Dear Anthony Siemons & Geert Stam, Via Cultura;

As an individual free-lancer I have a small design company. In winter time we work in Istanbul, and summer Assos, Çanakkale.

Considering to my work you can find nothing special. You could have seen similar designs all over the world. Anyone can easily observe that all the cars, TV sets, electonic equipments around the world look alike. For me what is interesting is that, their stories behind them. Years ago I have investigated Apple Computers sad, aggresive, time to time violent story. You can also investigate Studbakers and its owners sad story and its designer’s complicated famous life. I have also carefully observed Turkish economics and bussines life. It has real similarity. Without understanding life, design has no meaning at all! You pay a great deal to get educated, but you may neglect life. You have to observe it carefully. You have to know what you think and why. What life is? The educated people all around the world, who have been to college, to university, have got a nice design job, and advance there, they have their own troubles. How are you going to meet all this? One may know everyting about design bussiness. But psychologically one doesn’t know anyting about inner-self. You can get a job, get married, have children. But mind may want something much more then that.

As a designer do you know what is happening in the world? Deception, revolt, chaos and the misery all around in this country or any other countries. When you consider all about it, what does it mean to you? Do you want to be swallowed up by the culture in which you live? Or are you going to oppose it. Opposing would be another problem and not a total understanding. What is your relationship to the confusion that man producing? What is your innermost response to all this? Get married and settle down! If that is the end of it, then what? Is education help you to get settled down in this system? I think that is where the sadness lies. The world is that way; deceptive, money-minded. If you are not aware of it, you will just slip into it. You know all the tricks people are playing on each other. Are you going to fit into the mechanisim of the present disorder, or do you think it should be some other way? There must be a way to live happily, intelligently, activly, with a greate deal of energy.

You have to find out how to live. That demands intelligence. Fear is probably the gratest problem in the world. Enquiring into what fear is, your mind becomes intelligent: that intelligence will show you how to live in this chaos sanely. If you know how to live, you will never be frightened. In this everything must be questioned. Important question to ask yourself is; how to live in this insanity and yet be sane? I may go to an office and earn a living. I need to find out if I am dependent on people. Not only on people, on drink, money, design, business, talking endlessly about nothing.

What is our relationship to the whole? If you are not enquiring, questioning, looking at yourself what you think, later on it will be much difficult. We are human beings in relationship with each other, therefore we must understand each what it means to live together in freedom. To live a life without effort, without conformity, without suppression, without following the crowd, to understand the whole greedy process of modern existence. We can create Designs for the Real World. Design for humanitiy. This issue will exist right through life, if you suppress it there is danger it will explode in other directions. If you play trics with it, it will destroy your mind and your life. You can only be free when you have understood how deeply you are conditioned. İf you examin carefully to the writers, painters or designers who lead terrible lives, in their relationship with others. This misery gives them a tremendous energy. To break down that conditioning you have to be aware of what you are doing. Life can not go on if there is no co-operation. If I have any form of selfish regard, a self- interested motive, can there be co-operating in the sense understanding the world? I have to learn that; I don’t want to become like Christ or Buddha or Sottsass or Starck. We have to see and design things differently. I have to find a way of living differently. The moment I have an idea, I am already confused.

I may be very good at designing a car and getting huge amount of money. Then what? And the whole of the rest of my life neglected. How shall I educate myself? So how do you know what life is? What is happening in the world, wars, the people who have take drugs, and the hatred between countries? This is not a simple problem! To understand this complex problem, I know what I would do. I would just observe all this. I wouldn’t take sides. And also I would observe my litlle self. I would find out what it means to think. Why you think? What is the background of your thinking. Watch yourself. Don’t become self-centered. Be tremendously concerned in that waching.

So what then is the sense of beauty? Does this beauty lie in the products, in art, in design magazine, in things outside? It may come to you when you are physically very sensitive. Not only about yourself but sensitive to others, to everything; the way you talk, the way you design, the way you sell your design. Do you aware of what you are doing, or you do it otomatically. When you become aware of your life, you become sensitive. Without the sense of inward beauty you may design most marvellous things, but it won’t contain love and joy. Surely education is not merely to give you knowledge, but also to give you the capacitiy to observe the world objectively. People generally don’t need to see the whole. They only want to pursue their little desires. Their pleasures. But if you saw the whole and understood your place in it, your relationship to the whole would be fearless and beautifull.

Armagan Birgil




Dear Mr / Mrs,


We as a student organisation are planning a study trip in Octobre of this year. The trip is intended for students who study Industrial Product design at the The Hague University of Professional Education. It is organised every year for approximately 35 students, varying from first year- to last year-students. The idea is to acquaint our students with design in an international perspective.

In the past we have been to London, Berlin, Milan, Paris, Copenhagen.
This year we are planning to go to the interesting city of Istanbul. Our goal
İn this trip is to broaden our horizon in design to the Eastern culture. We would like to visit companies and studios, as yourself, in this city.

As a group we are dieing to know everything about your company and the way you work within your branch, the cultural differences within design between Turkey and the Netherlands.

Our question to you is the possibility to visit your company when we are
visiting Istanbul. We are in Istanbul from the 17th to the 23rd of October.

If you are interested in our plans we would like to hear from you as soon as
possible to make further arrangements for this visit.


Or you can send a letter to:

Via Forma
Postbus 19011
2500 CA The Hague
The Netherlands

With kind regards,

Anthony Siemons & Geert StamVia Cultura