Richard van der Laken was born in Amstelveen, The Netherlands, in 1970. He studied graphic design at the School of Art Utrecht and did a post graduate at the Amsterdam Sandberg Institute.Since 1995 he has been running a design company with his creative partner Pepijn Zurburg, called De Designpolitie (The Designpolice).
Richard has been honoured with various grants from The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (known in the Netherlands as Fonds BKVB). It is the national body responsible for giving grants to individual visual artists, designers and architects. Its objective is to nurture excellence in visual arts, design and architecture in the Netherlands.
As De Designpolitie team Richard and Pepijn have won numerous Design Awards and merits. These include the Dutch Art Directors Club (ADCN), Dutch Best Book Design, Dutch Housestyle Awards, Dutch Design Awards, British D&AD, New York ADC and lately the European Design Awards (including the Jury Prize).
De Designpolitie has also exhibited their work in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the New York MOMA, the San Francisco MOMA, Institut Neerlandais Paris, Brno Tsjechia.Projects: KPNDockersNovib (Dutch Oxfam)
