NPK, Ninaber Peters & Krouwel, design agency. Established in 1978 as Peters & Krouwel when both Wolfram Peters (1952) and Peter Krouwel (1952) graduated from the Delft University of Technology. Their designs included a child seat, Bobob, which became a commercial success. After these, many more ingenious products followed. Bruno Ninaber van Eyben was added to the agency in 1985 and they moved to a larger building in Leiden in 1990, where they set up their own model shop and photo studio.
‘We want to come up with good products from scratch,’ Krouwel said, products that were distinctively solid, professional and functional. NPK specialised in electronics and plastics technology and designed a wide range of products including laboratory furniture, lighting, medical equipment and hospital beds, a mailbox, sporting goods, signage and street furniture. The agency also created a separate department for the graphical aspects. The fact that their innovative character and product designs were appreciated is reflected in the many prizes they received. Ninaber and Krouwel left the agency in order to continue independently. NPK has opened a second office in Germany.

---

The Dutch version of this biography is taken from the book Visies op vormgeving, het Nederlandse ontwerpen in teksten deel 2: 1940-2000 (2008) by Frederike Huygen. The following sources have been used for this biography:
– Staal, G. ‘Ninaber/Peters/Krouwel. Ontwerpbureau als tweede geweten van de fabrikant’, Items 9 (1990) 34, pp. 22-27.
– Kras, R. ‘Vision & Precision. n/p/k industrial design’, Amsterdam 2002.