The 18th Budapest Design Week to start in October

In 2021, the Budapest Design Week (BDW) will be organized by the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO) and the Hungarian Design Council (HDC) for the 18th time, from 8 to 17 October. The main venue for both the cultural and the artistic events this year will be the Société Budapest event center. The central theme of Budapest Design Week is New Standards: the focus of this series of events is on the “new normal” after the pandemic, i.e. ”the beautiful new world” in which designers have a decisive role.

 “The past year and a half have proven that the pandemic situation affects our daily lives in countless ways: our communication and shopping habits are changing, local products and commodities are becoming more important, social connections and the feeling of togetherness are increasingly valued, and with travel restrictions, less popular forms of leisure time are becoming dominant. The current situation creates an exceptional opportunity to make the future more people-centered and human-scale, in which designers will play an extremely important role”

said Gyula Pomázi, President of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office and the Hungarian Design Council, emphasising BDW’s central theme this year.

 On the topics addressed in the series of events, Judit Osvárt, curator of BDW, said:

“Budapest Design Week 2021 is planning to discuss the phenomenon of the “beautiful new world” with a distinctly positive attitude and present a number of experimental, and novel phenomena, ideas and innovations to prove the fact that designs can be an efficient, flexible, and versatile tools in creating a new society. During these ten days, the new attitude will be reflected in social design, service design, product design, digital design, interior design and areas of sustainability.”

Last year, the Budapest Design Week took place in a hybrid form due to the pandemic situation, and one positive outcome of which was that those who could not be physically present were also able to join the programs, so this year there will be online programs as well. As on previous occasions, the series of events will consist of two main types of programs: those organized by the Budapest Design Week and those organized by external partners. The opening exhibition of the series of events will be “New Standards” in Société Budapest, which will revolve around the central theme and present the work of 30 young designers under the age of 30. Most of these works are plans or prototypes and are good illustrations of the new generation’s responsible mindset for our future. The series of discussions related to the exhibition explore a number of topics, from the future of the automotive industry through the changes in leisure time to the issue of augmented reality, all of which are examined in terms of design.

The Hungarian Design Awards and the Design Management Award will be presented on the opening night of Budapest Design Week.

The exhibition, featuring the winners and the most outstanding applicants, will also be open to the public until the end of the festival. Depending on the epidemic situation, guided tours will also be held for those interested.

Similarly to the last few years, the Hungarian Design Council and its strategic partner Fabunio (Hungarian Wood and Furniture Industry Union) are preparing a complex professional program this year as well. The most important subject of the event will be the impact of the design approach on the lives of individual creators and companies, the results achieved by those applying for awards, and the experiences and challenges of collaboration between manufacturers and designers. As part of the program, Fabunio also organizes factory visits where those who are interested can get a behind-the-scenes look into the furniture industry.

Joining the initiative of the European Union, the Hungarian Design Council as a member of BEDA and its partners will organize a New European Bauhaus workshop on 12 October.

The program is realized with MA students: 3 students from each higher education institution. The students will present their assignments that they get in the morning that day.

Traditionally, the Budapest Design Week is the time for a popular design publication of the Hungarian Design Council: the Start Up Guide to come out, together with the Start Up Guide Live, which is a several-day-long, interactive, online series of lectures. On 12 October, the focus will be on how to make stores crisis-proof, on forms of financing, and on tracking market changes, while on 13 October, the concept and importance of customer experience, remarketing tools, and the benefits of thinking in the system will be the main topics. The lectures will be followed by discussions, and the program will be available to watch later on Start Up Guide Live and Budapest Design Week.

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On 13 and 14 October, the Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design (MOME), in cooperation with the BDW staff, will organize the first Symposium and Exhibition of the Social Design Network.

The Social Design Network, established by MOME in the autumn of 2020, brings together professionals to collaborate in Europe on the subject. This international event, which focuses on the topic of social design, will begin with the opening of an exhibition on the 13 October, followed by a one-day professional symposium on the 14 October.

Every year, Open Studios is a popular series of events of Budapest Design Week which – keeping in mind the pandemic situation, with offline and online programs in accordance with the current safety regulations – awaits those who want to gain an insight into the workshop of Hungarian designers and design studios. The 18 participating workshops offer a variety of presentations and workshops for those who want to learn more about work processes from the design desk to production, or want to listen to the history of brands and collections straight from the creators.

As a strategic partner of BDW, the Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency (HFDA) is organizing an exhibition entitled ”360 designs” this year. The exhibition gives Hungarian designers an opportunity to introduce themselves at Bálna (The Whale) cultural and service center, this year with a new concept, expanded programs, and a stronger regional focus, highlighting sustainable solutions and the potential of innovation. In addition to Hungarian artists, professional talents of the V4 countries will be presented at the event, and roundtable discussions will also take place.

For the occasion of BDW, the new Budapest Design Map will be published: it is the most comprehensive guide to the design life of the capital city, in which Budapest residents and visitors can find the locations of the program series and can even arrange a personalised tour for themselves.

However, Budapest Design Week 2021 will not only focus on the capital city, as the adjoining outdoor venues will offer about 150 different programs in Budapest and also across the country, ranging from design, creative business development, fashion and interior design through roundtable discussions, exhibitions, craft workshops to city walks. This year, Szombathely, Sopron, Pécs and Debrecen will also participate in the series of events.

The detailed program is available on the website https://budapestdesignweek.hu

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