By Design Conference - Second Edition

By Design Conference – Second Edition

On a sunny Saturday two weeks ago herds of designers and design lovers flocked to Bratislava’s Arena Theatre to attend the second edition of By Design Conference and enjoy a day full of inspirational talks by some of design’s most creative minds. The line-up of international speakers was particularly impressive this year as was the range of design projects they presented: From clever packaging solutions to sublime graphic design and witty illustrations.11229701_438327546344630_4471899202306315129_o

The day started off with Edvard Scott, the digital director of award-winning Stockholm Desing Lab. The studio from Sweden is known for its international list of clients including IKEA, Volvo, Coca Cola and Scandinavian Airlines. In the studio’s work minimalistic design meets remarkable ideas and fulctionalty. Great examples are the packaging design concepts SDL developed for IKEA as well as for Japanese retailer Askul. Next to its big international clients the studio also likes to take on smaller projects such as designing the bottle of premium sake producer Ohmine. The beautiful bottle design does not only express the exclusivity of Ohmine’s limited-volume product but the rice grains on the bottle easily distinguish the three sake grades and the Opaque, opal-white glass protects the sake from direct light to prevent a loss of quality – a perfect symbiosis of design and functionality.IKEA_Packaging-01-1600x830IKEA_Packaging_concept-02-1600x1088IKEA_Food-Collage-1600x1113 IKEA_Fish-1600x1066 IKEA-Skarpsill-1600x1127 Askul-Battery-Overview-1600x900 Askul-Battery-21-1600x1081 Askul_Batteries_Pro-1600x1066 Askul_CopyPaperKina-1600x690 Askul_Garbage-bags-1600x807 Ohmine_04-1600x1458 Ohmine_Sake-1600x1142

The next personal highlight were the Mingarro brothers, aka Brosmind. The Spanish duo creates playful, original and engaging illustrations for clients such as Nike, Microsoft, Gillette, Land Rover and Volkswagen in their studio in Barcelona. Next to their projects I enjoyed the extremely funny and quite personal presentation of the two. The story of Brosmind starts with Juan and Alejandro, two boys who love to draw super heroes and invent their own toys. Eventually they get older, grow a beard and found a very successful design studio but at heart they are still these two super creative and a little bit crazy boys.work_book_01work_book_02 work_libalis_02 work_oreo_twist-1250x1810 work_oreo_dunk-1250x1810 work_woouf_01

After this very vivacious presentation it was graphic designer and illustrator Lotta Nieminen who took us back to a calmer but nonetheless exciting world. The native Finn who lives in NY divides her time between her two big passions: On the one hand she makes extremely sleek graphic design often adding a playful touch and on the other hand she creates simple and very feminine illustrations for renowned clients such as Hermès, Google, the New York Times, IBM, Monocle and Vanity Fair. I particularly liked her branding for the app Beautified and the window display illustrations for French high fashion house Hermès. Nieminen did not only talk about her projects but also about the lessons she learned on her way, about nothing being worth a cry and finding her own illustration style – very inspiring, indeed!Lotta-Nieminen_Beautified_13Lotta-Nieminen_Beautified_01Lotta-Nieminen_Paintbox_01 lottanieminen_hermes-04 lottanieminen_hermes-06 Lotta-Nieminen_Laneige_01 Lotta-Nieminen_Laneige_06 Lotta-Nieminen_Laneige_09 Lotta-Nieminen_Walk_02 Lotta-Nieminen_Walk_03

The person who left the most lasting impression was maybe Christoph Niemann. Through his award-winning work, the German artist, author and illustrator tells stories and comments on politics, the economy, art and modern life. His concise and satiric works have appeared on the covers of The New Yorker, Time, Wired, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration. What I found very interesting is the fact that Nieman relentlessly works on his craft, trains his imagination and drawing skills, is his own fiercest critic. Next to commercial projects he works on personal projects such as his Sunday Sketches in which he gives a new meaning to ordinary objects such as bananas or tea bags. I am trying to follow his example and once you start focusing on seeing things in different ways, the world gets so much more fun and interesting.rose-498x679OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAzeit1-498x670 1614531_10153202875359183_6858294345093013444_o hirst-498x465 ThePotatoKing_cover_v1_1408201-702x577 IMG_5277-702x526 tea05sm-498x498 IMG_3062s-498x498 SABER007-498x498

Of course, this was not it: I also very much enjoyed the talks by Ginette Caron, Jessica Walsh, Erik Spiekermann and Huge – every one of them having a truly distinct style. The atmosphere at the conference was very relaxed, in the breaks people had the chance to chat with the speakers, check out the stands of the sponsors, buy some nice books or simply enjoy the sunny weather. I can definitely recommend to visit the conference next year – I’ll be there!1523085_438328776344507_6039264087033150556_o 11337008_438327333011318_3665015552301092469_o 11229701_438327546344630_4471899202306315129_o 11164730_438326476344737_2775282356515941031_o11312662_438328749677843_8468007366683221144_o 11257864_438327846344600_6340041885673268901_o 11102995_438328413011210_8009455890330880657_o 11251382_438327126344672_7744384985998692622_o 11130334_438327169678001_3268540326033909033_o 10410622_438327926344592_5183174924172192778_n

Photo courtesy of Stockholm Desing Lab, Brosmind, Lotta Nieminen, Christoph Niemann, www.nora-jakub.sk/

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