Herman Hermsen



Born:

Nijmegen Holland. 1953

Education:

  • Academy of Fine Arts Arnhem Holland. 1974 - 1979

Work / Experience:

  • since 1979 independant and freelance jewelry- and product designer.
  • 1985-1990 Teacher for product- and jewellery design at the Academy of Fine Arts Utrecht Holland
  • 1990-1992 Teacher for product- and jewelry design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Arnhem Holland
  • 1992 - present Professor for product- and jewelry design at the University of Applied Science in Düsseldorf Germany
  • From 1985 - present guest lecturer at different school, institutes or symposiums in
  • Netherlands,Germany,Spain, Great-Brittain, USA.
  • Design jury-member in several design contests in Holland and Germany.

Exhibitions:

  • Several solo- and groupexhibitions for jewelry design in: Holland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Great-Britain, Spain,Portugal, France, Italy, Scandinavia, Czech Republic, USA, Canada , Australia and Japan.
  • Several solo- and group presentations for product design in Holland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Great-Brittain, USA and Japan.

Designs in productions:

  • Artimeta (1), Designum (8), Indoor (2), Auping (1), Niessing (1), ClassiCon (1)

Own productions :

  • Limited editions of business gifts for KPN Telecom, Post and others.
  • Different designs of lamps, furniture, vitrines, dishes and gift-aways in limited
  • editions.
  • All jewelry designs, in limited editions or unique pieces

Designs in museum collections:

  • Museum of Modern Art in Arnhem Holland
  • Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Holland
  • Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst Amsterdam Holland
  • Van Reekum Museum Apeldoorn Holland
  • Museum Boymans van Beuningen Rotterdam Holland
  • Haags Gemeente Museum The Hague Holland
  • Museum Het Kruithuis Den Bosch Holland
  • Centraal Museum Utrecht Holland
  • Schmuck Museum Pforzheim Germany
  • Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne Germany
  • Bauhaus Archiv Berlin Germany
  • Neue Sammlung Munich Germany
  • Museum für Kunsthandwerk Hamburg Germany
  • Museum for Kunsthandverk Oslo Norway
  • Museum Trondheim Norway
  • Cleveland Contemporary Jewellery Collection UK
  • Victoria and Albert Museum London UK
  • Museum des Arts Decoratifs Montreal Canada.
  • Cooper Hewitt Museum New York USA
  • Museum Turnov,Czech-Republic
  • Angermuseum Erfurt Germany
  • Die Neue Pinakotek,Munich Germany
  • National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto Japan

Contests:

  • 1993 Rotterdam Design Prize, honourable mention for the letter opener „Fontana" produced by Designum Holland
  • 1998 Design Innovations, Design Centre NRW Germany, award for „High Design Quality"
  • of the ring designs „Mäander" produced by Niessing Germany
  • 2001 Reddot Design Award, Design Centre NRW, „reddot: best of the best" for the floorlamp Charis produced by ClassiCon Munich Germany
  • 2002 IF Design Award 2002 for floorlamp Charis by ClassiCon

Statement to my work

Since I started as a designer the main challenge and item in my work is looking for new technical solutions within a contemporary interpretation of traditional values and crafts in combination with expressive and innovative design.