Trained in industrial design, Gijs Bakker co-founded the now-famous Dutch design firms Droog in 1993 and Chi ha paura...? in 1996. Over the years, he has taught at various European art academies and worked on numerous commercial collaborations, creating everything from furniture to jewelry to public spaces. Known for privileging concept over craft and denying the market value of the materials he works in, Bakker has long disparaged the fetishization of the “authenticity” and prefers instead the potential for mass-production. “I have never been interested in hand-made things, and I am, in fact, suspicious of the charm,” Bakker says. “It is the idea that matters, and whether it’s produced by me or by a machine, nothing must detract from the idea.”