Tag: melba

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.

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.