Programme

‘– Can I help you?’

ONE DESIGN WEEK poses the question ‘Can I help you?’ – a question that can be asked by designers and the people they serve alike. It is unassuming, honest intention to begin a larger dialogue.

‘– Can I help you?’ is an exhibition curated by Raya Stefanova aiming to bridge the theme of the festival with its content.

“Miscible Displacement”

Fashion-show by Stefan Karchev

Stefan Karchev graduated Fashion Design in Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.

His graduation collection was inspired by the folklore which mixes actively sports clothing and fragments from totally different sources.

The collection includes a lot of traditional elements, but remade and distorted according to his personal aesthetics. Unexpected details pop up to remind indirectly about the folklore thread. They accomplish this by their location, pattern and form of the silhouette. Everyday objects have an effect on design through their function and visual perception.

Convenience and functionality turn into aesthetics only when they lose their purpose and are placed in different context.

100 Days of Need and Greed

The Swedish artist Kristina Schultz uses design to solve different social problems. The exhibition 100 Days of Need and Greed shows the results from her latest research  project, in which her family is the main protagonist. In the course of a 100 days, they completely changed their way of life. They are left “..with no sofa, with no utensils, with no toys, with nothing!” Together with her partner Johan and their 4 year old child Lis, Kristina removes all the household items from their home. With this, they free up enough space to understand what it is that they really need and why.

After detailed discussions and reflection on the subject, Kristina began to create new handmade objects for her home. The first products are 3 spoons. The author herself admits that her training as a designer hasn’t given her any handyman skills. That is why the objects which she creates are not perfectly manufactured, but they carry their individual aesthetic, charm, and qualities. Lis, the child in the family, is happy with the new way of life. The child spends more time being physically active, pretending she is in a theatre or a circus. Kristina points out that she never asks for the old toys while her and her partner initially struggled with the lack of certain household objects, they discovered the benefits of their newly acquired freedom from objects. The experiment finished several months ago, but in spite of that, the changes in the lifestyle of the family still continue.

With the support of IASPIS.

3D Printing for Every Day

3D printing is probably the most exciting and promising technology of the last few years. This is so because the applications of the process managed to impose themselves as highly important and all-encompassing, often life-saving or conquering new territories. The results of the collaboration between scientists, designers, engineers, as well as many others, has enabled 3D printing to save human lives and create artificial limbs, give homes to war or natural disaster victims, fly missions in space, build bridges, give wheelchair-bound people a chance to be mobile. Its appearance in schools has worked as a powerful motivator for experiments and discoveries. Three-dimensional printing is progressing at breakneck speed when it comes to the actual devices, their functions and distribution, how easy they are to use, and the variety of materials – includingrecycled ones.

One of the biggest importers of 3D technology to Bulgaria– B2N, opened a showroom at the beginning of spring in Plovdiv’s Kapana neighborhood. Their display combines two approaches – the presentation of new and intriguing 3D printers, together with interesting demonstrations and workshops. The exhibition’s idea is to display objects, which have been printed on their different machines. The objects will be for everyday use, with the aim to show the practical side of the technology. In addition to the exhibition, the visitors will have a chance to see 3D printers in action.

A Fоrest Story

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project are A Forest Story – a brand for handmade designer toys.

Additions. New Bulgarian Design in a Shop Window.

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 13 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian thoroughfare. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. The location choice was dictated by the popularity of the city’s main street, through which the inhabitants and visitors pass. The aim is that the regular passersby be surprised by the unusual interventions in the shop windows of their familiar stores, as well as them becoming familiar with Bulgarian designers. The selection includes works by the graphic designers Luba Haleva, Teodor Georgiev, Print Nest, as well as the product designers Cache Atelier and Another Studio, the popular brands Garderob and Tin Tin, the design innovators Playground Energy, the paper designer Tsvetislava Koleva, the unique toy brand A Forest Story, the infographic authors Morphocode, the animators Compote Collective, the jewelers Iana Tankovska and Evgenia Tsankova, as well as the ceramic designer Emilia Emilova.

Almost

Almost is a new brand of Bulgarian furniture with a distinctly well executed design. The company was started in Sofia in 2014 by Svetoslav Mirchev, Stefan Minkoff, and Hristo Stankushev, who are also known as the architects behind the dontDIY collective. The marketing manager Raya Kolchakova joined them shortly after. The team successfully refines the perception of simple wooden objects and converts them for mass production.

Almost became a part of their work when, in addition to deigning interiors and buildings, dontDIY started to devote a lot of time to the creation of custom made furniture. In 2013, they presented some of their creations at international events (the Sparks exhibition – Sofia Design Week 2013 and the Ghost Project Exhibition –  Mikser 2013, where it won a special award), and the positive reaction motivated them to continue forward. The team has devoted the last two years to researching ways of mass producing their stylish, finely detailed, and impeccably finished furniture.

The exhibition will show Almost’s debut collection, which consists of a few main pieces – a chair with armrests in several colors, a desk table or dinner table, a low coffee-table, a shelf on wheels, and modulated wall shelves. They combine clever and detail oriented design with quality manufacturing. These are objects that inspire a sentimental attachment, are to be used pleasurably, and can become a functional highlight of the interior. They also age slowly and gracefully.

Another Studio

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project are Another Studio and their model of interior.

Bloctown

An Interactive Piece by Revolution Tables

Matthew Martin and the multidisciplinary design studio Revolution Tables prepare a space encouraging free building and design thinking for the festival. The installation consists of the studio’s hand selected and milled pattern blocs that inspirе participants to create.
The interactive exhibition will be built during the festival by anyone willing to join in and create with the wooden Bloctown Blocs. The participants will become co-authors. There is no age limit; children and adults can build together. The possibilities and interpretations are endless within the participants’ imaginations.
For the event, the studio has created two building platforms that serve as construction sites. These separate spaces consist of the studio’s own furniture, so that everyone can be comfortable and build with the supplied wooden blocs.
A curious detail is that the whole process of creating and its outcome will be documented. The authors’ intention behind the project is to foster and develop design and spatial thinking in all involved.

Bulgarian ordinarities | Dutch oddities

A view on Bulgarian culture.

This year, ONE DESIGN WEEK presents four projects, and the corresponding workshops, from Dutch designers, which express a new take on motifs from the Bulgarian traditional patrimony.

It’s difficult to see the beauty of every day objects and habits. The view of a foreigner can show an another perspective and can help to understand everyday life, traditions, and culture. This presentation shows Bulgarian ordinarities which may be oddities for the Dutch.

Cache Atelie

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project is Cache Atelier, whose idea of a working space you can see in Mercury’s shop window.

Can I Help You?

ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 persistently asks the question – Can I help you? in order to initiate a dialogue about the place of design here and now, i.e.  in the contemporary society and culture. The visual identity incorporates four caricatures, created by Aleksey Klyikov, depicting various situations, in which design not only doesn’t help, but is actually completely dysfunctional and even disturbs the conventional order in our everyday life. The caricatures illustrate the comical disparity and lack of correspondence between design, function and impact. Text and image influence each other in the creation of a narrative. But this narrative is also inspired by another tradition, namely the comics’ and more accurately the Bulgarian magazine Duga (which in Bulgarian, translates literally as Rainbow).

During ONE DESIGN WEEK а tall yellow chair, a navigational sign and a teapot with cups will be living a life of their own on the streets of Plovdiv. The unusual scale and the different context of the installations additionally provoke passersby and festival guests.

Ceramic House Erebus

The Ceramic House is the social shelter of a couple of artists; Diana Simeonova and Radoslav Rayanovski. It is a creative space where invention relies on minimum technical means and primitive processes in ceramics making to fulfil private orders, which are impossible in mass production. The materials are basic; clay + glaze, the make – exclusively by hand, the result is radically personalised objects.

The design workshop provides an atavistic environment for communication to the individual with the earth (the clay), and an opportunity to play the role of the creator. Led by their inner sense of wholeness, symmetry, density, balance, and inevitably gravitation, the participants will experiment with the qualities of the material using only their hands.

The created intuitive objects will be dried and fired in The House, their inventors can get them after a week, when it will be possible to glaze them with their own hands.

To get an idea of the process check this homemade video.

Check-Point

The Hungarian designers from Studio Nomad are multi-talented individuals with experience in architecture. The studio’s name is a reflection of the versatility of their creative endeavors – making everything from small objects to sizeable spatial installations and interventions.

At this year’s Design Week, in the Kapana quarter, they’ll present the interactive sound installation Check-Point. The installation consists of a network of gates, which can be rearranged randomly in order to create new routes. Each gate is equipped with a sensor, which activates a beeping sound every time someone walks through. The simultaneous activation of several gates might combine into a melody. The experiment encourages the choice of nontraditional urban routes, in combination with the use of commonly accepted navigational structures such as doors etc.

With the support of the Balassi Institute, The Hungarian Cultural Institute in Sofia.

Chergodeiki

Weaving is a traditional handicraft, which is almost extinct in Bulgaria. Chergodeiki wants to free it from the aura of old-fashionedness through a new fresh approach and design interpretations.

Chergodiki bagan in the summer of 2015 in the remote Dryanovo village as a part of the Baba Residence – an initiative against depopulation of villages and for sharing of traditional knowlege, which old people there still preserve. This is the knowlege about working with natural materials, and the knowlege of hands and their movements.

At ONE DESIGN WEEK you will not find ready products, but you will see Chergodeiki in action: Elena Stoycheva, an architect based in Vienna, and granny Rossa from Dryanovo will create the first prototypes through experimenting with techniques, materials and patterns.

At some time they will come down from the mountin to tell you about their work. In the Zagreb gallery you will see the first flying cherga, will find out why the passka is a dangerous beast and wil participate in a game with stripes.

Children in G A R A G E

Children in G A R A G E  is an experimental project, which aims to introduce children to design as a way of expression. The art installation DESIGN THE FUTURE presents an opportunity for the children to understand sensory orientation in the space they inhabit, and a way to discover new creative solutions. On site, there are workshops where children can experiment with shapes and materials. Through various techniques they will learn how to recreate a toy from their own drawing. The price for participation in the workshop is 15 BGN and includes materials for making the toy that the children can take home. There is no age limit for participation. Food and drink are provided for the children and their parents during their participation in the workshop.

You should make your registration in advance: kids@garage-bg.com or + 359888874749. 

Co-mixer – a workshop for comic page layout

The illustrators and designers of the project Co-mixer will share experiences and know-how in a workshop for comic page layout. It will include a short introduction in how to create a comic book story and how it can be arranged in a logical and attractive sequence of illustrations and text. The work will start with an explanation of what is the composition of comic book page and how it contributes to the telling of the story. Following the introductions, participants will solve a specific task, in which they will have to draw a comic on one page on a given story. At their disposal they will have numerous panels in different sizes and shapes from which they must choose several and arrange them on the sheet of paper. In this way they will decide the composition of the page and how to draw the comic.

Co-mixer is a publication for comic book stories by different authors and in five years it has managed to establish itself as a reference media on this topic in Bulgaria. Each issue is different and features various authors. The team behind the project is always open to new contributors and experiments in comic book form. “Our goal is for diversity of comic styles, so we provide freedom in artistic means of expression and interpretation of the theme” share the young artists.

Compote Collective

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project are Compote Collective – an animation production company.

Connections, a Capsule Exhibition of Irish Design

The on year-long initiative Irish Design (ID2015), supported by the Irish government, explores, promotes, and pays tribute to the art form for the first time in the country’s history. Monthly events such as exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and performances throughout the country and abroad, give information about Irish design, its heritage and present form. Irish Design 2015 is a conscious effort by the Irish government to spread knowledge to the general public about the value design has to society, culture, and the economy.

Connections is one of the many results of last year’s ID2015 initiative. The traveling exhibition displays 32 objects selected from different design disciplines. They’re all transported in three sturdy suitcases. The exhibits are accompanied by a small library of works by illustrators and graphic designers, as well as printed materials and articles, which relate to the art form’s history. The concept of the exhibit is centered on the relationship between different themes – life, culture, society, and progress. They guide the visitor through the different accomplishments of Irish design and link it to the contemporary impact of these processes. This is a glimpse into Irish warmth and values, and the ways in which important representatives of the art form have contributed to its development on a global scale.

Among the names stand out the creations of the architect Eileen Gray, the motif designer Orla Kiely, the illustrator Chris Haughton, whose children’s books have been translated into many languages; Sugru mouldable glue, 3D printers that use Mcor paper, and many more. All these examples attest to the all-encompassing accomplishments, the innovative approaches, bold decisions, and quality ideas that have taken Irish design to the forefront on a global scale.

With the support of Embassy of Ireland in Sofia.

Cyanoprom

The CYANOPROM workshop, lead by Velin of Cyanotype, will introduce us to Cyanotype and the beauty of Prussian blue. It is a light sensitive emulsion which in contact with UV light prints images of objects or photo negatives. The process combines equal doses of magic, science, photography and do-it-yourself design. It is safe, affordable, easy to do and fascinating for all ages.

Cyanotype is one of the first photographic techniques and was invented almost 200 years ago. It can be applied on paper, textiles and wood. Most often it is used for copying blueprints and botanical catalogs. Today this nearly forgotten process is being rediscovered for creative purposes as well as a method of expression in conceptual projects.

The Cyanotype workshop at the festival One Design Week will take place in several stages. The theoretical part will introduce participants to the history of photographic equipment and the various types of emulsions. In the practical part of the workshop participants will learn about cyanotype exposure as well as blue tinting in other colors. The facilitator of the workshop has promised to reveal his tips and tricks, favorite artists and sources of information. Each participant will receive emulsion and materials so they can experiment after completion of the course.

If you want to familiarize yourself beforehand with the process – see this short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s0hiBi5c4Y.

For information and registration: velin@cyanoprom.com

Fee: BGN 25

Design Bookery by Lidl

Lidl presents Design Bookery, the bookery for contemporary design, which plays an inspiring role for ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

The installation consists of 100 contemporary books and magazines in the field of illustrations, graphic, product, interior and web design. As a part of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 the bookery is open to all visitors of the festival, who seek inspiration. The book collection is selected by curators of different design fields and aims at answering the expectations of the contemporary and future designers.

Following the festival theme: „– Can I Help You?“, design professionals help the general audience and shorten the distance to the term design. Lidl helps with it’s bookery not only the designers but all guests of the festival and enables them to discover more than the usual inspiration.

Design Canberra

Yasmin Masri arrives in Plovdiv to share cultural highlights from the Australian capital CANBERRA. Her interdisciplinary practices include crafts, design, curating, publishing and communications. Yasmin is interested in designing systems for creative participation and involving people representing different social groups. She is a co-founder and director of two of the newest cultural initiatives in CANBERRA, Australia: an independent publishing house for interdisciplinary story sharing RIP PUBLISHING (2013 г. -) and the festival for new and experimental literature Noted (2014 г. – ).

As a designer and curator, she has participated in a number of exhibitions, with the topic of collaboration between different publics being a key motivation of her work. For the past 2 years she has worked for DESIGN Canberra festival and the Australian design trianale. Yasmin has teached design in Australian National University School of Art and Canberra Institute of Technology.

Designing policy for a better society

The Applied Research and Communications Fund (ARC Fund) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 that actively supports the development and implementation of policies aimed at the development of a modern society based on knowledge, innovation and information technology. Since 2014 ARC Fund has been part of the initiative “Design for Europe” of the European Commission led by Design Council UK, which aims to stimulate use of design in innovation policies and build capacity for its implementation both in the public and private sectors.

Within ONE DESIGN WEEK, ARC Fund will hold a discussion on “Designing policy for a better society”. By putting the needs of the user first, design has the power to generate innovative and creative solutions to some of the public sector’s biggest problems. The aim of the event is to present the approach of several institutions at both the local and national levels during the process of developing and implementing public policies in different areas. The audience will have the opportunity to discuss how citizens can become more actively involved in the design of new public policies.

Diplomatic Shortcuts

The German designer Johannes Tolk, together with his colleague Doris Wietfeldt will run the Diplomatic Shortcuts workshop. The aim is to work with the local community and context, engaging in the topics that reflect the local needs.

Within the workshop, the goal is to use design as a tool to create dialogue. According to the workshop’s facilitators, people are surrounded by culture, but have lost their ability to consider and reflect upon it. Culture forms the way we communicate and interact with others and determines the way we perceive our surroundings. The question is how culture can solve issues related to the differences between people. Through creative approaches, the participants in the workshop will go through a learning process that will open them up towards the emotional and cognitive aspects of our everyday culture. This teaches them to develop and use design methodology to initiate dialogue when confronted with differences.

Johannes Tolk is an artist and designer. He graduated design communication and media art at the University of Art and Design in Karlsruhe, Germany, and later spent time in Bulgaria to complete his Master’s project for cultural diplomacy. His publications are displayed in exhibitions in New York, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Sofia, Thessaloniki, Berlin and others.

The workshop will take place from June 5th to June 12th.

The outcomes will be presented on June 13th ,17:00-18:00 in Lotus Hall, “Hr.G.Danov” 34 str.

Registration at: workshops@onedesignweek.com

For more information here.

With the support of  Embassy of the Federative Republic of Germany.

Drink Design

The interactive workshop Drink Design presents the creation of a new design for a drink. Throughout the process, the participants are acquainted with the basic design principles empathy, vision, creativity and balance. The aim of the initiators from a leading agency for design thinking in Bulgaria, DesignThinking.bg, is to show the audience that design is not just creative thought, but a tool that can be used to make decisions on functionality and user experience.

Drink Design is part of the portfolio of the agency and is created in their desire to explain the complicated matter of design thinking in simplest way possible so as to inspire a greater number of people to use it.

The idea was born during a conference on entrepreneurship and documentary film in Kosovo. The format was tested in a closed circle of customers, but during ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 it will be presented for the first time publicly in Bulgaria.

Emiliya Emileva

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project is Emiliya Emileva. Pieces of her ceramics you can see in Dzhet shop window.

Enabled for the Disabled

The exposition Enabled for the Disabled presents 60 selected posters from the last edition of the International Poster Competition is Skopie. The event was founded in 2007 and is the first platform in the region to promote social ideas through communication design. Over the years the festival has gained popularity, and its last edition assembled 2674 posters from participants from 52 countries. The contest is intended to inspire the creation of better conditions for people with disabilities. The main idea behind the motto Enabled For Disabled is to promote equal rights for disabled people. Precisely young people,with their message and active position, are those who have the opportunity to inspire and shine a light on the problems with which disabled people have to deal with on a daily basis.

Environment and Behavior

Everyday Objects

POP-UP CONCEPT STORE

Everyday objects is a conceptual pop-up store created for the eighth edition of ONE DESIGN WEEK. It offers a refined selection of Bulgarian authors and brands with high quality craftsmanship and special attitude toward design. The products showcase diverse design approaches, innovative selection of materials and production methods; and provoke aesthetical and ethical trends. In order to encourage multidisciplinary collaborations – some of the items displayed in the store are result of cooperation between artists from different areas of design.

The products are created especially for this year’s theme of the festival – Can I help you? and will be presented for the first time in the concept store. The selection includes works by favorite Bulgarian designers as well as brands working outside of the country: Armaveni Stoyanova, Atanas Levakov and Maya Karanesheva, Denitza Boyadzhieva, Ceramic House Erebus, Shipka, Bogdanin Brothers, Borislavawillmadeit, Serendipity, Odd Matter, Teddy Honey.

An important element is the venue of the store. It will reflect its temporary life and at the same time suggests an atmosphere similar to the one in an exhibition space. Organized with special attention to each product and its unique features, the store aims to help the audience reach Bulgarian design in an easier way and to reduce the distance between the designer and the client.

FFFF

Irini Pigaditi is a graphic designer with a degree from AKV | St. Joost in Breda. She participates in ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 with an artistic installation, with which she expresses a criticism of our time. The main part of the installation is the miniature glaciers in water bottles which symbolize the continuously changing context in which we live. All of us, according to the designer, must be like the water: flexible  and able to respond to new conditions and its associations like health and good physical conditions.  

Furthermore, she presents four visual poems she has designed by using buzzwords like capitalism finance, Europe, distopia, politics and the future.

In a video she shows practical exercises that can help prepare people for a life in times of continuous change.

The project is selected from the open call of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

Game Jam

The Game Jam  is a one day encounter with different kinds of games. The aim of the organizers from Hackafe is to inspire old and young to have fun and discover a new side of themselves through the act of playing. The event is divided in two parts: lectures devoted to subjects like game design and the psychological and social aspect of games first, and computer and board game play later.

Participants in the Game festival will have the opportunity to develop their imagination, knowledge, ability for teamwork, trust in their teammates, logical thinking, tactics, problem solving, and many more in an interactive and pleasantly engaging way. Design will play its part by making the games more intuitive and easy to understand, more fun and attractive. “The better the design is, the more interesting it is to play” say the organizers of the event.

The Game festival includes: demonstration day for games created during Game Jams in Bulgaria (Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna), open-air games, board games, arcade games, robots, competitions, digital art, installations, talks, and workshops.

Garderob

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project are Garderob – a Bugarian fashion brand.

Giving Form to Life

Тapio Wirkkala and Rut Bryk are two of the most emblematic figures in the formation of the concept for modern Finnish design and Scandinavian design as a whole. A series of events held between June 2nd 2015 and October 16th 2016 will mark the hundredth anniversary of their birth. Their professional heritage is rich and the different events in the program are a reminder of their importance. Tapio Wirkkala, a designer, sculptor and academic and his wife Rut Bryk, a graphic designer and ceramic artist are internationally acclaimed, and their creations are a part of almost every major design museum in the world. Their prolific creations range from household objects to monumental art and abstract sculpture. Wirkkala and Bryk work for different companies in Finland, Italy, Germany, and Mexico. Esa Laaksonen will tell us more about their professional path and achievements in a special lecture. A practicing architect, Laaksonen is the director of the Alvar Alto Academy in Helsinki since its creation in 1999. His rich experience includes teaching and editing, over 30 international architecture prizes, international publications, and the design of public buildings.

With the support of Embassy of Finland in Sofia.

Graduation project by Maria Nalbantova

Black Bears for White Days, White Bears for Black Days (a pop-up picture book)

For the second year in a row during ONE DESIGN WEEK, Studio Komplekt presents interesting graduation projects by Bulgarian designers educated in Bulgaria or abroad. This year they have chosen to present Black bears for white days, White bears for black days, a pop up picture book by the young graphic designer Maria Nalbantova, who graduated in book and print design from the Sofia National Art Academy in 2015.

The main theme of the book are Bulgarian traditional sayings. They are an integral part of Bulgarian folk art. Sayings are something universally accepted as truth, but there is no doubt that we perceive them through our personal experiences. They have been the people’s companion through the centuries, they were transmitted by word of mouth and they carry the popular wisdom of life experience and the lessons that derive from it. With time, the meaning of the words is lost and one understands sayings intuitively, and the book reorganizes and shakes its perception. It enters the intimate space of the reader and he becomes a co author.

The sayings have not been quoted to the letter, there is a mistake, and one of the words is replaced by the word “bear”. The mistake changes the meaning and inner logic of the saying, but the sounding remains the same. This transcends into a different space and it turns out that the mistake causes something a lot bigger. The pop up element as a visually illustrative section is tentative, it does not retell the story of the saying but brings new meaning to it. The book is in black and white and it does not matter what side it is read from, because the black and the white meet in the middle and change places. It contains 12 popular Bulgarian sayings, which are replicated through illustrative and interpretative mediums. A white and black book in one. It has no front and no back. Both sides are a beginning. They meet in the center. This is where the transformation takes place. Maria Nalbantova

Help Yourself: A Global Corner Shop

Inspired by the culinary diversity and culture of the shops around the world which offer a wide variety of different and multicultural dishes Help Yourself (food event) gives the opportunity to every citizen of Plovdiv and guest of the city to get closer to their richness.

Many variations of this neighbourhood shop exist around the globe. Whether called bodega (Spain), épiceries (France) or an off-license (England, Ireland, New Zealand) each of these convenience stores is a unique vessel shaped by the local demographics, cityscape and culture. The team will utilise this truly globally recognised and yet locally influenced format.

By its nature Help Yourself is shaped by the identities of the chefs and designers that bring the project to life in combination with the temporary microcosm of One Design Week in Plovdiv. The store will offer delicious food produce to pick from alongside other curiosities that tell the story of the ever more global nature of our culinary identities.

The core collective is broadly based in Europe with many influencers around the world. Alexander Taralezhkov (London) is a Hospitality designer, currently working with a global Thai restaurant brand. Bora Hong (Berlin) waives from her design and art studio, but often spends time in her native Korea, where her culinary passion is fuelled. Chef Jenny Phung, who graduated from London College of Communications with a degree in Interactive and Moving Image, now curates and executes supper clubs around Britain inspired by the Chinese cuisine of her father’s restaurant. During her studies she met Florance Creffield, who apart from cooking at the community vegan and vegetarian café Bonnington is also half of the video production company Aperio films. The Plovdiv native Chef Petko Sharankov (London) , currently head chef of the popular burger joint Honest burgers, also consults on the project.

The food event is supported by Lidl Bulgaria that inspired the curators with their diversity of multicultural products which they offer. The aim of the event is to present food as a connection to and between different cultures, communities and people.

How can we live a little kinder? IKEA Democratic Design for Sustainable Living

The IKEA’s workshop How can we live a little kinder? is related to the sustainable life at home and will show how the design could help us to be closer to the nature.

Especially for the event in Plovdiv arrive three special guests of IKEA: Halina Ekberg – creative leader of ANVÄNDBAR limited collection and the designers Matt Falvey and Tazelaar Stevenson, who created together designs for ANVÄNDBAR.

Halina Ekberg is creative consultant and painter. Her mission is to create simple ideas, which helps us to acquire green habits in a fanny and easy way. “Stay hopeful, be creative, simple and down to earth.”, Halina appeals. She is creative leader of the IKEA’s project Better Me which evolves in the ANVÄNDBAR collection – 34 products created with the idea to be closer to our care of the nature.

Matt Falvey is British artist and designer and each aspect of his works is inspired by his love of the nature. Objects of curiosity collected while travelling the world form an endless source of inspiration in his studio in Norfolk.

Tazelaar Stevenson is a screen printer, designer and musician. Tazelaar’s own work is inexplicably linked with Nature and Music. Geometry and pattern underpin his practice. Matt and Tazelaar Stevenson’s creative partnership began in their teenage years at school. Combining different styles, techniques, and a dynamic working practice means together they continue to produce exciting work. They have collaborated on several projects including local exhibitions of their work and more recently on designs for IKEA’s ANVÄNDBAR collection, which clearly reflect their shared respect for nature.

#Livealittlekinder
#IKEAcollections
#ANVÄNDBAR
#IKEABulgaria
#greenhomes

How To Love The Internet?

Nadia Nikolova (UX designer in Melon and founder of NoCarbs) and Stoyan Ilchev from the digital agency Despark work as designers with a focus on easy access to new technologies and an enjoyable online user experience.

Although new technologies are used on a daily basis, consumers are still more critical of their offline environment than they are of their digital devices. The lecturers are convinced that digital illiteracy leads to poor quality websites and applications. According to Nadia and Stoyan this is unacceptable, because digital platforms are designed to facilitate our lives and make us use a service many times over, not vice versa. They make a distinction between two types of UX (user experience) design. One is concerned with the usefulness of a given online service, and the other serves as inspiration and aims to encompass the entire user experience of a digital product. During their open lecture, Nadia and Stoyan will acquaint designers and lovers of digital devices with the role of digital design and its opportunities.

The project is selected from the open call of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

Irish Design 2015 – Making Design Matter

Design is everywhere – from household objects to the high-tech innovations in science, business and technology. The year of design in Ireland is a conscious gesture by the country to involve a wider audience and the relevant professionals into a productive dialogue on the benefits of recognizing design as important to both culture and the economy.

Alex Milton, the programming director for ID2015, will be arriving in Plovdiv to tell us more about the initiative. In his roles as a designer, pedagogue, researcher, curator and author, he has contributed to the discipline in a critical, provocative and enterprising manner. Alex Milton has often been a visiting professor in different higher education institutions, and has participated in events such as ICFF New York, 100% Design London, MUDAC Lausanne, INDEX Copenhagen and Designersblock Milan. He has a number of international publications, the last of which is the book “Research Methods for Product Design”, co-authored with Paul Rodgers (2013). Milton is a member of the Institute of Designers in Ireland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

Photo: © Christopher Heaney

With the support of Embassy of Ireland in Sofia.

Jubilee Poster: 50 Years from the Launch of Bombichka

On account of its 50^th jubilee, Bombichka (literally the bomb) returns in its original style – the emblematic bottle and the original taste of Shumensko Specialty Brew. In order to celebrate in a proper manner, Shumensko, in collaboration with ONE DESIGN WEEK, invites all visual artists to get inspired by the 60s and the 70s and to join in the creation of a series of anniversary posters.

The exhibition will consist of 12 selected works from the Jubilee Poster: 50 Years from the Launch of Bombichka contest. During the opening an award ceremony with lots of surprises will be held.

Kuknall

During ONE DESIGN WEEK the Plovdiv-based designer Iliya Lambov presents his project – a footstep for a standard WC – an example for design that helps and changes. The product became a part of the exhibition Design that helps, an initiative of betahаus Sofia and ONE DESIGN WEEK. According to its author, the device prevents different diseases of the excretory system and the potential of the product has been recognized in a number of international design events in Belgrade, Ljubljana, Madrid, etc.

This invention is bent pipe in the orbit of the toilet bowl which is attached over the toilet under the seat and lid. The sliding mechanism in the shassies provides function to regulate the levels of the footstep, according to your personal needs and preferences. Using the footstep your legs are lifted up around the toilet orbit and you are squatting while you are sitting: Squatting posture makes defecation (bowel movement) faster, easier and more complete.

Lava Lemonade

The Polish designer Ola Mirеcka graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. At the same time she is part of the PG13 platform,led by the product designer Tomek Rygalic (a guest of Design Week 2012, 2013), where she is responsible for different design events like the preparation of experimental tasks, exhibition projects and workshops, as well as organizing competitions and projects in partnership with the industry. After finishing her education in Poland, Ola moved to London where she earned an MA in product design from the Royal College of Art, under the guidance of Daniel Charny and Roberto Feo. In her work, she often treats the subject of drawing through three dimensional objects, performances, narratives and moving paintings. The leading feature of her practice is interactive design, through which she aims to fill in the empty space between designer and consumer. Presntly she works as a designer for LEGO in Denmark. At ONE DESIGN WEEK, she will be presenting her project LAVA, which is a space for fun that takes us back to our childhood and shows her approach to design, strongly influenced by the drawing and the illustration. She invites visitors of the festival to a glass of freshly made lemonade, served in glasses especially designed for the project.

With the support of Polish Institute in Sofia.

Live a Little Kinder: IKEA Democratic Design for Sustainable Living

The exhibition displays IKEA’s latest collection, under the motto Live a Little Kinder. The Swedish company appeals to us to adopt a sustainable lifestyle as a contribution to saving the planet. Everything begins with a personal example at home – to save energy and water, to dispose of garbage properly, as well as other such actions, which reduce our carbon footprint.

ANVÄNDBAR collection is a result of collaboration between several generations of designers with different profiles and experience. It combines retro-inspired home appliances with energy efficiency, multi-functionality, and compact size requirements. The collection has a clear-cut outlook, while colors and materials remain close to nature. Ceramic clay, glass, cotton, and solid wood were used for its manufacture. Exceptionally stylish and user-intuitive, its elements invite everyone to contemplate important questions about Earth’s survival. Together with that, they bring calm and a feeling of lightness to the interior.

ANVÄNDBAR includes a bench for recycling, a bench with a planter, several ceramic pots for slow-cooking, a stylish non-electric floor sweeper, as well as many other intriguing approaches to the necessary reassessment of our home lifestyle.

#Livealittlekinder
#IKEAcollections
#ANVÄNDBAR
#IKEABulgaria
#greenhomes

Local food design

LOCAL FOOD DESIGN 2016 is the first initiative of its kind in the country. It will take place as part of ONE DESIGN WEEK with the support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation and the Municipality of Plovdiv. The organizer of the expo is LocalFood.bg, a network of small Bulgarian food producers, which promotes better access to the market and encourages policies that regulate sustainable production.

LOCAL FOOD DESIGN 2016 will present artisanal takes on farm, craft, and traditional foods with a special focus on their attractive presentation and packaging. The products will be representative of Bulgarian tradition, countryside culture, and handcraft. The participants will be local food artisans, fans of the culinary arts, bloggers, craft breweries, as well as small bio-wineries.

The events will be divided in the following categories:

BREAD DESIGN – beautifully crafted breads, buns , and filo dough pies, with an emphasis on natural products and technologies.

PASTRY DESIGN – beautifully crafted pastries and sweets such as cakes, tarts, mousses, candies, etc. with an emphasis on natural products and technologies.

JAM, HONEY AND LYUTENITSA DESIGN – beautifully crafted jars with jams, jellies, honey, lyutenitsa(red pepper dip), prepared from family recipes and homegrown produce.

DESIGN FROM THE VILLAGE – cured meat and dairy products, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables, etc. grown sustainably and made with traditional family recipes and technologies.

CRAFT BEER AND WINE DESIGN – craft beer, farmer and bio-wines with designer labels.

In addition to attracting a wider audience to the colorful local foods, the expo aims raise the producers’ awareness to a more conscious appreciation of the artful and aesthetic presentation of their products. This is why, on the 19th of June, the best designs in the five product categories will be awarded by the audience with a special “BEST LOCAL FOOD DESIGN AWARD 2016”.

Lost in Translation

The Lost in Тranslation exhibition will show the results of the 4 day workshop of the same name, in which students from Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem and the National Art Academy in Sofia participated together. The students will present their work process and the experience gained through the finished projects. The exhibition opens on June 13th with the participation of its Dutch and Bulgarian authors.

With the support of Creative Industries Fund NL.

Lost in translation workshop

The students from Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem organize a 4 day workshop for collaborative work with their colleagues from the National Art Academy in Sofia. Typography and graphics will be the focus of the activities. The aim is to begin a discussion between the students of the two educational institutions, based on the context in which students of both establishments work day to day in their respective countries. The working model will be an adaptation of a text or painting, while the tools given are the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. Exploring the potential significance of modernism in a new context will be achieved through different exercises and experiments. The result of their collaboration will be shown during the ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 exhibition. Students from both schools will present their ways of working and the experiences gained through the finalized projects.

With the support of Creative Industries Fund NL.

Lyuba Haleva

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project is Lyuba Haleva, whose book covers designs you can see in Helikon bookstore shop window.

Materiality Brutality

Approaches in Concrete

The exhibition showcases the results from the project Materiality Brutality, fulfilled at the beginning of June in Plovdiv.

The project intends to present the alternative and emerging face of Nordic Design, while collectively exploring new approaches in the use of materials. We have sought out designers from Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden who challenge established norms of design through their work, allowing curiosity and possibility to lead the way.

Thórunn Árnadóttir (Iceland), Kirsi Enkovaara (Finland), Kaja Solgaard (Norway), Kristoffer Sundin (Sweden) have been specifically selected and invited as representatives of a new generation of Nordic designers. Their work challenges the common concept of Nordic design practices, usually associated with well-considered and measured forms. During the 10 day workshop part of the project, the designers focus on one kind of material in particular – concrete. They explore new opportunities within its constraints and allow their findings shape the final product. The project intendeds to shift the common perceptions of concrete among its users – designers, engineers and the public, continuing its long history of use.

Mila Chorbadzhieva – a bulgarian designer based in the Netherlands –  joins the experiment as a project coordinator. While working on one of her thesis at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, Mila develops a soft spot for concrete, and is currently exploring the material and the opportunities it has to offer herself.

The visitors will have the opportunity to follow the work process and its results, which could be in the form of a finished object, a prototype, or a materialization of the research.

Photo:  © Jonas Marguet/ECAL 

The project has been realized with the support of the Nordic Culture Fund.

Mixed identities

ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 presents in an exhibition the work of five designers from the Visegrád Group countries – Lenka Srsnova (Slovakia), Studio Nomad (Hungary), Martyna Golik (Poland), Pavla Nesverova(Czech Republic), and Klara Sumova (Czech Republic). The represented works are a result of a workshop with the participation of all designers in Plovdiv last April.

The festival offers the authors the possibility to recreate their own culture, traditions, customs, and identities through Bulgarian formats and techniques. The project centers on the unique point of view of the authors, who revisit and challenge the concept of local identity, through their collaboration with each other and the context of Bulgarian culture.

Тhe designers present some common tendencies from their region, and then transform into the authors of a shared narrative, which revises concepts such as identity, tradition, community, nation, etc., with the aim of giving them a new meaning. In this project, the designers experiment with traditional Bulgarian textile technique in collaboration with a local factory, which in turn creates a product inspired by their ideas.

The project Mixed Identities has been realized with the kind support of the International Visegrád Fund.

Moodboarding – Creating a Mood Board for a Brand

The workshops aims at giving guidance throughout a simple technique used in the so called UX/User Experience Design.

The event will focus on creating inspiring moodboards for an imaginary co-working space. It will all begin with a briefing regarding the main characteristics of the moodboard. After that all of the participants will have to propose 3 different ways of handling the work space design. Other than that, during the workshop the way in which Viber changed its brand will be shown together with the moodboard that was used in the process.

The workshop will be ran by Einav Roshu – lead UI and UX designer at Viber and Atanas Raykov – CEE at Viber.

NB! The event is with registration in advance and the number of the seats is limited to 20. It is necessary for each participant to carry a laptop or tablet with himself.

Registration at: workshops@onedesignweek.com

My City, My Vibe: Stickers Trip Around the World

The exhibition present stickers from the top 20 finalists in the Viber’s contest My City, My Vibe, as well as the 10 best stickers created by Bulgarian authors. The exhibition will take its visitors on a trip around the world by showing them stickers representing different famous cities. At the end of their trip, the visitors will have the opportunity to capture the moment by taking a photo with some jumbo stickers, printed especially for the event. For those that share their picture on the ONE DESIGN WEEK webpage there will be a surprise – a free Viber sticker pack.

Sticky Fingers: My City, My Vibe is a global design initiative, which invited artists from around the world to create original stickers inspired by their favorite world city. The stickers had to represent the positive vibes and the distinct individuality of the artists’ favourite city.

Nordic

The project intends to present the alternative and emerging face of Nordic Design, while collectively exploring new approaches in the use of materials. We have sought out designers from Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden who challenge established norms of design through their work, allowing curiosity and possibility to lead the way.

Thórunn Árnadóttir (Iceland), Kirsi Enkovaara (Finland), Kaja Solgaard (Norway), Kristoffer Sundin (Sweden) have been specifically selected and invited as representatives of a new generation of Nordic designers. Their work challenges the common concept of Nordic design practices, usually associated with well-considered and measured forms. During the 10 day workshop part of the project, the designers focus on one kind of material in particular – concrete. They explore new opportunities within its constraints and allow their findings shape the final product. The project intendeds to shift the common perceptions of concrete among its users – designers, engineers and the public, continuing its long history of use.

Mila Chorbadzhieva – a bulgarian designer based in the Netherlands –  joins the experiment as a project coordinator. While working on one of her thesis at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, Mila develops a soft spot for concrete, and is currently exploring the material and the opportunities it has to offer herself.

The visitors will have the opportunity to follow the work process and its results, which could be in the form of a finished object, a prototype, or a materialization of the research.

The project has been realized with the support of the Nordic Culture Fund.

Photo:  © Jonas Marguet/ECAL

Occupation Designer – Myths and legends

The seminar “Occupation Designer” aims to introduce young people to the profession, debunk some popular myths and inspire those who want to pursue it. The event presents various types of design, from product and industrial design, web and graphic design to fashion. Each field is presented through the viewpoint of a specialist working in it, who will offer theoretical knowledge, but also practical advice from their daily experience as a designer as well as useful information about the necessary qualifications.

The event is organized by the Young Citizens United Association and is the second of a series of initiatives that aim to familiarize young people with different professions and help choose the right career path. YCU was created by the desire to help young people build on what they have learned and gain new practical skills, in order to achieve their academic or professional goals.

This initiative during ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 is for anyone seeking a career in design. Speakers on the event are: Johannes Artinyan, co-founder of I-Creativ Studio; Stanislava Dimitrova and Antonia Raycheva – founders of Prototype 23 Fashion Creative Crew; the Bulgarian studio for graphic design Punkt;  the Polish designer Ola Mirecka.

The host of the seminar will be well-known Georgi Angelov, who participated in the second edition of “MasterChef”, Bulgaria.

The project is selected after the open call of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

Odd Objects

“Odd objects” is a comic book workshop led by the team behind the project Co-mixer. Launched when its creators were in university in 2011, currently, the publication for comic book stories by various authors is among the most recognized and followed formats on the subject. Each issue is different and open to new contributors and experiments in the comic book form. “Our goal is for diversity of comic styles, so we provide freedom in artistic means of expression and interpretation of the theme” share the young artists.

During the festival, the Co-mixer illustrators and designers will engage children over 9 years old and ask them the interesting question how the design of everyday objects helps or hinders the things we do. The work is structured so that it entertaining but also educational. On cards that are prepared beforehand, various objects whose design has been changed so that it impedes the fulfillment of its usual function (for example, a car with square tires or a teapot with three spouts)will be displayed. Each child chooses an object to draw and tell a story that will either place the object in its usual or new use. The workshop is an opportunity to see the how the banal and familiar forms of design that we use daily, can be redefined through children’s strong imagination so as to be seen in a whole new light.

Registration in advance is required at: co.mixerbg@gmail.com. 

ONE DESIGN WEEK FORUM

On June 18^th, 2016,  the professional design forum of the festival will be held at the House of Culture “Boris Hristov” (Ul. Gladstone 15). The lecturers feature leading experts in multiple fields of design presenting a holistic perspective of design and its possibilities. Design that helps; design that is innovative and alternative; design that changes lives and worlds; design that is open and accessible to all.

Information about the lecturer

The event is organized by ONE Foundation for Culture and Arts with the support of  Plovdiv Municipality, Plovdiv 2019, America for Bulgaria Foundation and Programista:

Regular ticket – 80lv.

Early Bird Tickets at TicketLogic -65lv.

Student tickets – 40lv.

For group discount tickets: onedesignweek@edno.bg

More information: www.onedesignweek.com

The lectures will be in English.

Opening ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016

One Design Week 2016 starts on the 10th of June at 18:00 pm. In front of the office of the “One Foundation for Culture and Arts” – ul. Hristo Dyukmedjiev 10, where the team of the festival will present the highlights of the program.
We are looking forward to see you between 18:00 and 22:00.
The music will be provided DJ Boris The Heartbreaker, and to get guests in a good summer mood fresh fruits will be served from Lidl Bulgaria and sweet surprises from Milka Bulgaria, refreshments from the festival’s beer – Shumensko Bombichka and from raspberry wine Trastena Wines.

The event will continues in club VOID (Ul. Athanasius Samokovetsa 2) with artists from the Plovdiv audio-visual team MELFORMATOR (MELFORMATOR / SAYULKE, ATNS, Mironov, waysie, Phlip), where musical adventures into the wee hours of the morning await.

Package Unlimited. Young Package Exhibition 2016

Young Package is an international annual package design competition intended for young designers, under 30. This year, for its latest edition, 700 young professionals and students have submitted their projects. The exhibition Package Unlimited presents some of the best entries for the 2016, as selected by a jury with the following members: Zdenka Pechkova (IKEA), Lukas Brza (LEGO), Michal Marko, and Michal Safar (winners of the competition’s former editions), and Jan Cincera (a package designer). The task assigned to the competitors was to create a package design capable of performing different functions.

The Young Package competition dates from 1996 and has earned an international reputation, which places it among the top young designer competitions in the world. The focus of the competition is the design of paper-made packages.

The initiative’s creator is the Czech branch of the international company Model Obay – a leading manufacturer of packaging and a big supporter of young creative talent. From 2009 to the present, the competition has been organized by CZECHDESIGN.CZ

Supported by Czech Center.

Periscope Situation

BreadedEscalope workshop

The Austrian design studio breadedEscalope, which followers of the festival know from their participation in the 2013 edition, are coming back to create a temporary installation for ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 in Plovdiv. The studio was founded in 2008 by Sascha Mikel, Martin Schnabl, and Michael Tatschl. The aim of their collaboration is to discover new approaches and strategies for generating socially resistant projects. By doing so, the Viennese collective deals with problems related to socioeconomics and culture, as well as space and artifact.

They invite 10 volunteers (the only condition to participate is being fluent in English or German) to work with them for two days in the creation of a temporary installation. The goal is to make an object that is not a furniture piece and is built primarily with wood and mirrors. Its presence will generate a new space, which in turn will help create a new perspective on the surrounding environment.

The people behind breadedEscalope believe that in the near future, the traditional profession of the designer will be supplanted by instruments and algorithms, which will be accessible to all. This is why they choose to turn their attention to the poetic endeavors, which are an integral part of design.

The program begins on the 1st Saturday (June 11th) of ONE DESIGN WEEK, with a brief presentation on the activities of the design collective, followed by a short discussion on the project’s requirements, as well as a first tour by the participants of interesting locations in the city. On Sunday, the activities will continue with a meeting with the volunteers and the creation of the installation.

With the support of The Austrian Foreign Ministry in Sofia.

Play with IgralO and Arduino

The HACKIDEMIA team present the basic concepts in programming in a fun and interesting way for children. They do this by showing participants how to use the coordinate system to position objects. During the workshop, the facilitators use IgraglO, a wooden game made of natural materials based on Tetris, and Arduino Esplora technology with a color display. They show the children how to depict RGB parameters so that they can choose their favorite color and make it light up. Moreover, children learn how to draw with colors and how to make different basic shapes on the display.

Age: 7 – 15 years

Posters UVT: With a Smile

The project presents posters by the students of the Graphic design and visual communication department of the Cyril and Methodius University in Veliko Tarnovo. The students will demonstrate how design carries the function to transform creative ideas into useful and accessible ones. Their main motivation is to break the stereotypes that regard graphic design as an elitist art that only influences a small audience. The exhibition Design with a smile shows ideas by young people, whose aim is to inspire a rethinking of design’s role as a catalyzer of positive societal change, and with that, to motivate a higher interest in the country’s cultural scene.

Assembling as many smiles as possible is another one of the young authors’ clearly stated strategies. Their aim is to use the powerful expressiveness of graphic design to inspire the visitors to think about the small and often overlooked joys of everyday life.

The project is selected from the open call of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

Precious Plastics

Press Here

The Lead UI designer at Viber, Einav Roshu, is coming to Bulgaria especially for her participation in the programme of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016. In line with this year’s theme “– Can I help you?” she is going to present another dimension of design and share valuable experience from her work at Viber.

She presents the reason for choosing this topic in the following way: Designing interfaces, this is a challenge for all designers out there. In this relatively new environment, content is king and design is only a tool. If a printed design was valued by how long people stare at it, this new form of art is valued by how little time people spend on a given screen. Moreover, was the message delivered? Did the user succeed in completing his task? The designer has now an important role in his team, he is a problem solver, the end point.

Einav Roshu, Lead UI designer at Viber, will elaborate on this matter while giving examples of interfaces that fail or succeed helping users reach their company’s goals. She will also present a problem-solving process that recently took place at Viber.

Einav Roshu is a UI and UX designer. In her current role at Viber, she leads all UI efforts and a team of 5 designers covering 5 platforms, delivering the app to over 700 million users in 193 countries. She is also a teacher and mentor at the 6b Design School in Tel Aviv.

Einav believes that great UI design is invisible. “From a design perspective, we want users to find their way from point A to point B as quickly and as intuitively as possible. When you’re using an app with exceptional UI, you aren’t necessarily aware of that – it’s a fluid experience.”

Einav is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. She has a B.A. in Communication and Management Studies.

Print Nest

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project are  Print Nest – а studio for printmaking and classic graphic techniques.

Pub(lic) Quiz

Together with Depot Basel – a place for contemporary design in Switzerland – ONE DESIGN WEEK will host Pub(lic) Quiz*. The event will be moderated by Matylda Krzykowski – designer and curator, co-founder and co-director of Depot Basel.

Pub quiz is a new format of Depot Basel. The first issue took place at the Open Forum Night of the Forum for an Attitude in December 2015. With this format, Depot Basel intends to engage people for all ages, interests and professions in an informal atmosphere that predisposes to a conversation about design and the impact it has on culture and society.

Pub(lic) Quiz is a parlour game not only about design. Find the answers that you never have been looking for to questions that you would never have asked; surprise with the abilities that you never applied before. The competition will be in teams, where the best one will be awarded with special prizes by Depot Basel.

In June 2012, Depot Basel was launched as temporary place for contemporary design. Today the organisation is directed by Matylda Krzykowski and Rebekka Kiesewetter with the support of partners and helpers, designers and non-designers. All participants share a belief in the importance and urgency of the theoretical and practical engagement with design and its presentation, mediation and promotion as a topic relevant to society.

* Pub: 1859, slang shortening of public house (see public (adj.)), which originally meant “any building open to the public.”

Red Paper Plane

Discussion 11am-1pm – How to Raise a Small Designer?

Workshop 5pm-6.30pm – Mission: car designer

Tsvetelina and George Kamov used elements of design thinking to create a family game for children between 3 and 6 years old- Red Paper Plane. The game is gaining popularity among families in Bulgaria and abroad (in 69 countries), and is free to download in Bulgarian, English, Brazilian Portuguese and Polish (soon). Unlike other toys and games, the Red Paper Plane missions, as they are called, ensure repeatable play. The focus is on the process rather than the final result. The outcome differs based on the child’s age, skills and the choices he makes meaning that each time the game is played there is a unique outcome. During ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 the Red Paper Plane team has organized a meeting with parents on the topic of how to raise young designers and why this approach is useful for children aged 3 to 6 and their families. Also during ONE DESIGN WEEK there will be a workshop consisting of 10 families which are currently working on the mission car designer, the results of which will later be available on Red Paper Plane’s website.

Registration in advance is required at tsveti@rpplane.com  

The project is selected from the open call of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

See_Mo

The project is selected from the open call of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

Selection of bulgarian ETSY artists

The exhibition showcases the work of 15 Bulgarian designers with successful Etsy shops. Its focus falls on various home décor objects (lamps, ceramics), accessories (bags, shoes) and art objects (sculptures). All selected pieces stand out with unique design and craftsmanship, while their authors’ Etsy shops enjoy good popularity within the platform.

Shevitza

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project is Shevitza – a brand inspired by authentic traditions and needle work.

Shuffle

The project Shuffle is an experiment, in which calligraphy and different printing techniques are combined in an interactive game. The letters are sketched by hand, in different fonts, and through the use of varied devices. The printing techniques used are screen printing, cyanotype, and hand press. Techniques for printing and writing letters with light are added to the mix. The aimed for compositional result is shuffling letters, randomizing printing techniques, and shifting inks.

The Shuffle exhibition was first shown in the Orlovska gallery in Gabrovo, in February of this year. The young authors that participated in the creation of the displays are Miroslav Zhivkov, Galin Ganchev, Zhaklina Zhekova, Karina Talpova, and Konstantin Kokalanov.

The project is selected from the open call of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

Skopje Poster Festival

Skopje Poster Festival – an international students poster competition is founded in 2007 as the first one in the region to promote social topics through communication design. The Enabled for Disabled exhibition showcases selected posters from its latest edition, which was intended to inspire the creation of better conditions for people with disabilities. The ideas behind the motto of the festival will be presented on June 12th.

Small Change, Big Difference

Dave Hakkens – STORY HOPPER & PRECIOUS PLASTICS

Dave Hakkens is a young Dutch designer who has devoted his work to projects providing simple solutions for global problems. He is very fond of working with his hands, but at the same time realizes the responsibility behind creating more “things”. With a new approach to design and his “sharing is caring” attitude, Dave has turned his design to inspiring and empowering people.

As part of one of those projects – Precious Plastics- Dave creates a series of machines for recycling and reusing plastic and shares the design and user guides for his inventions.

Initiated by ONE DESIGN WEEK,  the students and instructor from the club Young constructor in the vocational school “Ivan Hadjienov” in the town of Kazanlak, used Dave Hakken’s design to create two plastic recycling devices. The students have had an opportunity to work first hand to create Dave’s machines from the provided plans and video instructions, thus fulfilling Dave’s project goal of others being able to build his design anywhere on demand. The exhibition Small Change, Big Difference shows the results from the collaboration and also includes demonstration of the machines.

The exhibition presents Dave Hakkens’ latest project Story Hopper. In it, through a series of video materials, the author shows us his daily activities, travels, and efforts to turn trash into meaningful, new everyday objects. His aim is to inspire more people with the idea that design is a powerful tool for altering the ways in which we interact with the world.

With the support of Creative Industries Fund NL.

Sound On Intuition

As a part of his thesis at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, the young designer Pieter Jan Pieters designed innovative and unusual instruments, which enable everyone to create music through their body’s rhythm. The electric devices are equipped with sensors, which transform instinctive movements and even natural functions such as heartbeat into melodies and sound.

Pieter Jan Pieters continues the project in his design studio OWOW. During the festival they will perform a downtown demonstration of the entertaining and intuitive instruments in collaboration with the audio-visual artists from the Plovdiv based collective Melformator. With this, the passersby will have the opportunity to become part of the live music performance.

OWOW’s instruments are an inspiration for everyone to try to create digital music in a fun and engaging way. Their creations function as MIDI controllers and are connected to the popular music software. Adopted by both practicing musicians and self-taught amateurs, the OWOW series for creating sound have become a worldwide sensation.

The project is realized with the support of Creative Industries Fund NL.

Teodor Georgiev

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project is Teodor Georgiev. Examples of his graphic design work will be displayed in Cult shop window.

The GG Sisters woskshop

GG sisters is a creative collective that has actively participated in the festival ONE DESIGN WEEK in Plovdiv from the very beginning, by offering special activities on the subject of design. Characteristic of the work of GG Sisters is the use of newspapers and magazines, supermarket brochures and old documents that they skillfully transform into beautiful and useful objects for decorating the home and workplace. Through creativity, the collective encourage a responsible attitude to the waste that we produce daily.

Participants in the workshop will make a pen holder via a special technique of knitting paper. The materials are provided by the facilitators with the support of GRAZIA and the participants will be able to take home what they create.

Three-Dimensional corner

At the center of Kapana is a nook built in the form of а three-dimensional corner. The installation is  made entirely of pallets and corrugated cardboard. Its author is Dana Zanzova, who is engaged in spacial design under the label Prez/ Ramka.  Everyone is invited to take part in the installation on the condition that they are a designer or wish to express themselves as such. Inside there is a variety of small furniture and home accessories, which allow to create a different and dynamic interior space. The idea behind the three-dimensional corner is to host an unusual and provocative experiment of arranging home objects without disregarding their functionalities, and as Dana says: Discovering new functionalities of well-known objects is what is valuable.

The project is among the selected after the open call of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016.

Tiltan School of Design and Visual Communication, Israel

Tin Tin

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project are Tin Tin – kids fashion brand.

Tsvetislava Koleva

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project is Tsvetislava Koleva, whose paper art you can see in Benetton’s shop window.

Visegrad

ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 introduces to the public in Plovdiv (both citizens and visitors), 6 designers from the Visegrad countries – Lenka Srsnova (Slovakia), Bence Pasztor and David Tarcali from Studio Nomad (Hungary), Martyna Golik (Poland), Pavla Nesverova (Czech Republic) и Klara Sumova (Czech Republic).

The festival will not only introduce the abovementioned authors (each of which has a very distinctive and specific style), but will also present them with the opportunity to exhibit and recreate their own culture, traditions, customs and identity (in the broadest sense of the word) through Bulgarian forms and methods. The project will stress the unique points of view of the authors who will question and review the notion behind local identity through, on the one hand, mutual collaboration with each other, and on the other, collaboration with the local context and the Bulgarian culture. In this manner they will continuously research / discover / lose / rediscover the strands of their own mixed Visegrad identity – equally formally homogenous and heterogeneous in its contents.

The project MIXED IDENTITIES will begin in April with a 4-day workshop, when the participants will visit Plovdiv, Bulgaria. There the participants will have an initial introduction both to one another and to the location where their collaborative work will be realized. The participants –  Lenka Srsnova (Словакия), Studio Nomad (Hungary), Martyna Golik (Poland), Pavla Nesverova (Czech Republic) и Klara Sumova (Czech Republic) – will present their ideas on the cross-flow of overlapping cultural currents which bridge the four Visegrad countries. The participants will further become the authors of a collaborative narrative, which will question the notions of identity, tradition, community, nation, and etc. in order to discover new dimensions of and definitions for them – broader and more inclusive in comparison to the current ones.

Within the timeframe of the project the designers will experiment with a traditional Bulgarian textile technique in collaboration with a local factory. The factory in turn will develop a prototype inspired by the ideas of the participants, at the end of the said period. This will ensure the materialization of the creations resulting from the collaboration between the designers.

The produced prototypes will be presented in an exhibition as part of ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 between the 10^th and the 19^th of June. Furthermore, a special presentation describing the design process will be held.

MIXED IDENTITIES is realized with the kind support of the International Visegrad Fund.

Participants

Workshop for children with special needs

The workshop is designed for children with limited abilities in communication. The participants invited to this workshop are students from the special secondary school for students with hearing impairments “Professor Dr. Stoyan Belinov.” The main objective of the workshop is to create new opportunities for self-expression through enjoyable creative activities based on intuition and imagination. The children will learn how to use felt to create a picture and be aware of the work process in order to be able to replicate it other situations. The workshop ends with an exhibition of paintings made of felt.

The workshop facilitators are Niki Collier and Tanya Stancheva (TANNE design studio). The designer Niki Collier lives and works in Dublin, loves natural materials, in particular, felt. Her main strength is using natural materials and turning them into items or clothing with organic forms.

Workshop for senior ladies

This workshop promises to be full of positive emotions for those who participate. It is an opportunity for meeting others, engaging in conversation, listening to the old city songs and creative activities. At the end of the workshop, the ladies will be able to take home the unique jewelry they have made as a souvenir..

Niki Collier and Tanya Stancheva (TANNE design studio) will lead the workshop. For many years they have been involved in creating items, clothes and accessories made from natural materials. They stand by the idea that creating things by hand is beneficial to the spirit and that using your imagination opens up new skills and traits in everyone.

The workshop invites ladies to participate in the making of elaborate ornaments from silk thread, merino wool, a little soap and water. The activity will end with an old song, performed by the participants themselves. The facilitators of the workshop promise to distribute a recording of the performance in the social media networks and hope to serve as an example of how to involve senior citizens. They hope the workshop will inspire others and will be repeated at future events.

Yana Tankovska & Evgeniya Tsankova

The project presents Bulgarian design created during the last year and selected by Studio Komplekt. The unusual thing is that the 15 projects will be shown on the shop windows of Plovdiv’s main pedestrian street. The context of the commercial spaces will serve as the background for the chosen posters, furniture, clothes, animation, infographics, toys and jewels, accessories etc. Among the participants in the project аrе Yana Tankovska & Evgeniya Tsankova, whose jewellery and home decor pieces you can see in Fetish shop window.

Yarn Bombing

The group Pink Yellow Me (PYM) calls for a different perspective and invites the audience to take a new, fresh look on the familiar urban surroundings. During ONE DESIGN WEEK 2016 they will transform one of the most popular places in Plovdiv “Buttons” on the main street in the city with a range of various designs that are woven with different colored yarn. They will weave yarn around 112 round plastic seats, transforming them into unusual and beautiful colored spots. In this way PYM breathes new life into them and provokes passers-by to think about change, the meaning of design and the effect of transformation. The woven packages are attached to the circular seats with the help of a rubber band around the perimeter. Each morning during the festival, PYM will document the state of intervention in the urban space.

Photo documentation of the process, the destruction or removal of the woven pieces by the citizens will symbolically show the extent to which people appreciate and protect their environment.

Young Package

The exhibition Package Unlimited presents some of the best entries for the international annual package design competition Young Package 2016. Jindřich Oukropec – marketing coordinator for the event, dating from 1996, will present the exhibition and the idea behind the organization. The initiative’s creator is the Czech branch of the international company Model Obay – a leading manufacturer of packaging and a big supporter of young creative talent. From 2009 to the present, the competition has been organized by CZECHDESIGN.CZ

Supported by Czech Center.