graphic design Архиви

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

February 16, 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.

Marta Cerdà on working between past and future

June 19, 2023

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

June 12, 2023

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 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.

70. Anniversary Castellers de Vilafranca, 2018

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

November 22, 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.

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.

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.