Category: Designers

MELBA Meetings with Aleksi Ivanov, Nikolay Bozhilov and STUDIO TASH

On 30 September, at 19:00, we look forward to welcoming you to the 29th edition of MELBA MEETINGS at Toplocentrala. Our guests are Aleksi Ivanov, Nikolay Bozhilov and STUDIO TASH.

Aleksi Ivanov is a multidisciplinary artist working in the fields of contemporary mural art, illustration, and street art. He began doing graffiti in 2003, later moving towards street art and specifically the revitalization of neglected urban spaces. His style is illustrative and easily recognizable, featuring characteristic characters reminiscent of cartoon heroes that interact with their surroundings.

Nikolay Bozhilov is a fashion designer whose work unites sculptural functionality with a harmony between nature and technology. In 2013 he graduated with honors from the National Academy of Arts, later earning a PhD in fashion design. He is co-founder of the creative space CONETS, and his academic background combined with his contemporary aesthetic has established him as a leading name on both the Bulgarian and international stage.

Nikolay is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Triumph Inspiration Award (London, 2010), the Golden Needle for “Young Designer of the Year” (2010 and 2013), the OFFFASHION Prize (Poland, 2011), the Big See Award (2022), and the Kyoto Design Award (2023). His collections, created with an ethical approach, have been featured in prestigious media and showcased at platforms such as Sofia Design Week, Berlin Fashion Week, and Slovenian Design Week.

STUDIO TASH is a design studio founded by Margarita Rangelova and Marta Moskova. The two met while studying at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, where they discovered shared interests and aesthetic pursuits that brought them together as a creative duo. With backgrounds in metalworking, ceramics, glass, and textiles, Margarita and Marta combine sensitivity to material with an experimental approach. In the work of STUDIO TASH, natural forms and textures intertwine with bold artistic exploration to create objects that captivate, invite interaction, and transcend their practical function.

Organizer: Komplekt
Main partner: Fashion Days

MELBA MEETINGS is part of the Melba Design Initiatives by Studio Komplekt. In Melba Meetings we present current and remarkable projects by local design heroes. Experience and know-how are shared about their realization, with a focus on the ideas, details, and processes behind each one.

Melba, Bulgaria’s main design festival,  is back for a seventh year in a row

From 1 to 10 November 2024, Sofia once again welcomes the international Melba design festival. The festival heralds new and surprising approaches and is a vibrant platform for ideas, diverse perspectives and knowledge. Melba is a driving force that enriches and enhances society. The festival’s program offers a deep dive into relevant topics within the creative industries and brings together some of the most influential figures in the field of graphic design, design research, illustration, architecture, curatorial work, product and industrial design. 

Melba Sofia Design Festival presents an opportunity of broadening the discussion on the topic of design and its role in society. It is also an inspiration and enjoyment with its ten days of exhibitions, creative workshops, discussions, and the one-day Melba symposium, sharing its content across various audiences.

Spend a day at the International Melba Symposium

The International Melba Symposium is the signature event of the festival and will take place on the 2nd of November at Hall 1 of Toplocentrala. This is an unmissable all-day design and creative conference with some of the most exciting thinkers, makers and movers in design, branding, illustration, interiors, materials and beyond.

Open your mind to new ideas and innovations at the symposium and hear from: 

  • Seetal Solanki, founder of the design studio Ma-tt-er, a materials designer, researcher and educator, who works with brands such as NIKE, Google, Venice Biennale, Dezeen, IKEA/SPACE10, British Council, The Design Museum London, Hyundai; 
  • Spanish designer Max Enrich provokes our sense of aesthetics and functionality by creating furniture more akin to sculptures; his collectible objects bring character and joy to any interior; among his clients are brands like Hermès; 
  • Bram Broerse and Maurits Wouters, founders of Studio Airport, agency of the year at the last European Design Awards; an independent practice in graphic design and film that explores the intersections of these two disciplines with a balanced approach between the commercial and the creative; among their awards are The Webby Awards, Awwwards, ADC Awards, Stack Awards;
  • Anna Sarvira is a Kiev-born illustrator, curator and art director who co-founded the Pictoric Illustrators Club, a cultural organisation for exhibitions of illustration and printmaking, which launched the #SupportUkrainePIC project with the start of the war in Ukraine; 
  • Kirsten Algera and Ernst van der Hoeven, Dutch art historians and designers, founders and art directors of MacGuffin Magazine (2015), an award-winning design and craft magazine that tells compelling stories about the lives of ordinary objects.

 

Matter of the Image: Review of Bulgarian Design 2024

The exhibition Matter of the Image: Review of Bulgarian Design 2024 is another highlight in the festival’s program. For this year’s edition of the state of Bulgarian visual culture Komplekt has invited as curators the respected creative collective TI-RE – Andrea Popyordanova, Viktoria Staykova and Mila Yaneva-Tabakova. Their take on the brief explores the theme of reproduction as an integral part of the creative product through a series of experiments with different printing techniques such as offset, digital, screen and riso printing, vinyl and others. Participants are nine young Bulgarian artists working in the field of illustration, typography and photography. Georgi Sharov is the author of the exhibition design and visual layout. Matter of the Image can be seen at the Swimming Pool Gallery. The opening marks the launch of the festival and is on 31.10.2024, Thursday at 7 pm.

 

And More Melba Program 

Other festival’s highlights include the exhibition Diploma Project, which presents Danail Kapchin and his fashion collection Pandæmonium. It explores the role of demons in contemporary society through the language of clothing and invites visitors to engage in a provocative experiment, cleverly mixing shapes, silhouettes, scents and sound through the non-verbal language of fashion. 

For a second consecutive year Komplekt produce a design residency as a main accent in the festival’s program. In 2024 this is a collaboration between the poet Bojana Slavkova and the illustrator Stefani Nedelcheva, and in partnership with the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation. “Mamo Dzhanka” (Mother Cherry Plum) presents the results of their stay in the Rhodope Mountains during the month of August.

 

The festival programme is on the Facebook and Instagram profiles of Melba Design Initiatives, as well as on the website festival.melba.bg.

 

About Melba

The Melba Design Festival mixes different perspectives on design in various creative activities – an international symposium, an exhibition-review of Bulgarian design, accompanying exhibitions, workshops, lectures, discussions, etc. It is part of Melba, a series of design initiatives that the cultural producers at Komplekt launched in 2017. The project has quickly become a unique platform with a strong community and carefully curated content: the Melba online bilingual Archive of contemporary Bulgarian designers, Melba Meetings with local design heroes and an annual Sofia Design Festival.

 

 

 

Sustainability and business in fashion: MELBA class with Réka Szentesi and Kinga Csengő

The latest edition of the MELBA SCHOOL 2023 series is dedicated to fashion design and the topic Sustainability and business in fashion, moderated by Réka Szentesi and Kinga Csengő, mentors of some of the most significant projects of the Hungarian Design and Fashion Agency.

The class is suitable for graduate students, young, practicing textile and fashion designers as well as owners of Bulgarian fashion brands. The two-day practical course focuses on two highly relevant topics for the development of any contemporary fashion brand: sustainability and business sales.

The practical two-day course provides an in-depth look at the key steps in building a business strategy, developing a focused business mindset, generating sales and building a sustainable brand. The course looks at sustainability as a system that works not just towards reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing, but also as a system for producing marketable products. Otherwise it is a waste of time, money, energy, materials and talent.

WHEN AND WHERE
First part of the class:
22 November, Wednesday, from 10:00 – 16:00 | Hungarian Cultural Institute Sofia, 10:00 – 16:00, 16 Aksakov Street, Sofia
Second part of the class:
23 November, Thursday, from 10:00 – 16:00 | Hungarian Cultural Institute Sofia, 16 Aksakov Street, Sofia
WHO IS IT FOR?
Textile and fashion designers. Professionals and employed in the field. Students in the field. People with knowledge of textiles and fashion. Anyone who is discovering the world of textile design as a new career opportunity.

PROGRAMME of the two-day course:
22 November, Wednesday
10:00 Welcome and brief introduction of the speakers
10:15-11:00 Presentation of the Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency and its projects
11:00-13:00 First lecture:
Sustainable Fashion
What is sustainability?
The global fashion supply system and how the industry works
Fast fashion as a business model vs. slow fashion
The problems associated with overconsumption and overproduction
Environmental and social problems of the fashion industry
EU sustainability directives
Best practices for fashion brands to become more sustainable
13:00-14:00 ч. Lunch break

14:00-16:00 ч. Second lecture:
Business and Sales: Definition of sales, difference between sales and merchandising. The work of the sales representative and the sales team
How do designers work together with the sales rep in a team? How to put together a collection that sells well? Seasonal discounts
How to create a sellable product?
Buyer – who is the buyer, how do we work and communicate with them?
Pricing strategies
Differences between local and international market#

23 November, Thursday

10:00-13:00 Practical task (group work) Designing a small collection of 5 silhouettes using sustainability principles + preparing sales materials in line with the collection, pricing the designed products;Preparing a description of the collection;

13:00-13:30 Lunch break

13:30-15:30 Presentation of the collection to a fictitious buyer (speaker)

Task assessment

WHAT DO I NEED FOR THE CLASS?

Participants should bring personal computers, preferably with design software installed, otherwise paper (A3 or A4 / 5-6 per person, pencils for drawing/designing); scissors, glue sticks and old fashion magazines for making so-called “mood boards”.

TICKETS
Regular ticket – BGN 100
For students and pupils – BGN 80
The class is held in English.
** Request your ticket at hello@studiokomplekt.com with the title. The number of places in this class is limited, so hurry to reserve yours. We look forward to seeing you.

ORGANIZERS
Studio Komplekt | The project is supported by the National Culture Fund under the One Year Grant Programme.
Partners: Hungarian Cultural Institute Sofia

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Réka Szentesi is a Senior Project Manager at the Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency, where she is responsible for the Talents Mentoring Programme, where young designers receive training on various topics to support them in building their careers. She is a sustainability expert and also works with the sales team.

 

Kinga Csengő is a project manager at the Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency, where she is responsible for supporting the sales activities of Hungarian brands at local and international level. She is also head of the manufacturer mentor programme, where Hungarian manufacturers receive support on business development issues.

 

 

The Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency

The Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency was established to provide structured and efficient professional assistance to all industry players. There is a huge economic and tourism potential in the fashion and design industry. The Hungarian Government intends to develop these areas. The aim is to raise the profile of the garment and textile industries and the various branches of the light industry related to fashion and design, so that their reputation matches their traditions and Hungary becomes the centre of this region. In the course of its work, the Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency cooperates with Hungarian and international professional organisations, educational institutions, members of the public and the private sector to mutually establish the most important pillars of its strategy.

MELBA DESIGN INITIATIVES is launched in 2022. MELBA SCHOOL – a series of educational classes that aim to foster professional development and creative thinking. The classes are led by established designers and visual artists whose work contributes not only to the development of their discipline, but also to society as a whole.

Marta Cerdà on working between past and future

The graphic designer, illustrator, and font author Marta Cerdà seeks the golden mean between illustrations and typography, the past and the directions in which design disciplines are developing today.

Born in Barcelona, after completing her studies at the Elisava School of Design and Engineering (Barcelona) and gaining several years of experience in various advertising agencies in Spain and Germany, Marta Cerdà founded her own design studio in 2008. Since then, she has dedicated herself to numerous international projects as a graphic designer, illustrator, art director, and typographer. Her bold and colorful illustrations are perhaps the first thing that captures attention in her work. Her clients include brands and organizations such as: The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Die Zeit, Penguin Books, Coca Cola, Nike, Converse, Spotify, Netflix, Apple, Volkswagen, Vogue, The New York Times, and many more. She is visiting Bulgaria for the first time now as a spekaer at the 21st edition of the design series Melba Meetings. We are talking to her a week before she arrives in Sofia.

 
MELBA MEETINGS #21 / Derida Stage / 29.09. / 7.00 PM 

Who or what has influenced your work the most in terms of style, taste in color, illustration and typography? 

There are many influences, and that is also something in constant change. There are even influences that I might not be aware of. But mostly, anything to do with the history of letters, graphic design and art is always an influence. I tend to look back all the time for inspiration, I will talk a lot about this at MELBA MEETINGS #21.

Amnesty International. Freedom of Expression. 2016 

Your projects often incorporate a variety of visual mediums like calligraphic elements, bold forms and bright, fluorescent colors. Can you walk us through your creative process for bringing these pieces to life? Do you have any specific tools (both digital and hardware) you love using? How do you manage to keep your style so authentic and vibrant without repeating yourself? 

I don’t think I have a style, at least I can’t see it. But my work usually has a very strong visual ingredient in it, that is a common threat. I usually start a project by focusing on the concept, looking for references and ideas. But I never sketch, for me sketching is like a straitjacket. I like to have a conceptual playground where to work and get lost in it. In terms of time and efficiency it is not the best approach, but for me, in terms of creativity it is the best way to work. About tools, I don’t like to stick to one tool, I have to explore options and different softwares to know which is the best tool to work with. I think the project should decide that, not my priority for a specific software.

Type to Image. 2022

You have an impressive portfolio for respected clients from all over the world. How do you balance between expressive freedom and requested constraints?

Well, I love creative constraints, it is more challenging, it is what graphic design is, solving problems. But probably the best works I have done, or more popular, come from a total creative freedom. Paradoxically, those have been the hardest. I am definitely my worst client, my ability to be self critical is huge, sometimes so much that it can have a paralyzing effect.

What’s the one skill you want to get better at?

At absolutely everything. I want to get better and faster at conceptualizing, I want to become a better animator, cgi artist, better control of the Ais, better speaker, better at calligraphy, better at drawing. There is always room to improve at what you do, and that is what is exciting about life.

Barcelona Poesia Festival. 2020

How do you break through creative stuckness to ignite new flow?

I can’t say I have found the formula. But I know that when I am stressed with non-work related things I get blocked. So I tend to have a holistic approach. If I don’t solve my problems outside of work, they come to haunt me when I work. But, that said, I try to accept that sometimes the creative flow is high and sometimes is low, and that is also life, I am not a machine, and I don’t want to become one.

What skills and knowledge do the next generation of designers need to possess in order to face the current challenges (AI, environmental crisis, societal disruptions, etc.)?

That is a good question that I honestly don’t know if I can give an answer. I think they will need to be fluid and flexible, but also creatively conscientious when designing.

Is there something specific that you want to discover or try in Bulgaria?

Well, my visit will be very brief, but I am dying to try your food, especially the Banista and the Tarator! I hope I can plan something longer in the near future and visit places like the Rila Monastery or Plovdiv.

What do you love most about being a designer?

Uff, I totally love all the parts of designing. I love conceptualizing, I love the process of designing, I love being lost, I love when I find the idea that I want to work with! And I absolutely love to see a beautiful letter or a piece of design or art, and I don’t mind if it’s 5000 years old or if it’s made tomorrow in AI.

____________________________________________________________________

Melba Meetings 21 will take place on September 29th at 7.00 PM at the independent space for contemporary art and culture Derida Stage (32 Tsar Samuil Street). The event is free of charge thanks to our longtime partners, Fashion Days. The project is realized with the support of the National Culture Fund within the “One-Year Grant” program. For more updates, follow the event on Facebook here.

MELBA MEETINGS 21: special edition with Marta Cerdà

In the last days of June, we get an extra portion of inspiration for the summer with one of the notable names on the European design scene – Marta Cerdà. The graphic designer, typographer and art director is our dear speaker at the 21st edition of the MELBA MEETINGS series. Marta will talk to the Bulgarian audience about the aesthetics of her diverse projects, about the trial-and-error approach, an essential part of the creative process and about the blurring boundaries between different disciplines in design.

Over the years, Marta Cerdà (Barcelona, 1980) has received international recognition in various design forums around the world such as Type Director’s Club and Art Director’s Club, where she was awarded with the ADC Young Gun Award. Her clients include brands and organizations such as The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Die Zeit, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Penguin Books, Coca Cola, Nike, Converse, Spotify, Netflix, Apple, Volkswagen, Toyota, Victoria’s Secret, Panasonic, Deutsche Bank, Vogue, The New York Times and many more.

Ⓒ Marta Cerdà

Marta Cerdà founded her own design studio in 2008 after several years of experience in different advertising agencies between Barcelona, Düsseldorf and Munich. Since then, she has dedicated herself to numerous international projects as graphic designer, illustrator, art director and typographer. Through various forms of design, Marta Cerdà impressively synthesizes illustration, calligraphy and graphic design in her work.

 

MELBA MEETINGS 21 will take place on June 29 at 7.00 PM at the independent space for contemporary art and culture Derida Stage (32 Tsar Samuil Street). Admission to the event is free thanks to our longtime partners Fashion Days. The project is realized with the support of the National Culture Fund through the One Year Grant program. For more details – follow the event on Facebook here.

MELBA MEETINGS is a part of MELBA DESIGN INITIATIVES by Komplekt. In MELBA MEETINGS we present current projects by design heroes that are remarkable for their approach. Experiences are shared. Ideas, details and processes behind each project are the main focus.

Studio PUNKT about good design and the visual identity of MELBA 2022

For more than 15 years Studio PUNKT has been developing brand identities, illustrations, typefaces and conceptual communication campaigns for clients around the world. The team strives to translate ideas into real, authentic stories told through a sensitive visual language and through a variety of media.

It was Studio PUNKT that created the visual identity for the fifth edition of the MELBA Design Festival. We talk to them about their activities, the challenges in their craft, some interesting projects and turning points in the graphic designer’s creative path.

Could you please introduce studio PUNKT in a few words?

We are a creative studio working in a team of 7 people, based in Plovdiv and Sofia. We’ve been around for 15 years and until now we haven’t stopped being motivated and trying to change the world around us a little bit for the better.

Night-Plovdiv 2015 Festival

How did you work as a team for 15 years already?

It comes naturally to us. With each successful project, the tasks become more interesting and require more varied approaches. The team is gradually enriched with colleagues and everyone contributes to the overall look of the studio. We are flexible enough and often have to have a colleague to replace another one in a project and continue the work in their own style, but this has always taken us in the right direction so far. We also constantly rely on our wide network of good partnerships and connections with colleagues when we know our expertise is not enough.

Fine Acts: annual report 2021
What is the current visual identity of the MELBA Festival and what did you want to communicate with it?
It’s not our first time creating a festivals visual identity, but it’s our first time doing it for a design festival. Most of the audience at such events are our colleagues, designers, people with a high visual culture.We decided to take a risk with the idea and ask the question in a provocative way: how easy is it to be a designer in 2022?We achieved this primarily with the colors #FFFF00 and #FF0000 (for those who don’t read HEX, this is the cheapest, easiest and most effective way to get attention) plus disproportionately stretched shapes and quick, “notebook” pencil drawings.Another thing that inspired us was the festival’s first visual identity, created by NEXT-DC (the digital agency which is responsible for all the cool MELBA looks so far). We wanted to make reference to what that first vision very successfully managed to communicate – a sweet, diverse, delicious and classy experience.
Materials for MELBA 2022, created by studio PUNKT 🙌

What were the main creative challenges you encountered while working on the visual identity for MELBA 2022?

Mainly how far down the rabbit hole we could crawl. We had a big concern, especially for the festivals website, that in a UX sense it would become too inaccessible. However, after a few tests we think we achieved a good balance.

Where do you find a dose of inspiration when you lack of ideas?

We have diverse personalities in our team and everyone has their own interests. When we’re together, it’s rare for ideas to get stuck because most of the time we inspire each other. Beside of that we have a solid archive of the coolest brochures and flyers that each of us has collected when we’ve been somewhere abroad. Occasionally, one of us happens to browse them, and accidentally it turns into a teambuilding exercise where everyone shares their impressions or memories of one place or another.

ADATA AiR Residency Program, a part of Plovdiv 2019

Where can we find you when you are not working?

We love the outdoors and escape there at the first opportunity. But that doesn’t mean we don’t work those hours, we just don’t charge them.

What is the most valuable lesson/motto for a graphic designer?

Just like you can’t become an artist without an eraser, you can’t become a designer without Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z for Windows users).

FINE ACTS: annual report 2021
Regionale – guide for tourism and culture
  • WRONG FEST 2021
  • 100% Plovdiv
  • Frik&S beer

This was the 5th edition of MELBA Sofia Design Festival

The fifth edition of MELBA Sofia Design Festival offered ten days full of valuable and fascinating content on different locations in Sofia. The event introduced intriguing foreign speakers to the Bulgarian audience, reviewed the most interesting and significant of Bulgarian design in the past year, held classes and discussions for professionals and offered six exhibitions on different topics. The rich programme included:

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM, which brought together over 200 people at Toplocentrala and another 100 online. They all became part of the most significant annual design event in Bulgaria. Seven design professionals from Europe – Liza Enebis and Wanwai Shum (DUMBAR/DEPT® Studio), Holly Pereira, Adam Štěch, Mateusz Machalski, Eli Gutierrez and Maria Gavriluk (Gunia Project) – engaged the audience in fascinating stories about design in the service of socially relevant causes, about the heritage and current trends in typography, how design is reviving local crafts, its role in times of war and the need for a little chaos in our lives.

  • MELBA Symposium 2022
    📷 Mihail Novakov

The exhibition Review of Bulgarian Design, which has become a tradition, invites for the first time an external curator – Marina Dragomirova from Studio Furthermore. The annual selection, titled Local Beauty, showcased the latest in Bulgarian design and invited visitors to explore local aesthetics through the eyes of nine artists who created works from regional materials, resources and traditions, most of them specially for the occasion. Jewellery inspired by the sound of the bagpipe (Dimitar Stankov), a visual narrative about the path of rye (Maria Jekova), a beeswax sink (Raya Stefanova), ceramic dishes with superheroes (Nikoleta Nosovska), a contemporary wool carpet (Lyouba Assadourova), light fixtures made of Rhodope stones (Milen Radev), objects made from melted car headlights (Neva Balnikova), a contemporary interpretation of traditional old mountain technique (Yana Yunakova) and bottling of fragrances typical for different Bulgarian regions (Dani Yordanova) – check them out and get to know the stories of all nine participants here.

  • LOCAL BEAUTY: Review of Bulgarian Design 2022
    📷 Mihail Novakov

Four more exhibitions engaged visitors in a dialogue with design through different themes, such as the vast topic TIME, which was presented in the eponymous exhibition at Port.A Gallery through the illustrations of 18 artists shortlisted from a total of 204 entries in the MELBA and Fashion Days competition from summer 2022. As part of the fifth edition of the festival, we have launched a new series of annual exhibitions called Diploma project. Their aim is to present the thesis works of students in different fields of design. We opened the series with an exhibition by Spas Yordanov, a graduate of the Ceramics and Porcelain program at the NBU Department of Visual Arts, presented his diploma project – the sculpture collection entitled Ceramic Lords of the Four Elements.

  • TIME: pop-up exhibioton MELBA х Fashion Days
    📷 Mihail Novakov
  • Diploma project: Spas Yordanov
    📷 Mihail Novakov

A subjective study of the history of Czech ceramic production was made by the exhibition Story in the gallery of the Czech Centre, which presented selected works by students of the Ceramics and Porcelain Studio of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Festival visitors were able to take a look at Hungary as a country that provides relevant and competitive responses to the economic, environmental and societal challenges exciting the world today through the exhibition SMART HUNGARY: Innovation in Industrial Design through 24 examples.

  • Story: exhibition of Czech ceramics | 📷 Ivo Chupetlovski
  • SMART HUNGARY Exhibition
    📸 Diana Madzharova

This year, the diverse programme of the MELBA Festival was complemented by two discussions and two classes aimed at professionals. An educational initiative by the Know-How Show-How platform put the ethics of relationships between clients, designers and contractors up for discussion in front of a packed Czech Centre auditorium, with the aim of fostering communication on issues relating to design and the environment around us. The Know-How Show-How team also offered one-on-one meetings for young graphic designers as an opportunity to discuss projects or portfolios. In an educational class for typographers, Polish graphic designer Mateusz Machalski presented the basic principles of working with geometric sans serif type, the rules of creation and his personal design solutions to improve the process – from the sketch to the final drawing. Within the MELBA class on inclusive design, Ivelina Gadzheva talked about what causes exclusion in design processes and explored personal creative approaches together with the participants.

  • MELBA Class with Ivelina Gadzheva
  • Design class with Mateusz Machalski
  • Discussion with Know-How Show-How

With great appreciation we pay special attention to the festivals website and the overall visual identity. Studio PUNKT made a memorable design for the fifth edition of the MELBA Design Festival. Our work could not be possible without the support of all partners who find meaning and value in our initiatives. We thank them equally with the participants and the audience. We are proud to have met and worked closely with wonderful people who contributed to a particularly professionally energizing 10 days of design in Sofia. See you next year!

International Melba Symposium 2022

For the fifth year in a row, the International Symposium with lectures by leading designers in their field, forms the core of the MELBA Design Festival!
On Saturday, November 5, 11:00 AM live at “Toplocentrala” or online, those who have purchased tickets for the lectures will be able to learn
first-hand about current trends in product, digital and graphic design, illustration and visual communication.
The renowned design specialists selected as speakers this year are:
Mateusz Machalski (Poland)
Graphic designer, author of over 40 font families, numerous corporate and multi-font typefaces and more than 150 visual identities for companies, institutions and events. Designer of the year in the Polish Graphic Design Awards (2019). Co-author of TYPOTEKA.PL – the Polish typographic directory and coordinator of numerous exhibitions and cultural events.
Holly Pereira (Ireland)
Skillfully juggles between illustration, animation and mural. Her work is colourful, bold and highly expressive. Her murals often reference folk art and typography, weaving specific stories through careful selection of colours and motifs. Holly Pereira has talked about her work in institutions like the National Gallery of Ireland and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. She is also a proud member of The Minaw Collective, an all-female street art collective based in Ireland.
Adam Štěch (Czech Republic)
Curator, journalist and theorist with great experience in design, architecture and visual arts. Co-founder of the creative group OKOLO, with which he has been observing and researching the various manifestations of design since 2009, and prepared dozens of publications and exhibitions in the Czech Republic and internationally. He is the author of a number of texts on design and architecture, as well as the book Modern Architecture and Interiors for Prestel (2020).
DUMBAR/DEPT® (Netherlands)
The work of one of the most awarded design agencies internationally – from its founding in 1977 by Dutch graphic designer Gert Dumbar until now – will be presented by Liza Enebis, Creative Director, and Wanwai Shum, graphic designer at Studio Dumbar.
GUNIA Project was created in 2017 by Natasha Kamenska and Maria Gavryliuk with a mission to preserve Ukrainian national values, to modernize Ukrainian art and show the world the beauty of Ukraine by highlighting handmade crafts like decorative paintings, ceramics, wicker weaving, and embroidery. Gunia Project is a brand of exceptional things produced on the basis of traditional ethnic cultures.By last year their items were presented for Pope Francis, Emperor of Japan, Brigitte Macron and many more.
Eli Gutiérrez is a cosmopolitan designer, born in Valencia. In 2016, Eli founded her own multidisciplinary design studio between Paris and Valencia, focusing on product design, interior design, installations and concept creation, making designs for brands and companies such as Missana, Black Tone by JMM, Cimenterie de La Tour, Chevalier Edition, Geelli, Mad Lab, and NT Forest and Signorini Rubinetterie among others.There is an identity in her work that emphasizes the function, the material and the detail.
* Buy your ticket for the live event here: https://rebrand.ly/3wdbip2
** To watch the symposium online, buy a ticket here: https://rebrand.ly/3wdbip2
All lectures are in English, with simultaneous translation into Bulgarian.

LIFE HACKS Open Call

The year begins strong with the possibility to participate in this year’s edition of the regional competition Young Balkan Designers. Concepts by young designers are expected until January 20, 2022 in response to this year’s theme “Life Hacks for health & wellbeing”.

The competition is open to teams and individuals up to 35 years of age, from the following countries: Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and Turkey. Applicants may be individuals or groups of creators. Each applicant may submit more than one entry.

The selected winners of the Young Balkan Designers 2022 competition will participate in the international talent exhibition “Salone Satellite” at the world’s most prominent design event – the International Furniture Fair in Milan 2022, which will be held from 5 to 10 April 2022. After its world premiere, the awarded works will be presented to the regional audience in Belgrade in October 2022, at the Mikser Festival, one of the Balkan’s most relevant regional festivals of creativity and social innovation.

The respectful jury is comprised of stellar names:

Marcus Fairs, founder and editor in chief, Dezeen.com, UK
Ana Kras, artist & designer, Serbia / USA
Vasso Asfi & Loukas Angelou, founders, StudioLav, Greece / UK
Jovana Zhang , founder, Pinwu studio, Serbia / China
Denis Leo Hegic, designer & curator, founder Supermarket Lab/Unblock Art Fair / Museum of Now, Germany

Young Balkan Designers (YBD) is a regional talent platform founded in 2011 with the aim to identify, promote and develop creative potential of the Balkan region in the field of design. The initiative also aims at unifying the regional design scene, bringing it closer to the international audience, strengthening its potential by providing additional education and practice, while at the same time contributing to the restoration of multi-cultural cooperation in the Balkan region.

We encourage you to participate. Learn more about the competition –> https://ybd.mikser.rs/
And fill in the application form –> https://ybd.mikser.rs/form/

10 DAYS OF DESIGN IN SOFIA

MELBA delivered what it promised. A full 10 days program with creative activities, bringing to the capital local and international design heroes as participants.

The fourth edition of the festival put on focus valuable and exciting content that engages audiences and reveals the power of design to contribute to the development and transformation of society for the better. The program included:

An International Symposium live in a hall (The Steps) and online via a direct streaming. The six incredible experts from Europe, Aiden McCall, Hector Ayuso, Claudia Schwartz, Mila Lozanova, Patrick Harjey, Edward Hermmann and Matthew Coufal immersed us in their fascinating professional stories about how design highlights and archives changes in society, about the power of emotions, about projects changing fashion, ecology and the choices we make every day, about the artistic approach and the ensuing collaborations, about heritage in graphic signs and logos, as well as about the production of furniture in different models and with personal participation.

This year we embarked on perhaps one of our favourite and most important curatorial projects – the exhibition “REVIEW OF BULGARIAN DESIGN”. We try to present the current state and direction of development of the discipline in our country through very different as a field, but equally valuable as a reflection projects. The leading direction in our selection this year was the topic of the value of design and what actually lies behind the creation of a product – from the origin of an idea, through the long journey of prototyping and experimentation, to reaching consumers. We invite you to view and get acquainted with the stories of the 11 participants here.

Three more exhibitions, located in central Sofia galleries with open access, involved visitors in a dialogue about the impact of design in everyday life – through the trend of do-it-yourself furniture in “NOMAD.Herrmann&Coufal” (Czech Center), important production trends of local character, thinking about the environment and preserving the high aesthetics in “SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND FASHION in the countries of the Visegrad Group” (Opening Soon) to trends in product design in “THE FUTURE OF LIVING“. Contemporary Slovenian design” (SKLADA). 

Involving the general public in the topics of reuse and smarter use of materials was realized through two workshops open to everyone. The Czech award-winning duo Herrmann & Coufal personally showed the participants in Do It, Use It how to assemble a lamp, and the Bulgarian designerNeva Balnikova redesigned old vinyls into memorable and attractive new bags.  

The festival was happy to organise and host a very special edition of the global creative formatCreativeMornings Sofia. For the first time, the local team was the author of the monthly theme both as a concept and as a visual, the latest by the talented and versatile artist Sevda Semer. November was marked by the theme Liminal – a Latin word for threshold, and its interpretation. Other 224 cities in 67 countries were discussing the theme and using Sevda Semer’s artwork. As an additional gesture, we also produced cards with her visual interpretation of Liminal as a souvenir.

We were especially happy and proud for the opportunity to hold an open panel on “Sustainable Design Practices”. We introduced the audience to three European companies that are leading an important change in the industry towards greener production and consumption. Combining science, design and technology, they offer new, closer to tradition, local resources and nature models for the use of raw materials. Sara Kele (Hungary), Josh Brito (founder of MakeGrowLab, Poland) and Atanas Enev (founder of Biomyc, Bulgaria) presented their work. There was also a special demonstration of B2N’s Ultimaker S5, the 3D printer used by Biomyc. We recommend that you watch a video of the lectures here.

In collaboration with the mobile payment app Settle for the first time, we launched an open invitation calling for everyone with interest and courage to visually interpret the theme “The Money of the Future” to get involved. The competition gathered over 70 participants, and the awarded 21 projects received both cash prizes and the opportunity to present themselves on the festival website. You are able to view this surprising digital exhibition here and read more about the concept of the selected designers.

We pay special attention to the festival website and overall visual identity. NEXT-DC team surpassed themselves in imagination and realisation to give a strong language and memorable design to this fourth edition. The jars filled with the much loved and famous pickles sour salad appeared in digital and printed form and captured the hearts and eyes of all.

 

Our work would not be possible without the support of partners and like-minded people who find meaning and value in our initiatives. We thank them equally as the participants and the audience. We are proud to have met up close and worked with wonderful people who helped make the 10 days of design in Sofia particularly invigorating. Until next year.