No. 6 in our Great Heroes series: "In his work, I feel my own love for paper reflected."

Welcome to our "Great Heroes" series. In this collection of stories, we'll take you inside the world of the people who motivate and inspire our team every day. You'll meet our personal heroes.

By sharing these stories, we invite you to get to know our team on a more personal level. Discover which pioneers, artists, and thinkers have shaped us, and why their work continues to inspire us on our own creative journey.

Floortje's great Hero:

Peter Gentenaar

Rijswijk, The Netherlands, November 13, 1946

Eternal Flame ET Lincoln center, New York

Floortje is one of our most experienced designers and didn't hesitate for a second to appoint Peter Gentenaar as her Great Hero. "I have a deep love for paper. Not just for what you can create with it, but for what it is. The smell, the feel between your fingers, how it bends and moves—and yet holds so much power. Paper is soft and strong at the same time. It has limits, but within those limits lies endless freedom. That's precisely what I see in Peter Gentenaar's work."

"Peter is a true hero to me. He understands paper in a way few others do. He doesn't work against it, but with the material. His sculptures seem to arise almost spontaneously, like leaves that dry and curl, purely because nature intended it that way.

He lets the paper find its own shape, and that produces such magical, almost breathing objects."

"What I love most is that he doesn't push away the limitations of paper, but rather embraces them. As if he's saying, 'This is what the material wants... I'm just following.' That touches me, because that's how I feel too. His work confirms for me why I love paper. And why I never tire of it.