Department of product design - Faculty of multimedia communication – Tomas Bata University at Zlin
FOR THE FIRST TIME AT PRAGUE DESIGNBLOK

Ateliers of industrial design and fashion design have the exhibition of student works at Designblok07.

You can find them in front of the Superstudio of Designblok.
Thamova 14, Praha 8 – Karlin
(few minutes from metro B station Krizikova).

The exhibition last 6 days (from Tuesday 2.10. to Sunday 7.10. 10am-20pm)

Projects of >> babaakcja << were presented a number of times in Poland as well as abroad, They have achieved many successes. They have had opportunity to present works at Furniture Fares in Poznan 2005/2006, Design.pl Warsaw 2006, International Design Biennial Festival in 2006, “Best Diploma Project 2005/2006” in Cieszyn. In addition they received an invitation to Design Mai Youngsters (www.dmy-berlin.com), an international design festival in Berlin. Project, prepared for this event, evoked great interest among the guests and media (designspotter, geekalerts, Rzeczpospolita, PIG magazine). This project, in a slightly altered form, has been chosen as a part of this years’ 100% Design Tokyo exhibition.

>> babaakcja << is first Polish group which has a chance to represent Poland and promote Polish design worldwide at one of most prestigious festivals dedicated to design.

DESIGN 07 – THE MIDDLE
Dialog about design and the middle

An event organized by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, 8–9 October 2007

PRESS RELEASE

Any serious design discourse must deal with social, cultural, economic, ecological and aesthetic aspects, as design not only influences the appearance of our culture of things and our visual culture but is closely linked to social developments in both contemporary and historic practice, which it both reflects and shapes.

The University of Applied Arts Vienna as the base of an international design discourse

With this year’s DESIGN 07 conference on 8 and 9 October the University of Applied Arts in Vienna will again provide the space for just such a discourse. Following the success of DESIGN 06 this year once again up to 30 well-known international speakers from the fields of design, design theory, business, media and culture as well as from other areas will be invited to the rooftop storey of the university to exchange information about their work and research in the form of brief dialogues.

The theme of the dialogues this year is “the middle”. The entire range of associations suggested by this term will form the subject of discussions intended to develop an approach to the major themes of product, industrial and furniture design. What effect does the often-cited “loss of the middle”, with respect to a middle-class but also small and medium enterprises, have on the area of product design? What does it mean to design for the middle, the mean of society, for the imaginary average consumer? Given the growing concentration of the consumer goods industry this question seems to be of considerable significance. The consequences of the move of production facilities and know-how to the “Middle Kingdom” will also be discussed, as will current developments in the Central European cultural area.

The middle as the point between two extremes moves between luxury and modesty, between the short-lived and the long lasting. Yet it is not inevitably average or mediocre. As the symbol of balance the middle is highly desirable and, literally, is often described as “golden”. As a mathematically exact centre point it is difficult to hit precisely – as any target shows us. In the form of the “mean” the middle is unpopular but perhaps when the mean is seen as moderation it can offer certain advantages?

These and further aspects will be discussed at DESIGN 07 in around 27 dialogues each lasting about 50 minutes. Within the matrix-like structure of the event those leading the dialogues will move like in speed-dating between three rooms, allowing three new discussion constellations to develop parallel. As a result visitors to the conference are invited to organise their own conference structure, their own dramaturgy. DESIGN 07 is targeted at the specialist design public as well as at members of the general public with an interest in design.

The curators Tulga Beyerle, Thomas Geisler and Lilli Hollein from the Neigungsgruppe Design deliberately chose the dates of the conference (early October) so as to achieve the maximum synergy effect with international and Viennese design events. As it is integrated in the Vienna Design Weeks (3–21.10. 2007) DESIGN 07 is the theory-based and discursive start to this event.

You can find information on the speakers and the programme and on how to register at: www.designzeroseven.com,

OPEN-HOUSE at this year DESIGNBLOK PRAGUE will introduce together with new logo of the group, new porcelain mugs, furniture soliters, plastic bowls and traveler pilows. In connection with this year theme space-saving and mobility was created many product of our collection. Read the rest of this entry »

As part of the london design festival Maxim Velcovsky unveiled his ‘catastrophe’ vases, at
Mint Gallery, London (whom he designed them especially for).

Maxim explains:

‘what fascinates me most about objects found in the ground is their anonymity. hidden beneath the dirt of ages, they remain a secret and this makes them all equal. I’m fascinated by their raw beauty before layers of earth are removed to find the truth about the original shape….

I have decided to create a specific collection of vases for mint. I decorate the surface with the dirt and with the raw materials I have found in the ground or in my neighborhood. I wanted to free the object of its interpretations derived from its shape, ornaments or details that can be distinguished on the surface…

my aim was to create a discovery with a story behind it that will never be told.’

via: designboom

Design Lab 07 finalists announced
Electrolux announces this year’s Design Lab finalists in its global competition with eco-design the theme Electrolux, a leading household appliance innovator, has chosen eight finalists to compete for first place in Electrolux Design Lab 07, the fifth edition of this annual global competition. Hundreds of design students from around the world entered this year’s competition and were challenged to present their ideas on for eco-friendly and sustainable household appliances and solutions for 2020.

The finalists are:

• Return Pot: plastic decomposer, by Juan Ying-Hao from Cranbrook
  Academy of Art, U.S.A.
• Fog Shower: water-saving shower, by João Diego Schimansky from
  Pontificia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Brazil
• Pebble: solar food cooker by Laura Pandelle from École Boulle,
  France
• e-Wash: natural detergent washing machine by Levente Szabó from
  Moholy-Nagy University of Art & Design, Hungary
• Pure: dual kitchen sink and detergent-free compact dishwasher by
  Tatjana Voronova from Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch
  Gmünd, Germany
• NatureWind: eco-solar aircleaner by Bae Won-Ho from Dong-A
  University, South Korea
• Circompo: automatic food composter by Thanat Tengamnuay from
  King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
• Go Fresh: energy-saving fridge with individual, honeycomb-shaped
  compartments by He Cheng Fei from Jiangnan University, China

They have all been invited to the final judging event and award ceremony in Paris, where the winner of Design Lab 07 will be announced on November 28. The Design Lab 2007 has a First Prize of 5,000 Euro and a six-month internship at one of Electrolux’s global design centers.

The jury
Challenging these finalists to meet the highest standards is a jury of internationally renowned members of the environmental, design, and technology communities. They will judge the final selections based on their design and innovation, while taking functional, aesthetical and emotional aspects into account. The composition of the jury will be announced later in September.

About Design Lab
Design Lab is an annual global design competition open to undergraduate and graduate industrial design students who are invited to present innovative ideas for household appliances of the future. The first edition in 2003 was with direct cooperation with three design schools in Europe only. Since then Electrolux has developed the project to a global scale and opening it up to design students from schools around the world. The competition is currently on its fifth consecutive edition and has been run in Budapest, New York, Stockholm and Barcelona. In 2006, the Design Lab Award went to Nevale, a portable food carrier that lets consumers keep up to four different home-cooked meals at the right temperature, while featuring an intuitive, ecological and sleek design.

More details on the current as well as past editions of Design Lab can be found on the competition’s ‘Webby Award’ winning website: www.ElectroluxDesignLab.com

LAUFBAHN™ will be exhibited at the DESIGNBLOK 07 PRAGUE from 2. – 7. October 2007

Prague will transform itself completely during the first week of October yet again as it will host the international festival of design Designblok. The best design stores, galleries and design studios have been preparing more than 177 actions – exhibitions, presentation of novelties, fashion shows, lectures and stylish cocktails – for visitors of Designblok at 60 spots.

FORM FJORD were invited to show their LAUFBAHN™ in the Superstudio Exhibition. Let´s start the truck!

”According to his function as a pioneer and catalyst of creative impulse on society, the designer has to be willing to accomplish his inner mission even without a clearly drawn track to follow.” These days, straight résumés are becoming increasingly rare. Why not start on a new groove… one off the beaten track. Sometimes the short cut is the road less travelled..

Take the bent cross-country skies and go for a ride on the concrete track. Reflect on your own career path while taking one lap after the other.

Are you obstinately following the easy path?
Is your career running in a safe track?
Are you running around in circles?
Can you benefit from what you learn each round?

Maybe you should at some point leave the beaten track and find your own path.

LAUFBAHN TM.
A HEAVY PROJECT BY FORMFJORD & BLACKJUNE

AT THE DESIGNBLOK IN PRAGUE
2.10. – 7.10.2007 10:00 to 20:00
SUPERSTUDIO / THAMOVA 14 / PRAHA 8
www.designblok.cz
www.laufbahnTM.com
www.formfjord.com
www.blackjune.com

This is just unbelievable and beautiful what someone can made from paper. Did you hear something about jewelery made of paper? Noemi Gera designed some.

originally posted here at Kinga Kremers blog.

Buy it here at etsy shop

ComuniStar designers is young brand from Slovakia which creates unique contemporary designer furniture and interior accessories. Our mission is to create conditions for development and realization of European design authorship, which will contribute to the building of cultural heritage of Central Europe. We use ideal regional technological and productional conditions for production of all designs. We are looking for own design language and identity, not seeking to follow the global mainstream. Questions like ecology, tradition, and social groups will not be suppressed by the dictation of what is currently trendy. ComuniStar has the ambition to become the commissary of a new original design identity from the former eastern block countries/from Central Europe.

I’ve founded useful tips for freelancers how to Maximize Your Income. Thanks to Tina Roth from swissmiss blog

1. Don’t accept all work.
If you’re not going to enjoy it, or the project …

2. Leverage your research time.
If you work in a certain niche, without conflict for multiple clients, you …

3. Recycle your efforts.
If you’ve collected enough notes sufficient for several …

Here is all post… set of 25 very useful informations.

EDIT:
At the freelanceswitch.com blog is also a lot of advices for freelancers for example:The 10 biggest mistakes freelancers make and how to avoid them

Read them all – really worth to visit their blog.