Author: Marko Rakic

Speaker: Philippe Apeloig

Time & date: Sunday May 30th, 16:00-17:0

Location: Paris, France

Website: www.apeloig.com

Philippe Apeloig was born in Paris in 1962. He studied at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré and at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. In 1983 and 1985 he was a trainee in Amsterdam, at the studio Total Design, where he was specially interested in typography. In 1985, he was taken on as graphic designer by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. In 1988, he obtained a scholarship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and went to Los Angeles to work with April Greiman. In 1993, ha was student at the Académie of France in Rome (Villa Medicis) where he did research into the design of letters.

After Los Angeles, Philippe Apeloig came back to Paris to create his own studio. In 1993 he was appointed artistic director of the magazine “Le Jardin des Modes”. From 1992 to 1998, he taught typography at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. In 1999 the Cooper Union School of Art of New York recruited Philippe Apeloig as graphic design professor. He had a full time faculty position and became the curator of Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography. He stayed in the U.S. until 2003. In 1997, he became artistic consultant for the Louvre and artistic director as of 2003.

Philippe Apeloig created, among others, the visual identity of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris, of UAV (Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia) in Venice and of ‘Brésil, Brésils’, Brazil Year in France. Philippe Apeloig is member of the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale)

Portrait photographer: Christian Lartillot

Link to web shop

Speakers: Jens Hartmann & Philipp Erlach

Time & date: Sunday May 30th, 15:00-16:00

Location: Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Website: www.vier-fuer-texas.de

VIER FÜR TEXAS is an independent Design- and Advertising Studio located in Frankfurt/Main. We develop and create ideas in new, old and very old media – and we are entrepreneurs looking for co-operations.

Speaker: Kustaa Saksi

Time & date: Sunday May 30th, 13:30-14:30

Location: Finland (now lives in Amsterdam)

Website: www.kustaasaksi.com

Kustaa Saksi’s illustrations are a syrupy disarray of elements: playful, paradoxical, often over-glossy, inviting, troubling, messy, and yet strangely clear. Finland born illustrator, nowadays living and working in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, combines organic touches and viscous shapes into new world pyschedelia. Saksi has been working with various clients in the world of fashion, music and entertainment. His unique imagination with strict Scandinavian design roots illustrate the wonderful world of surrealistic landscapes, beautiful characters and strong atmosphere.

Speaker: Yurko Gutsulyak

Time & date: Sunday May 30th, 11:30-12:30

Location: Kiev, Ukraine

Website: www.gstudio.com.ua

Yurko Gutsulyak was born in 1979 in the West of Ukraine. Got higher economic education. In 2001 moved to Kiev where begun the designer career. In 2005 with his sister founded Graphic design studio by Yurko Gutsulyak. The main activity of the studio is visual communications.

“We are doing everything in a different way and every time in a different manner, but in any case, at least in a good way. We love what we do and believe that any work could be interesting as a result only provided that it is interesting as a process.”

During studio existence Yurko was awarded more than 30 international awards in design and advertising sphere. The most prestigious among them – European Design Awards, Epica Awards, Communications Arts, HOW, Golden Drum, ADI Awards, Wolda.

His works are published in the most successful magazines and books about design worldwide (for last two year more than 35 publications), and also exhibited at museums and galleries of France, Poland, Mexico and China. This year Yurko was elected as the first president of Art Directors Club Ukraine.

For today Yurko is the first in the history of Ukraine and still unique owner of Gold Epica Award. His works are published in the most successful magazines about design worldwide (for last year more than 25 publications in press), and also exhibited at museums and galleries of France, Poland, Mexico and China. This year Yurko was elected as the first president of Art Directors Club Ukraine.

Speaker: Astrid Stavro

Creative Director

Time & date: Sunday May 30th, 10:30-11:30

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Website: www.astridstavro.com

Astrid Stavro set up her Barcelona based studio upon graduating with distinction from The Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. She has since worked for the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Miró Foundation, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Design Hub Barcelona, the Palau de la Música, the Art Directors Club of Europe, the Royal College of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London and numerous publishing houses. The studio specializes in concept driven art direction and editorial design, letting the content speak for itself and avoiding frivolous or superficial solutions. The studio’s work has been has been recognized with more than 70 awards in less than four years.

Portrait photographer: Mariano Herrera

Speaker: James Bull

Time & date: Saturday May 29th, 16:00-17:00

Location: London, UK

Website: www.movingbrands.com

At a time of rapid evolution across business, culture and technology, we believe a brand should be as dynamic and inspiring as the company, service or product it represents. Our aim is to redefine what branding can achieve by setting new standards of creativity for a moving world. We work constantly to develop more powerful, dynamic and responsive ways for brands to connect with people, and people to connect with brands. Our unique approach sets us apart, and is helping to differentiate some of the best companies in the world.

James Bull co-founded Moving Brands in 1998 straight out of Central Saint Martins. He is currently the Executive Creative Director for Moving Brands’ London and Tokyo studios.

James believes that best results are achieved through co-creation with clients and that there is always a better way of doing things. James designed the concept and campaign for Keane’s award winning ‘Hopes and Fears’ album and created the identity for newly formed Nokia Siemens Networks, rolling it out globally. More recently, James lead the pitch for A Brand for London which used social media tools to involve the public in the design process.

Speaker: Gert Dumbar

Time & date: Saturday May 29th, 15:00-16:00

Location: The Netherlands

Born in 1940, he studied painting and graphic design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, and in the post graduate graphic design program at the Royal College of Art in London.

In 1977 Gert Dumbar established Studio Dumbar. With his team at Studio Dumbar he completed numerous extensive corporate identity programs for many major national and international clients including: the Dutch Postal and Telecom Services (PTT), the ANWB (Dutch Automobile Association), the Dutch Railways, the Dutch Police, the Danish Post (together with Kontrapunkt a/s, Danmark) and the Czech Telecom. Since 1980 he has periodically taught and lectured at various universities around the globe (among them the Royal College of Art in London, the university at Bandung, Indonesia and the Hochschule der Bildenden Kunste Saar in Saarbrucken, Germany).

He has been the chairman of the Dutch association of Graphic Designers (BNO), the president of British Designers and Art Directors Association and was a member of the Designboard of the British Rail Company until 1994. In 1994 the Asociacion de Disenadores Graficos de Buenos Aires (ADG) appointed Gert Dumbar to be a Honorary Member and in 1995 the English Southampton Institute honoured Gert Dumbar with the title of Honorary Doctor in Design.

Gert Dumbar is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).

Speaker: Svein Haakon Lia
Creative Director and Founding Partner

Time & date: Saturday May 29th, 13:30-14:30

Location: Oslo, Norway

Website: www.bleed.no

Bleed is a multi-disciplinary design consultancy based in Oslo Norway, established June 2000. Working to challenge today’s conventions around art, visual language, media and identity. Bleed’s work spans brand identity and development, art direction, packaging, printed matter, interactive design, art projects and exhibitions.

Both our client list and creative output has become diverse and interesting, and made us one of the most awarded agencies in Norway, with international and national acclaim. We believe in the power of visual language. our work deals with long term brand-strategies as well as keeping it fresh by constantly challenging the boundaries of design and media.

Bleed for the revolution™

Speakers: Nenad Kovacic and Christian Haas

Time & date: Saturday May 29th, 11:30-12:30

Location: Zürich, Switzerland

Website: www.raffinerie.com

Raffinerie AG für Gestaltung was founded in march 2000. It is being directed by Reto Ehrbar and Nenad Kovacic (both founders and partners) and Christian Haas. We started small with 3 people, and we grew constantly every year. At the moment there are 14 people working here, all graphic designers or illustrators.

In the beginning there were small projects, such as party flyers and snowboard design for friends. Then we specialized in editorial design, art books, corporate design and illustration. Today our long-term costumers include: SWISS International Airlines (Onboard magazine), Schauspielhaus Zürich (Whole communication for 2006–2009), Daros Exhibitions, Burgtheater Wien, City of Zürich, Pro Helvetia Council for Arts and many more.

What makes us special is that our portfolio includes work for small, low cost projects as well as for complex projects for big companies, which other small agencies couldn’t handle. Our strong point is the combination of different strenghts for every each project. There is no such style as «the Raffinerie style». We try to come up with an new solution for every new client. We try.

Speaker: Karen Balest

Time & date: Saturday May 29th, 10:30-11:30

Location: Perugia, Italy

Website: www.zup.it

zup associati is a communications lab that helps clients to redesign their “corporate identity”, revolutionizing their image in the marketplace. In order to affront this rather daunting task we have designed a work method that tackles problems from a global point of view, because we are convinced that just dealing with graphic/industrial/architectural design is no longer enough. In today’s world we must communicate via language, volumes, form and images. We design a 360° project for our clients that speaks of product and space, and that corresponds to functional needs that can be applied to any situation.

Many of our projects are the result of the close collaboration of small work teams, both inside and outside the company, whose art direction is headed by Marco Fagioli, Andrea Medri and Lucia Roscini. When we are asked what we actually do, our answer invariably includes a discourse about the fine blending of ideas and ‘flavours’. We are convinced that there is not much difference between a delicious plate of spaghetti with meat sauce and a design project: just adding the ingredients in the right order it is not enough. You need a fine chef. Try to define what a “fine chef” is and you will find yourself describing a true designer.

Speaker: Producer Tom Knowles and designer Kristoffer Brady

Time & date: Friday May 28th, 10:30-11:30

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Website: www.f-i.com

Fi is a full service interactive firm and digital production studio with 11 years experience, 50 employees, 2 offices, 52 Industry Awards, 1 sister company, 90% Direct-to-Client relationships and 10% Agency Partnerships. We believe in quality over quantity.

Speaker: Tirso Francés

Time & date: Friday May 28th, 15:00-16:00

Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands

Website: www.dietwee.nl

Tirso Francés is co-founder and co-creative director of Dietwee.

Dietwee (Dutch for Thosetwo and pronounced Deetway) is the largest small design agency or the smallest large design agency in the Netherlands, it’s hard to tell. They like it that way, as they aim to work always for very large and very small clients all at the same time, be it commercial, cultural or non profit. However, they aim to be amongst the best in their field. The studio was founded by “thosetwo” in 1988 while they were in their second year of art college in Utrecht, and they still remain the owners and creative directors of the company, which now counts around thirty people.

Originally known for party flyers and award winning annual reports, Dietwee has developed into a multi-disciplinary design and communications agency producing corporate identities, websites and communication campaigns for large international banks as well as for theatre festivals or NGO’s.

The work of Dietwee is accessible, clear and powerful. Unadorned, but with an eye for detail. Dietwee helps companies and organizations to get noticed by the people that matter to them. They do this by first looking for the unique story behind the brand, together with their clients. Then they start to design and write. Dietwee like to make clear choices and aim to be consistent in message and form, but always with the element of surprise in mind. As designers they feel responsible for the quality of the visual stimuli which they produce, and they try to help their customers in creating real and sustainable communication.

Dietwee believes in communication that is appealing. That excites a warm smile or that evokes real emotion or a deeper thought. The main goal of Dietwee is to reach the customers of their clients. In their heads. And in their hearts.

At the European Design Conference, Tirso Francés will show and talk about the remarkable series of 9 annual reports the company made for private bank Insinger de Beaufort. Each report has won several national and/or international awards, the latest two have each won the European Design Awards in the last two years. As Francés says about the reports; “If you own one, you are unlikely ever to throw it away.”

Speaker: Vassilis Marmatakis

Time & date: Friday May 28th, 13:30-14:30

Location: Athens, Greece

Website: www.mnpdesign.gr

Vassilis Marmatakis was born in Athens. He has studied Art & Design in Camberwell College of Arts and in the Royal College of Arts. After returning to Athens, he worked at Upset Advertising Company as an art director.

Katerina Papanagiotou was born in Lamia, Greece. She has studied design the National Graphic Design School in Athens. She has worked in advertising in Athens, obtaining many distinctions at the annual Ermis Awards.

In 2002 they decided to set up the mnp design studio. Along with Ifigenia Vasiliou and Stefanos Andreadis they have worked on various projects that have been applied to various fields of design communication, they have won numerous awards and they have been published in magazines and editions internationally. They all live and work in Athens.

Speaker: Reza Abedini

Time & date: Friday May 28th, 11:30-12:30

Location: The Netherlands/Iran

Website: www.rezaabedini.com

Background

Wikipedia

Speaker: Erwin K. Bauer
bauer – konzept & gestaltung, Vienna

Time & date: Friday May 28th, 16:00-17:00

Location: Vienna, Austria

Website: www.erwinbauer.com

bauer – konzept & gestaltung is one of the leading design studios for visual communication in Austria. Their approach to comprehensive visual identities isn’t merely limited to classical print or digital media; spatial design also plays an important role. The interdisciplinary team consists of different visual designers, an industrial designer and an architect working in different fields from branding to packaging, signage or exhibition design. Erwin K. Bauer has also focused extensively on teaching and design research for many years and published several books on design. He and his team are constantly working on self-initiated design-projects within the international design-community.