About me
Over mijzelf en Het Hof van Cartesius
Me
The common thread in my own story
'Story Matters' is me, Joost van der Spek. Since 2019. But I've been around a bit longer myself. After studying history, I worked as a freelance historian and journalist for 9 years, until one day I woke up in the story paradise of Tinker Imagineers.
An incredible place. A spatial ideas and design agency, where my task was to research, devise and write stories. In the meantime, I learned from - and with - my design colleagues the intricacies of 'experience design': how to turn those stories into spatial experiences. A great time, but after almost 11 years in story paradise, new adventures beckoned. Story Matters!
The ‘Hof van Cartesius’
A creative oasis in the middle of Utrecht
Story Matters has its studio on the Hof van Cartesius. This is a cooperative of about 120 creative and sustainable entrepreneurs who operate from circularly built workspaces around a number of inner gardens on the old Werkspoorterrein. It is much more than just a workplace: it is a platform for sustainable experiments, a community, a cultural stage, a meeting space, a place to catch your breath. If you drop by unexpectedly and don't find me in my studio, chances are I'll be weeding or playing a game of ping pong.
Photo: Inez Faber