If one would think that the Slovakians are boring, well, here we are to prove them wrong. in our current collection the gingerbread purse, the vegan backpack, and the colorful FULLOVE clothes collection go hand in hand with the design shop in the historical center. Oh, and they also have a map that marks industrial memorials, it is very cool! If you miss it, you will regret it!
Lenka Sršňová
Lenka Sršňová finished her studies at the university of arts, but she has been to Finland and aris as well, and she founded her brand named after her in 2009. she often gets her inspirations from other arts; a wonderful example of this is the FULLOVE clothes collection from 2018, where Lenka was inspired by the paintings of Ľudovít Fulla. Geometrical compositions, stylized roses, fairy-tale characters appear on the coats, shirt-dresses, leggings, and shorts (among the products we can find pieces meant for men as well). We can’t get enough of this collection. It’s colorful, joyful and very playful – we crave for this not only in good weather. If we could we would make these clothes mandatory to get because they radiate life-affirmation, happiness, and positive energy. But this is not only true regarding the FULLOVE collection, but also when it comes tot he dotted and striped BonBon collection, or the Colorcode collection from 2015 that operates with colorful squares while being extreme and vibrating, or POP-LINE, with brushstrokes. But until we can go and see Lenka’s store in Prague, we can daydream while looking at her webshop.
Slávica
If you go to Bratislava, make sure not to miss out on the slávica design shop. The store is situated in the historical center of town, and even if we are not planning to buy anything, it is worth to pay a visit there, because the interior won the CEZAAR Architecture Prize. Former model, the 2005 Miss Slovensko, Ivica Jusková after leaving her modeling career, opened her shop fulfilling a dream of hers, offering objects of modern Slovakian and Chech designers. Their tag line is: ‘Dizajn hory prenáša’ which means ’Design moves mountains’.
The term Slávica is derived from Ivica’s first and maiden name (which means nightingale). They have all sorts of things a good design store should offer, jewelry, clothes, accessories, home decor pieces, and shoes. Our favorite in the fashion department is the BIELA brand, following the principle of ’less is more’. They work with the best quality Italian and Japanese fabrics, they are mainly making light-colored pieces for both men and women (the brand’s name is referring to the word bielá which means white). The shopowner’s favorites are the glass objects of SUGAAR & SUGAAR, and what could we say, we are also drooling at the sight of these beautiful tart cloches and cake plates. Yummy!
PAKTA studio
The PAKTA studio was founded by Helena Komanová and Kerim Hudson in 2017. They are designing and executing their purses, and backpacks in the name of ethical fashion keeping in mind the principle of function-beauty-sustainability. These pieces made for everyday wear are characterized by cleanness. Our personal favorite is the rolltop backpack, the NATURAL RUKSAK made from unwhitened linen, with the brand’s trademark, the black print. A 15’’ laptop can easily fit in there along with small accessories. It is waterproof and vegan.
The other, ’inverse’ version, RUKSAK 2 is recommended for the lovers of the color black. The REZIDENT styles are also in two colors; black and white, they are in size A5, it is recommended for those who unlike us, can manage to carry around less stuff with them. We can also find wallets, pouches, belts, handbags, and keychains in their webshop as well.
Ondrej Gavalda
The young graphic designer is very well known in the design scene. Ondrej Gavalda was born in Ivanka pri Dunaji, currently, he is living and working in the Slovakian capital, he is teaching at the university of arts at the visual communication department. We discovered him through his layout designs, like the map series he made for the Čierne diary organization, which introduces old, almost forgotten industrial memorials. Čierne diary is the Slovakian version of our Hosszúlépés. Járunk?so we will for sure mention them later on. Gavalda creates an exciting graphical world for these buildings in these layouts made with risograph technique about industrial buildings of Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Prešov, Trnava, and Žilina. There is an old horse path, an observatory, reservoir, a malting building, and a cellulose factory among the mentioned buildings. The designer was awarded the design niveau award in 2018 for designing the bilingual layouts. Maybe it’s not surprising if we tell you that all of the HYPE members would love to have one of those maps.
Many other layout designs can be connected to Gavalda’s name, for example, he designed the magazine related to the Days of Architecture and Design event in 2014 or the catalog for the DELETE exhibition at the Slovakian National Galery. But his work he should definitely be remembered by is the Face to Face font system that he designed for the Made by Vaculik advertising agency. On the paper installation created for Tatra Banka, the words ’private’ or ’banking’ appear regarding how you hold the flyer. The bittner print was helping the designer with a unique installation at the Bratislava airport. Unfortunately, ordinary people cannot see this composition because it is placed on the wall of the VIP lobby.
Petra Toth
Basically, we also like minimalist stuff, but when we met the Petra Toth brand’s gingerbread purse, we couldn’t resist it. Especially when we watched the made video about it. The product palette is mainly filled with jewelry since the founder of the brand is originally a jewelry designer, this is how the PETRA TOTH JEWELLRY brand was founded in 2012. Petra gets her inspiration from Slovakian folk art, he uses the decor elements to transform them into earrings, purses, and clothes. In the Sarra jewelry collection, we can find colorful earrings, necklaces, rings, and hair-pins, on the Mileva jewelry we can see the traditional red embroidery on a white base, the pieces of the Vtáča collection (which means bird) consist of gilded yellow copper and Czech crystals in clean and rich ornamental designs. Knowing this it is no surprise that Petra s making the tiaras and crowns for the winner of the Miss Universe Slovakia beauty contest.
In our weekly series, we are presenting such Czech, Slovakian, and Polish brands and design spots, who we think are worthy to join our mental design map. It is a teaser guide for those who are curious about other things than the usual tourist sights.
LEGO covers
Budapest by Labrosse | The block on Várkert Quay
