James D Keyser Art of the Warriors Rock Art of the American Plains
D is for Design
June'southward Dan D, 'D-Solar day' is now a major showcase and social gathering for Croatia's creative customs. Jonathan Bousfield speaks to Marko Golub and Ivana Borovnjak most this ever-growing event
P eople have been talking up the idea of a Croation design boom for quite some time. And information technology's finally beginning to expect every bit if the scene is capable of living up to the hype. Last yr'southward opening of the Croatian Design Superstore served equally symbolic proof that the land's creatives were actually churning out enough quality products to fill a decent-sized shop. Information technology'south likewise becoming articulate that the country'southward prime festival of blueprint, Dan D ('D-Day') it is increasinglyperceived non merely every bit the twelvemonth's nigh of import event for the creative customs, only every bit i of the key summer events for the city equally a whole.
First held in 2010, Dan D has grown to become a major showcase for young designers from Republic of croatia and the surrounding region. It's likewise a major social upshot, with thousands of visitors milling around the stands earlier enjoying drinks, snacks and a DJ-generated soundtrack in the grand outside. A collaboration betwixt the Croatian Designers Society (Hrvatsko dizajnersko dru ∫ tvo or HDD) and the Pepermint agency, sister of the city's Peper- mint bar and club, Dan D is a prime example of how Zagreb's cultural events have been reinvented as happenings – almost like rock festivals in which the music has been replaced past some other creativeactiveness.Higher up all, Dan D has created major mediaripples, ensuring that Croatian design is much more present in local magazines and newspapers than it ever was before.
As i of Dan D's programme directors, design critic and Television set presenter Marko Golub explains: 'Design events on this calibration had never happened in Zagreb before 2010. The master idea was to put all creative individuals on the map, as it were, and give them a phonation. It gave young designers the opportunity to show their work and attract hereafter clients. It was very useful in connecting designers fresh out of school with the business organization customs. What we desire to retain farther is this youthful energy, and the idea that networking is going on between people from totally different backgrounds'.
In that location's an important regional element too: both the Mixer Festival in Belgrade, and Skopje Design Calendar week have been regular contributors to Dan D. Together they form function of Young Balkan Designers, a regional promotional platform. According to president of the Croatian Designers' Society Ivana Borovnjak, 'Scandinavian blueprint has been a recognised brand on the global scene for some fourth dimension, so information technology seems logical to try and do the aforementioned affair with the region hither. The term 'Balkan' still sounds somewhat edgy, and certainly tin't be applied to all areas of civilization in the region. Only the design scene in south-eastern Europe is nonetheless relatively small, and there's a strong sense of community'.
1 other major project overseen by the Croatian Designers' Gild is the Croatian Pattern Exhibition held every two years in the Arts & Crafts Museum. It shows the best design work of the last 24 months and gives out the kind of prizes that are get-go to be regarded as significant career markers.
One thing that characterises the design scene in Croatia is how many designers finish up self-producing their own designs. The country's erratically handled transition from Communism to capitalism had a disastrous effect on local industry, causing a sharp decline in the number of companies that were in a position to rent designers and industry their designs. The fact that Dan D is e'er held in an abandoned post-industrial or post-Socialist building is a cute way of referring dorsum to an industrial might that no longer exists.
Younger-generation way designers such as Roba and Dioralop have concluded up producing their own wares and selling them in their ain store due to the lack of major Croation labels capable of taking up their ideas. For similar reasons, blueprint practices such equally Grupa, responsible for fantastic domestic light fittings and free-standing lamps, have taken it upon themselves to manufacture and distribute their own lines. Of the few local companies even so working with local designers, northward-Croatian piece of furniture maker Kvadra, retailing nether the brand-name Prostorija, has knocked out a series of prize-winning chairs and couches – including the Revolve sofa bed, co-designed by the HDD's Ivana Borovnjak.
However, these kind of companies are few and far betwixt, and information technology'south no surprise that Croatia's designers take to become multi-taskers. 'It's natural that designers have to take on different roles,' says Golub. 'They also have to exist managers and entrepreneurs.' 'Present the designer has to be similar a self-promoting pop star,' adds Borovnjak. 'In the past it was rarely necessary to say who was the designer of a particular table or chair.' Tables and chairs were indeed ii of the things that the Croation design industry used to do and so well. 'During the Socialist era a lot of good pattern was washed in Croatia because the local tourist industry needed it,' Borovnjak continues. 'Hotels had to be built and supplied with stylish piece of furniture.'
Nowadays a whole hotel can exist kitted out with fittings ordered from Italia or even further afield. As Borovnjak concludes, 'Even tourist souvenirs are imported from other countries rather than locally fabricated'.
Source: https://www.timeout.com/croatia/art/dan-d-discovering-design-day
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