Tag: design

Komplekt and Sofia – hosts of the European Design Awards & Festival 2026

From June 11 to 14, the large-scale event will bring together the European design community and the creative energy of Sofia. Applications for the competition program are open until February 13, and the winners will receive their awards live in Bulgaria.

For the first time in Bulgaria, the European Design Awards and Festival—one of the most prestigious international platforms in the field of communication design—will take place. Sofia was selected to host the event in 2026, continuing the tradition after Luxembourg (2023), Naples (2024), and Ljubljana (2025). This June, the capital city will welcome its 20th edition. The rich festival program will be accompanied by the official awards ceremony honoring the most successful design projects – the European Design Awards, also known as the ED Awards.

The selection of Sofia as host reflects its growing role as a hub for cultural exchange, contemporary thinking, and the development of creative industries within a European context.

The European Design Awards and Festival will bring leading figures in contemporary communication design to Bulgaria, turning Sofia and the country into a center of the European design scene.

From June 11 to 14, the program of the European Design Awards and Festival 2026 will feature a two-day lecture forum on communication design with international professionals, open-access exhibitions, studio visits, a meeting of the International Council of Design (ICoD), practical workshops, and opportunities for exchange across various fields of communication design.

The festival is part of Sofia’s broader efforts to encourage international exchange in design, culture, and innovation, creating an environment for encounters between professionals from different sectors and generations.

“It is an honor for us to organize an event of such magnitude. Our mission is to turn Sofia into a place of inspiration, encounters, and new perspectives. Design is a bridge between the local and European design communities, but it is also an expression of a culture that drives society forward, challenges it, and enriches it,” say Adriana Andreeva and Boyana Gaurova from Studio Komplekt.

“Our support for the European Design Awards & Festival is part of Sofia’s long-term vision to invest in the city’s creative potential. Design is the way contemporary cities tell their stories, develop their environments, and build connections beyond traditional economic sectors,” comment representatives of Visit Sofia.

Visitors to the large-scale event will discover the work of established and emerging Bulgarian design studios, take part in curated urban walks with a cultural program, and attend the highlight of the event—the official ceremony presenting Europe’s communication design awards. The European Design Awards recognize projects distinguished by high quality, strong concept, innovation, professional execution, and impact on audiences.

Professional designers, studios, agencies, independent authors, and young talents from across Europe can submit their projects in a wide range of categories, including graphic design, visual identity, typography, digital design, packaging, posters, editorial design, and other areas of contemporary visual communication. This year, the competition introduces an updated and expanded category covering motion design, emerging technologies, identity, and comprehensive branding systems. The deadline for submissions to the European Design Awards 2026 is February 13, and the winners will receive their awards live in Sofia.

“Sofia is a city in transformation—raw, powerful, and filled with creative energy. You can feel that something is about to happen—this makes it the perfect stage for a festival that gives voice to bold ideas and new perspectives,” shares Demetrios Fakinos, Director of the European Design Awards and Festival.

Each edition of the festival is distinguished by a strong visual identity developed by a local design studio. The visual identity of the Sofia edition has been entrusted to the award-winning creative agency Next DC.

European Design Awards & Festival 2026 is organized by Studio Komplekt in partnership with European Design Awards and the Bulgarian Convention Bureau, with the support of OP “Tourism” – Visit Sofia and the Sofia Municipality, as part of the city’s efforts to strengthen its role as an open European capital for culture, design, and creative exchange.

Follow the festival program on the Facebook and Instagram profiles of Studio Komplekt, as well as on the websites europeandesign.org and studiokomplekt.com.

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.

Seventh edition of the Melba Festival in a nutshell

This was the seventh edition of the international design festival Melba. Thank you for being our guests and for sharing the experience together. The program was once again a vital platform full of lectures, exhibitions, exchange of ideas and meetings with exciting and meaningful design examples. Save the dates for the eighth Melba festival -> 6-16.11.2024. And until then, let’s recall some of the highlights from this one.

Overview of Bulgarian design with the theme “A Matter of Image”

For another year, Komplekt is producing an exhibition focusing on Bulgarian contemporary design. This year’s curators are Andrea Popyordanova, Viktoria Staykova and Mila Yaneva-Tabakova from the TI-RE collective, and the theme is Matter of the Image or How Media Change the Image. They invited 10 young Bulgarian artists working in the field of illustration, typography and photography to work on an assignment. In the travelling exhibition “A Matter of Image” participate Dimitar Ilchev, Alexandra Vacheva, Iva Ivanova, Elena Chergilanova, Stefani Nedelcheva, Dora Ivanova, Martin Grigorov, Nikola Lamburov, Pavel Pavlov, Andrea Popjordanova, and the exposition design is handled by Georgi Sharov. After the exhibition is shown at the Swimming Pool Gallery in Sofia, it will travel next year to the Graphic Days festival in Turin.

The International Symposium

Toplocentrala once again hosted the Melba International Lecture Symposium. On stage we welcomed Bram Broerse and Maurits Wouters from Studio Airport, Max Enrich, Anna Sarvira from Pictoric Illustrator Club, Maria Jeglinska – Adamczewska, Kirsten Algera and Ernst van der Hoeven from MacGuffin magazine. We heard their stories told through projects, ideas and dreams. Traditionally, the foyer was animated by our partners and friends who contributed to the good mood throughout the day.

The atmosphere during the coffee breaks of the international Melba Symposium was contributed by our partners and like-minded people in the lobby of Toplocentrala: Urban Embassy Specialty Coffee, иХляб, Mahala Bookstore, Punkt, Testpress, Sito Studio, Avrtikl Bookshop, No8, Crystal Water&Air, 1664 Blanc, MOTO-PFOHE, Fashion Days.

Design Residency: the exhibition Mamo Dzhanka by poet Bojana Slavkova and graphic designer Stefanie Nedelcheva

For the second year in a row, Komplekt produces a design residency for young artists. For this edition we partnered with the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and Fashion Days. Bojana Slavkova and Stefani Nedelcheva spent a week together in Chepelare this summer. Inspired by the image of the junk as a symbol of wild and free nature, they created poetry and illustration, which they wove into a joint exhibition. Their project remains sealed in a small edition zine, which can be ordered or seen at the Studio Komplekt office.

Diploma project: Pandæmonium by Danail Kapchin

Following projects in ceramics and digital arts in previous editions of the Diploma Project series, this year the focus falls on fashion. Danail Kapchin’s diploma project Pandæmonium was selected second in the IDEA MODA competition. The fashion collection is his graduation project, with which he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in fashion at New Bulgarian University with teacher Nikolay Pachev. Pandæmonium comments on the role of demons in contemporary society through the language of clothing. We are grateful for the partnership and hospitality of Unicredit Studio.

Exhibition “The Pollinators of Slovenia”

With this exhibition, we at Komplekt are fulfilling our dream of expanding the festival programme by showing exhibitions created by the symposium’s guest speakers. Arranged in the Serdika Gallery at the Women’s Market, the interactive exhibition with creators Studio Airport and Emergence Magazine told through authentic and diverse stories about the interaction between humans and pollinators in Slovenia in times of ecological crisis. Characters include a forest beekeeper who shares his bed with bees, small family farms for regenerative agriculture, two urban beekeepers and a guest chef whose farm is entirely dedicated to bees. You can learn more about the project from its online presentation.

Posters by contemporary Ukrainian illustrators

In line with the idea of showing more international content in our programme is the #SUPPORTUKRAINEPIC exhibition curated especially for Melba. After participating as a speaker in the symposium, Anna Sarvira presented her 28 selected illustrations on the history, culture, traditions and nature of Ukraine to the audience and in the presence of the Ukrainian Ambassador to Bulgaria Olesya Ilashchuk. The extremely varied illustrations are the work of artists from the Pictoric Illustrators Club collective. On the initiative of the Ukrainian Embassy in Bulgaria, the exhibition is expected to visit other places in the country.

MOME University of Art and Design Exhibition

Once again, the festival partnered with the Liszt Institute – Hungarian cultural institute whose gallery hosted the group traveling exhibition “Interpreting Heritage” with projects by graduates from the Budapest University of Art and Design (MOME). Interpretations of traditional craft techniques and heritage could be seen on site, inspiring young designers to apply them to their work with 3D printing, ceramics, textiles, wood and recycled materials. All the objects showed both a high level of sensitivity to a wide range of topical issues, and attention to execution and the high quality of the end result.

Exhibition “Bulgarian Product Design: Furniture”

According to 84.3% of the visitors of the exhibition “Bulgarian Product Design: furniture”, which was presented in the San Stefano Gallery, Bulgarian furniture can be competitive on the world markets. The exhibition, organized by the design, interior and architecture magazine MD, presented 30 products from the winners of the “Bulgarian Furniture of the Year” competition in the period 2011 – 2023.

Melba School

Our ambition to support and develop talent is encoded in the Melba School series. We have re-emphasised learning new skills through experiment, play and good examples. The mentoring and teaching role, as usual, we cede to professionals whose work we like very much and believe that their knowledge and experience can be useful for others. Thanks to arch. Penka Stancheva and to graphic designer and visual artist Philip Boyadzhiev for agreeing to host the two-day Melba classes this year.

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The dates for the next edition of the Melba Festival are: 6 – 16.11.2025.

Photos from the symposium, exhibitions and classes: Mihail Novakov

Photo from MOME: Antonia Baramova / Liszt Institute Sofia

Photo from Bulgarian Design Review: MD magazine

MANY THANKS to our supporters and partners:

The Melba Design Festival is implemented with the financial support of the National Culture Fund under the Creation Programme and is part of the Calendar of Cultural Events of Sofia Municipality.

The festival is held with the kind support of the following institutions: the Ministry of Culture, the Embassy of Spain, the Embassy of Ukraine, the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Institute Sofia, the Polish Institute in Sofia, the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation.

Thanks for the support of: Fashion Days, Moto-Pfohe, 1664 Blanc, UniCreditBulbank, Mahala, FESPA Bulgaria, EpayGo, EasyPay.

Locations: Toplocentrala, SwimmingPool, L44, Unicredit Studio, Serdika Gallery, San Stefano Gallery, Dot Sofia, Komat Restaurant.

Visual identity and website: Punkt

 

Sixth edition of the MELBA Design Festival

Only few days are left until the sixth edition of MELBA Design Festival in Sofia. Between 2 and 12 November, we welcome prominent representatives of the European design scene in a one-day symposium with lectures, focus on the collaboration of Bulgarian designers and manufacturers over the past year and engage the audience in exhibitions, discussions and classes. Check out all the details about the programme and participants on our festival website and be sure to add some of the activities to your calendar:

Opening of the exhibition Object of Relationships. Review of Bulgarian Design 2023 on 2 November at 6:30 PM at KO-OP (17 Yanko Sakuzov Blvd.): the exhibition focuses on the interaction between designers and producers, carefully examining the specific potential and documenting the production process of creating new design objects through dialogue and collaboration. Curated by Dima Stefanova, a designer and cultural entrepreneur committed to projects in design, art and social innovation. She is the founder of the educational platform Know-How Show-How, which promotes knowledge exchange and alternative learning methods. Philip Boyadjiev is the author of the exhibition design and visual layout. Free entrance. The exhibition will be on view until November 12.

Like every year the festival is focused on its International Symposium with outstanding design specialists, presenting a mix of different fields in one day. Read more about this year’s speakers on our website. The Symposium is taking place on 4 November at 11:00 AM live in Hall 1 at Toplocentrala or online.

Tickets for the symposium can be purchased here. All lectures are in English.

This year MELBA is also offering a diverse mix of EXTRAS:

For the second year in a row, the international design festival MELBA includes in its program the exhibition Diploma Project, which presents the diploma works of students in various fields – from sculpture, through design and illustration, to scenography and fashion. The exhibition aims to present both the diversity in techniques, media and themes that excite the young generation of today, and to look at the way they make sense of tomorrow.

This year the exhibition focuses on Radina Yotova, a visual artist in the field of digital arts. As part of the Graduation Project exhibition, Radina will present the video installation Now You See Me: Re-Appropriating the Visual Landscape of Our Digital World, with which she graduated in Graphic Design from the Royal Academy of Arts, KABK, in The Hague in 2022. The interactive video installation invites visitors to enter a sensory-engaging space and engage in a provocative experiment exploring the absurdity that arises in trying to mimic human perception with algorithms.

The exhibition can be seen between 2 and 12 November at the UniCredit Studio Gallery (7 Sveta Nedelya Square, Sofia) on weekdays between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM. The official presentation of the exhibition will be on Tuesday, November 7, at 6 PM.

For the first year MELBA Design Festival includes in its programme a design residency organised by Komplekt in partnership with the Hungarian Cultural Institute Liszt in Sofia. The residency programme is committed to creating more space for research, thinking and critique in the field of design, providing conditions for the creation of a new design project inspired by Sofia as a base, working environment and laboratory for new ideas. The Design Residency provides an opportunity to meet and exchange and make sustainable contacts with colleagues from Bulgaria and the local creative community.

After a careful selection of young, contemporary Hungarian designers from various fields, Komplekt has settled on Budapest-based graphic designer and illustrator Kata Moravszki, who will immerse herself in an exploration of the local context together with graphic designer Richárd Lakosi over the course of three weeks. The result of her working stay will be presented in an exhibition that recreates her impressions in a new visual project during the sixth edition of MELBA Design Festival. The exhibition will open on Friday, November 3, at 5 PM in the gallery of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Sofia (16 Aksakov Street) and will be on view until November 12 on weekdays between 10 AM and 5PM.

The exhibition Just Once: Selected Works of Studio Najbrt traces the path of visual language and explores the changes, diversity, innovative approaches and freedom of expression that mark the work of Studio Najbrt, one of the most famous and successful Czech graphic design studios, founded in 1994 by Aleš Najbrt and Pavel Lev in Prague. It recaps some of their key work and visual principles, looking at their inspiration from art, the typefaces they designed, and their collaborations with photographers such as Josef Koudelka. The exhibition also looks at the sustainability and broad impact of Studio Najbrt’s vibrant, distinctive and colorful work, and brings together a wide range of logos, posters, book designs and other projects.

The exhibition opens on Friday 3 November at 6 PM in the Czech Centre Gallery (100 Rakovski Street) and can be viewed during the festival on weekdays between 1 PM and 6 PM.

World Kindness Day has been celebrated every 13 November since 1998. The Italian typography studio Zetafonts celebrates it with an exhibition of posters collected after an open call. This year 180 designers, typographers and illustrators from around the world are joining in their appeal for meaningful messages that stand for goodness. The initiative earns Zetafonts a 2023 Gold Indigo Design Award in the category of Integrated Graphic Design for Social Change. Fight for Kindness in Sofia showcases a selection of inspiring work by local and international artists.

The exhibition can be viewed during the festival (02 -12.11.2023) at Coffee Syndicate (3 Moskovska Street, Sofia) from Monday to Friday between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.

A part of our partnership content is the exhibition Croatian Design X, presenting the best of contemporary Croatian design over the last decade. It arrives in Bulgaria thanks to Zagreb Design Week. The curatorial concept (Tina Marković and Daniel Tomičić) is to present products not yet available on the Bulgarian market. Twenty-one exhibitors have been selected to offer a fascinating insight into the vibrant and dynamic world of Croatian design.

Opening: 1 November, Wednesday, 6:30 PM | Espace PORT A, Triaditsa 5 Str.

The exhibition can be viewed until 12 November inclusive every day between 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM.

The exhibition, organized by the design, interior and architecture magazine MD, presents real products by some of the most talented contemporary Bulgarian designers working in Bulgaria and abroad since 2000. Some of the products shown in the exhibition have been awarded the most prestigious international design award Red Dot. The objects are part of those included in the first book on contemporary Bulgarian product design in the 21st century, published by Bismarck Publishing House and released in April 2023.

Our MELBA SCHOOL series continues with an educational class for proactive designers with presenters Maja Lalić, architect, founder of the multidisciplinary cultural platform and festival Mikser, and co-founder of Young Balkan Designers, a regional platform that aims to discover, develop and promote creative talent from the Balkan region in the field of sustainable design; and Jelena Matić, furniture and interior designer and co-founder of Young Balkan Designers.

The class is suitable for students and/or professionals in furniture/industrial/product design or architecture. Participants will explore design as a strategic and dynamic discipline that requires proactive thinking, adaptability and a holistic approach. The thematic focuses within the workshop are:

  • Design competitions: in-depth review and analysis of various international design competitions: categories and criteria in selecting finalists; building skills to research and identify appropriate competitions based on interests and experience;
  • Creating a persuasive portfolio: strategies for putting together and presenting a winning portfolio (with personalized guidance);
  • Concept development: techniques for generating unique and innovative design concepts;
  • Opportunities to collaborate with international industry professionals;
  • Building strategic design thinking;

All details for registration and a detailed class schedule (Friday, November 10, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM) can be found HERE.

Within the sixth festival edition the shared space for hand screen printing Sito Studio organizes:

  • Advanced Screen Printing Workshop with Diego Mena (Spain): designer, illustrator and founder of MULTIPLE EDITIONS, a screen printing and art production studio specialising in high-end limited edition prints by contemporary artists;
  • A risograph printing workshop with Oscar Ginter from the Parisian studio Qiuntal Atelier. Oscar will talk about the intricacies of this print, the training explores new possibilities in the field of art printing and is aimed at artists, designers and illustrators with an interest in printing technology.

We can’t wait to share with you what we’ve been working on over the past months!

With many thanks to all our partners!

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.

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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.

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.