand to take a look at the array of works that they will be showing. In the meantime, read on to find out more about this amazing, dynamic duo’s work.

How was We are out of office born? And how has your work evolved over time?

We started working together in art school, we both studied graphic design and we were really into screen printing. One summer, we visited New York but wanted to return but as staying there was expensive and as we were not allowed to work there, we had to come up with a different way to earn a living. So ‘We are out of office’ was born! To start, we designed and screen printed posters for small deli’s, laundrettes, coffeeshops and so on in exchange for what they had to offer. Sometimes for free breakfasts and free coffees! We figured we liked the name and sticked with it. We screen printed cards and posters and sold those in stores and on art markets, and used the money we made to travel. Around 2016 we figured we could quit our freelance graphic design jobs and focus only on We are out of office. Since then we’ve experimented with different media such as sculptures, textiles and ceramics and worked for clients from all over the world. 

What is the inspiration behind your work?

As we’re both trained as graphic designers we still look a lot at graphic design such as packaging, signs and things where image and typography come together. If we look around us, often a lot is uniform and boring – we like those unexpected things that make the world around us a little more interesting and bring us joy. Beside this, we are inspired by small details, which often stand out the most (in our eyes) because they are different. This can be ornamented ceramics, patterns on a fabric, a nicely shaped rock or a nice colour combination.

How did you come up with the idea of creating packaging riso prints?

Well this is something we started a long time ago. We traveled a lot and we always took home the packaging we liked (and still do). We find it interesting to see how people in different countries with different cultures approach design. The more we travel, the more we figured that packaging back home was dull. We thought it would be great to do some real packaging design to show that it can be done different. That’s when we started making these prints, to show that packaging can be bold and colourful and we hoped by doing this, people would find us so we could design their products.

We also discovered that great designs stick in people’s minds. For example, people told us that this particular drink was the drink they had every day in primary school and the print remembered them of this time, or someone bought a print for her mother to remind her of her childhood in Indonesia. So there’s more to them than being nice to look at, an aspect we love about them.

Having worked across several mediums; riso printing, screen printing, ceramics, paintings, sculptures – which medium do you enjoy working in the most?

We really like the variety, in every medium there are new things/possibilities to discover. Working with so many different mediums keeps things fresh for us. We do everything by ourselves and we think this somewhat naive approach suits us. We don’t take a class for let’s say ceramics, we just think of how we want to use it, figure out how we think it should be done and start experimenting. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t but in the end the work feels very ‘us’ and that’s important. We want to create a whole world around us with our work, that’s why we like to use different media. We want the rug on the floor to be ours, the furniture, the paintings, the cups, the pots for the plants, everything. At the moment we’re really busy with ceramics. It’s a complicated process and there are so many ways to approach it. We have a small ceramic studio and we’re really happy we have the chance to experiment with this medium as much as we want.

Can you tell us more about one or two projects which you are most proud of?

Every project has a steep learning curve but we’re proud that we are able to figure everything out by ourselves. The one project we’re most proud of has to be our residency at Raum, a cultural city lab in Utrecht. We made 25 big sculptures which were placed in the public space during this residency. Raum is placed in one of the fasted growing neighbourhoods in The Netherlands and everything looks the same. We want to break to this uniformity and proposed a bunch of colourful sculptures in contrast with the uniform design of the neighbourhood. We wanted people to discover them by themselves, look at them, climb on them, sit on them, have a coffee in the sun with them. This is by far the biggest project we did. We made the tools to build them by ourselves (of course with some help). Using a new medium, new material, new rules from the township regarding safety. It all turned out great and it’s so good to see people fooling around them on sunny days. Definitely something we want to explore more!

What can visitors expect at your stand during Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam 2022?

We used to work a lot in edition, screen prints, risoprints etc. but what we really like to work on are unique pieces, and that’s what you can expect at our stand. A mix of oil paintings, ceramics and sculptures. All bold and colourful – you won’t be able to miss us!

Thanks to We are out of office for answering our questions! Now is the time to grab yourself a Amsterdam fair ticket and explore what’s coming up at the fair.