TEDxDelft 2012 | Performer: Pim van den Akker – Making everyday life extraordinary

Surprising and playful. Touchingly honest. Extraordinarily natural and naturally extraordinary. The Delft based floral designer and artist, Pim van den Akker, makes everyday things extraordinary. Take a fresh new look at clothing and design. Take a fresh new look at flowers and plants. Take a fresh new look at daily reality.

His floral art is contained in six books by now, which are firm favourites in more than thirty countries. In real life, international trendsetter Van den Akker is matchless. The whole world wants him; he is requested to give shows everywhere, to (re)style houses and to design events. In doing so, he creates customised work as standard. Whether it’s a business party or a product presentation, Van den Akker makes it a unique show in keeping with the moment, transforming that moment into an inspiring and amazing sensory experience.

Van den Akker’s work needs to be seen, felt, inhaled and heard. And sometimes even tasted, especially now he is preparing a spectacular floral fashion show in the Grote Kerk (THE Church) in Delft, together with Yuri Verbeek, a chef from Delft. It is a show to tickle all the senses. A show which will amaze the fashion world.

Van den Akker is dyslectic, which is by no means a handicap in his case. It has taught him to look at things from a different angle. He need only blink his eyes to become inspired. Shapes, lines, images, colours, movements – he recognises opportunities to surprise himself in everything he sees. And that is his driving force. After all, amazement opens up your eyes.

What Van den Akker creates, is more than simply an extraordinary look at design. More than a passionate plea to leave the well-trodden paths, by combining traditional design with his floral design. By bringing together natural shapes and materials in his own inimitable style, Van den Akker creates atmosphere most of all. Pimdesigned offers inspiration and brings special moments into bloom. Limited shelf life? Not at all, his work with specially prepared materials is as durable as that of a sculptor. And his perishable work comprises moments which will remain firmly etched on your mind. Because Van den Akker makes every day a very special one. ‘Making everyday life extraordinary’ is therefore his motto, a motto which he lives in constant amazement.