The one-week festival of the Czech Zlin Design Week was supposed to start just recently. The design event scheduled between May 1 and 8 was postponed due to the coronavirus, but the announcement of the results of the “Best in Design” competition wasn’t cancelled. Here come the winners!
The Best in Design call was announced for the 11th time, and this was the 6th occasion that the competition was organized within the framework of Zlin Design Week. Designers under the age of 30 could apply to the international design competition, in three categories (Product and industrial design, Fashion design, Communication design). The organizers announced the names of the winners of categories and the absolute winner of the “Best in Design “ title on March 31.
More than 500 proposals were submitted to the international call, so the jury didn’t have an easy job, especially when they had to announce the winners in the specific categories. “Selecting the best project proved to be an incredibly difficult task, because every proposal was original and creative. Still, the majority of the projects had something in common: the designers examined the impact of design on our environment. The issue of sustainability and recycling also came up, and the designers approached the topics by reinterpreting already forgotten materials” – explained the president of the jury, Marek Weidlich.
The jury chose Nikola Mikulecká as the winner of the product and industrial design category, who earned the jury’s appreciation with her elegant porcelain beer tap, and the accompanying porcelain beer mat set. The universal beer tap would hold its own with its clean lines and snow white appearance in large-scale interiors and popular catering units, too. The second place of the category was awarded to Filip Zabawa for his idea „Scale – growing bike”, and his project received the most votes on the audience vote organized with the cooperation of CZECHDESIGN. The third place winner of the category is Kristian Rudenko, who entered the competition with a dog bowl design imitating a flying saucer titled “Circle of Life”.
In the category of communicational design, Lukas Keysell ‘s graphical sign system, “Universal Expression” was awarded the first place, he is followed by Veronika Opatrná’s card game which is perfect for grabbing a beer with our friends, and Silvia Klúčovská won the third prize with her website design project promoting the acquisition of sign language.
The category of fashion design was won by Milan Flíček with his collection titled „During the sunset”, featuring two dominant figures of Czech history: Holy Roman Emperor and Czech King Charles IV and T.G. Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. The designer decided to create the collection to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia. “Usually I use history, various myths and legends as my primary sources of inspiration. I designed this clothing collection in South England, at the Art University of Bournemouth. It was an interesting experience for me to see how proud British people are of their history and national holidays. For example, people wear a red poppy pinned to their coats for a week, thus paying tribute to the soldiers killed in World War I” – Flíček explains.
The clothing collection was inspired by the attire of statesmen of earlier times. Not only did the designer win his own category, but the “Best in Design” award and the accompanying EUR 4000 prize was also awarded to him.
The „DECRESCENDO – Noise and Silence” collection earned Janina Lewitz the second place, and the third place of the category was awarded to Karolína Čechová, who reinterpreted the aesthetics of work uniforms in her collection titled „Fragmenty”.
The exhibition showcasing the winning projects was supposed to be held in the framework of Zlin Design Week, but all is not lost: the audience will be able to see the works of the young designers towards the end of September, at Gallery G18.
Source: press release
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