The Lookbook: Climbing Lovers - New Trends Fabric Collection & Surface Designs

Any climbing or boulder fans out here? We recently created an entirely new exclusive collection of designs inspired by climbing. There are two types of climbing: bouldering, without a rope. Of with rope. Personally I love bouldering, it's a little more technical in the gym. And well, to be frank, climbing outside is not really an option here in The Netherlands. We live below sea level and there's no such thing as mountains.

But, inspired by my climbing trip to Spain and my weekly bouldering sessions with my climbing buddy, I created a collection of prints. I simply couldn't find any fun print designs covering this niche. They have been popular prints for chalk bags and dog accessories. There are lots of peeps out there with a furry friend climbing mountains! So if you see something you like: these designs are available for licensing. And most of them are available on fabric over at Spoonflower too.

Wanna license print designs for your business? Please send us a message. We’ve also put some more info about licensing on our blog earlier this year, so if you’d like to read more about that and check out if licensing could be something for you read the blog post. We made an easy step-by-step about what you need to keep in mind before licensing print designs. Any questions? We’re happy to help. Just reach out!

Wanna be kept in the loop and get exclusive designs right into your mailbox? Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date. You’ll get all new print designs right into your inbox. And of course, we’ll keep you informed about what we’re working on.

De Campus // Boulder Gym Accessories

As most of you might have noticed already while following Maaike on Instagram, she has gotten herself a new hobby. The past year she discovered climbing and has been bouldering in a local boulder gym in The Hague. Since she is having some insiders there, they asked us to create some party gear for their kids birthday parties and events.

Graphic design is not really part of our main business anymore but for this time obviously, she couldn’t say no. De Campus is a place that also makes an awesome birthday outie for kids. For these festive occasions, they needed a little stash of party stuff. So we created some cool placemats, flags, and a fun table cloth to dress us those birthday party tables.

The table cloth was made with a climbing wall print that is also available on fabric in our Spoonflower shop. The backdrop of this print is in the typical wooden color most climbing gym walls are made out of plywood. And these colors make the table cloth not too crazy patterned. For the placemats, that are also used for other occasions we used one of Maaike's photographs. They make a perfect and colorful abstract visual. The outdoor flags are designed in the typical De Campus blue tones with some subtle geometrics shapes underneath the white contrasting logo. It’s a fun result, right?

If you’d like to find out what it is we can do for your business, please send us a message.

Sources of inspiration // Bouldering // New free climbing inspired art, home decor and fashion items

As some of you might know already I have been struggling with fibromyalgia for as long as I can remember. As a kids I was pretty competitive, I loved sports, and I loved pushing my body. Winning that medal! I used to do gymnastics but when I was a teen my knees and ankles, my wrists, all got in the way of performing on a high level. Eventually I stopped all together and for a few years I didn’t so anything.

8 years ago I met my friend Ashni who is also a singer, you might know her from her number 1 hit single Wanna be close. She’s pretty popular at the moment, anyway where was I? Oh yes, my friend Ashni also worked as a dance instructor and during her classes I got back to moving again, enjoying a workout, without struggling as much with my own limits. Dancing became my way to unload and relax. I still love to dance, but unfortunately when my friend decided to focus on her music career I never found anyone so full of life and other dance classes just weren’t as awesome as I was used to.

Finding a new passion
Because I really need to keep my muscles strong due to my fibromyalgia I joined the gym. Oh my lord how much I dreaded to go there. There is absolutely no part of my that get’s excited doing these kinds of work outs. Staying fit is a struggle when you’re doing something you don’t like to I quit and thankfully right after that, a met an awesome dude person who introduced me to climbing. I always thought climbing would be way to heavy for my joints, but after a few tries I noticed it was much more a full body work out that just killing my hands. So I decided to give climbing a go.

I live in a pretty flat country so outdoor rock climbing is not much of an option. And I have to admit the boulders in the climbing gym are way easier on my hands, so climbing indoors has it’s perks. I have been climbing for a few months now and every time I leave the climbing gym I am energized. And my god, it has been a while I found something new that get’s me excited. So as you can imagine there are quite some new bouldering inspired new designs coming up.



Bouldering accessories
I started with some geometric prints, patterns for fabric and wallpaper created in Illustrator. But I also love the abstract shapes and colorful boulders so I decided to create a new series of photographic designs that are available on wall art, home decor like pillows and blankets, tech items like laptop sleeves and iPhone cases like the ones featured. And some really cool fashion pieces and accessories. I love the Society6 leggings. They are comfy, perfect for lazy nights on the couch but the fabric is strong enough to use for bouldering too! Yesssss perfect for bouldering those bouldering leggings. How awesome is that!

Check all bouldering items in our Society6 shop and let me know which ones you like best so we can make even more cool bouldering products. We would love a collab with a climbing gear brand. So if you have any connection please reach out!

SOAPBOX // Column // New NS train design fail

With her Dutch roots complaining is in her genes. Every month she writes a little piece about things that keeps her busy. Things that make her wanna scream “Nooooooooooo”




This week I attended the annual Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. And it is always a delight to see so many brilliant minds at work. Projects about sustainability, small footprint living. Social interaction. All topics I love and care about. It is wonderful to see new design solutions making our society safer, cleaner, more efficient and more playful. But this week NS, our Dutch railway company, decided to also take part in Dutch Design Week. They were eager to show the new train.

As a designer I usually work around a theme and I can understand if a designer gets carried away by their own passion. This is a story about a designer that loves bouldering. I think.

I entered the new train and immediately noticed the climbing wall in the hall way. I was thinking ‘wow they actually have come up with something cool to kill time in the train. I love a little 'play' in public spaces, making simple things a little more enjoyable is part of a good design. It was a surprise element, a fun solution for a daily commuter! Of course I wanted to try it out but the NS ‘sales man’ told me the wall was not supposed to be a real climbing wall and I was not allowed to climb it. “It is placed on the restroom door, it could never hold an actual person” he said. Say what? Giving me candy and then taking it away? No! I see climbing hold, I want to get in there!

The wall was just ‘inspired’ by a climbing wall and the holds were actually hooks to hang coats and bags. In the hall way. Hanging coats. Where there is no place to sit. Hang your belongings. People! This is not how your customer uses a train! They see a climbing wall: their going to climb. And if people are in fact looking for a place to hang their stuff it won’t be near the exit or on the toilet doors (hygiene alert!) they won’t be leaving their stuff unattended. They might want a hook next to their seat. Maybe?

For me this new interior showed how functionality was completely secondary in developing a public space. So embarrassing. The climbing holds producer might have had a sweet deal with NS during this design process. Probably the only party that does benefit from this... The user of the end product should always be priority. Design solutions are only solutions if they are solving a problem. Understanding the needs of your customer is key. These are the first steps to take in a design process. NS, if you ever need some more insight about functional design by an experienced traveler, and understand what they would love to see incorporated into the train interior, please contact me. The outcome now is, well, an unfortunate bad design. Embarrassing at the least.