A great idea again! I am among Dutch artists day by day and now I start to understand why the Netherlands was and still is the country of arts… Dutch artists can have very interesting and fascinating ideas!!!

Laura de Jongh is also a young artist from Utrecht who just graduated as a graphic designer. Her masterpiece for her final exam included five personal curtains for people who keep their curtains closed all day long. You can see them round the center of Utrecht.
Windows are part of the Dutch culture. Every tourist can notice that most of the Dutch people don’t use curtain on the main window. I have heard several serious and funny explanations why… But anyway it is a fact that usually 30% of a house exists out of window in Utrecht.

This topic caught Laura’s attention. She made a little study how people communicate with their windows. Objects, plans, animals, paints, stickers always tell something about the people who live there. Then you have an idea that they are old or young, happy, a little crazy or depressed…
Some of the windows are always “open for public” and some of them are always covered. You don’t know what kind of people live in these houses, or what happen inside… You can’t even wave or give a smile to them when you walk in front of the house.

BUT Laura got an idea and made 100 flyers to find some houses with closed curtains. The result 5 houses where she talked with the people to get to know them a little bit. They had an agreement that she would design a curtain for them what tell something about their personalities, situations but without taking their privacy away.

The curtains are ready!
There is one about a girl who likes to sleep a lot but people in front of the windows just don’t let her. They are talking loudly, and ring the bells of their bikes and wake up the sleepy girl.

There is another one, which shows that the family has twins and wants to meet new young people with children. The curtain made by Laura can be used as a children toy, so it will attract children (and their parents).

The third one is about a lady, who works a lot for charity. With Laura’s help she can collect more money for giving to poor people.

Because of the fourth one you know for sure now that there is a man in Utrecht who likes to host guests and talk with different kind of people so if you are enough brave and curious just ring the bell and enter to his personal café.

                                                                                     
The fifth one is the ‘HAHAHA curtain’. People live in that house who like to make other people laugh. They had a sticker on the window ‘Did you laugh today?’ Once with a two years old son they discovered how easy to interact people through the window. When he was waving they were smiling:) 
                                                                                                                      
I recommend you to look for all curtains in the city and if you are a person who always keeps the windows covered just ask Laura to design something funny or interesting for you. You can see she definitely has enough talent and creativity for it!
(Her website is: www.lilalaurara.com)