Puppets with anomalies, a tool that transforms heat into electricity, a set of furniture and accessories for city balconies, an alternative way of glazing ceramics, a compostable set of cosmetic accessories and a new textile material made of waste — we know the winners of the “make me!” international competition for young designers organized by the Łódź Design Festival. This year the jury distinguished as many as six projects out of six different countries. The winners received prizes from the total pool of PLN 65,000.
“make me!” is an international design contest, open to designers of the young generation and allowing for great freedom of creation. It is one of the most innovative events in the field of design in Europe and a key element of the Łódź Design Festival. It is dedicated to everyone triggered to design upon noticing a need or a problem. “make me!” also rewards designs which experiment with materials or look for new interpretations of existing functions of particular items.
As many as 268 applications from 22 countries were submitted to the contest. After long and stormy deliberations, the jurors selected 22 projects that stood a chance to win the prizes from the total pool of PLN 65,000. During this year's edition, the international jury was composed of: Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka (SofFU SWPS), Czesława Frejlich (Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków), Boaz Katz (Form Us With Love), Szymon Hanczar (Hanczar Studio), Luca Nichetto (Nichetto Studio), Agata Nowotny (among others, the Zasoby project), Mariusz Włodarczyk (Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź), Jerzy Porębski (Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw), Maurizio Burrato (INTERPRINT Polska) and Michał Piernikowski (Łódź Design Festival). — It was exciting to see how the various designers taking part in the contest react to everything that happens around them. Design cannot be judged out of context, and, at the same time, we can never compromise on quality. This year, the finalists showed great awareness of the problems faced by the world today and used design to communicate them in an inspiring way — concludes Boaz Katz.
— This year’s edition of “make me!” is, of course, a special one, coinciding with the pandemic. Applications were sent at the time of the lockdown, which obviously had an impact on the submitted projects. Some refer to the pandemic-related changes in living and they were of high quality, which we are very happy about. Over the years, it has been possible to notice recurring topics that are interesting to young designers, issues that they want to deal with, and, what I find pleasurable, this edition shows their visible progress in perceiving the problem as a whole, attempts to take into account many variables. Importantly, these are not only idealistic projects, they attempt to make a certain change, even if by making small steps. We see several strong trends that are likely to continue in the upcoming years, including ideas linked to the implementation of circular economy, waste recycling and minimizing the use of non-renewable resources. We see more and more projects that deal with crucial social issues; we notice that design is also becoming a form of communication, the designs are not only functional —describes this year's competition Michał Piernikowski.
The authors of the best projects received the Paradyż Awards, funded by the partner of the contest, Ceramika Paradyż. The total pool this year is PLN 60,000. After thoroughly acquainting themselves with the final projects, the jury awarded the following projects of this year’s edition:
The third PARADYŻ AWARD, the amount of PLN 10,000, was divided between three projects that received the same number of vote. The first one is “Anomals”, the design by Einav Ben-Asher (Israel) – it is a set of puppets consisting of five animals, each of which has a dominant feature illustrating a certain anomaly, thanks to which each becomes a tool that educates children and encourages acceptance and empathy. It is also “Ignis” by Tobias Trübenbacher (Germany), a special tool that converts heat into electricity and stores it in order to provide light and power whenever needed, helping to solve the problem of permanent and sustainable access to electricity, with is a global struggle. The third project is Helena Wierzbowska and Agnieszka Cieszanowska’s (Poland) "to the balcony!", namely a set of furniture and accessories, which was created in response to the needs of people living in the cities and having small balconies, people who value functionality and are open to modern stylistic solutions.
The second PARADYŻ AWARD, the amount PLN 20,000, went to Seok-hyeon Yoon (South Korea) for “Ott/Another paradigmatic ceramic” — an alternative way of glazing ceramics with the use of natural Korean resin in response to the glass components of the conventional glazing which impede recycling. When heated with high temperature in the furnace, „Ott” just evaporates. This allows for re-using fired and glazed clay in the production, which is not possible with the methods currently used.
The first PARADYŻ AWARD, the amount of PLN 30,000, was granted to Eléa Nouraud, James Dart and Lola Buades (France) from the “OnMateria” design collective. They won the first prize in the “make me! 2020” with the “The Green Box” project — a compostable set of cosmetic utensils for the hotel bathrooms, made of ecological agricultural waste, which, thanks to industrial composting, will be used to generate green energy after use.
— Ceramika Paradyz has been giving momentum to design for years and supports young artists in searching for solutions to the challenges of the modern world. Invariably, since 2008, we have funded the main Paradyż Awards in one of the most important international competitions for designers of the young generation, “make me!”. With each edition, we witnessed enormous progress, growing awareness, sensitivity and courage of young people manifested in the submitted projects. The winning “Green Box” is a project that carries great value and is a manifesto of young artists in favor of sustainable development. We believe that the prizes awarded in the “make me!” competition will contribute to the personal development of the designers and help them continue working on new projects — said Jurand Brzeziński, President of the Management Board of Ceramika Paradyż, during the awards gala.
Jerzy Porębski justifies the jury's verdict: — Many projects submitted to the “make me!” contest, mainly by young designers, are ideas that take a material form. They take up topics that are vital to all of us, such as issues of ecology, equality, or attitude towards animals. You can notice the designers' commitment and, at the same time, the helplessness of our entire surroundings. Sometimes these projects take the form of manifestos or educational projects that increase public awareness. Often these projects are not yet ready for implementation, that there are many unknowns when it comes to production or the possibility of entering the market. On the other hand, „The Green Box” is not only an idea when it comes to pro-ecological activities, but an exceptionally well-identified problem and design area, a wise and highly sensitive design process and professional preparation for implementation. When we look at the entire tourism industry, at the hundreds of thousands of hotels around the world, at all these disposables, we suddenly realize that millions of these items are thrown into the bin every day and the real scale of this phenomenon is revealed to us. If there is a project that can at least partially solve this problem, it means that such a design effort is worth making. The awarded “Green Box” is a very well-designed set for hotel chains, although quite modest and not that spectacular, it deserves the first prize and should be promoted, also for educational reasons.
A special award of PLN 5,000, funded by INTERPRINT Polska, went to Franceska Pievani and Alice Zantedeschi (Italy) from the Fili Pari startup for “The lightness of marble” — a project of a new textile material created with the use of powder waste formed during the processing of marble.
— The idea itself, namely the unusual use of marble waste for the production of fabrics, deserves special attention. The textile material based on marble powder has excellent practical and aesthetic properties, enchants with beautiful colors and textures, is resistant to moisture, mechanical damage, and allows the skin to breathe. The very fact that we can put on nice-to-the-touch and eye-catching marble clothing is extraordinary! Importantly, the production of the fabric fully respects the principles of ecology. Marble waste is not thrown away but gains a second life. Therefore, we take care of a natural, beautiful raw material, the deposits of which are ultimately limited. The circular economy is an important trend that should be supported, promoted and disseminated. All this stole our hearts and convinced us to award the prize to this project — explains Sylwia Lasota, sales and marketing manager of INTERPRINT Polska.
The works of all finalists were displayed at a unique exhibition, open until September 20 as part of the 14th edition of the Łódź Design Festival. This year, the post-competition exhibition took a unique form — the objects were presented in specially arranged containers placed at the Monopolis, a new partner of the Łódź Design Festival.
The organization of the Łódź Design Festival is possible thanks to the support of the Łódź Event Center and the City of Łódź. It was co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund.
