Five Hungarian design brands are ready to conquer the international market

The design SPEED mentoring programme, organized for the third time, aims to proactively help five – locally already established and stable – design brands move onto the international market. This season’s programme is coming to an end this November. During the 8 months training course the mentees had a chance to expand their knowledge in various business fields with the help of world famous professionals. As a closure of the mentoring programme, the designers are soon to travel to Milan where after a study tour, they are about to present their work to the representatives of the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency and IED (Istituto Europeo di Design).

The design SPEED mentoring programme is already in full swing, which supports now for the third time Hungarian design brands to move onto the international market. The Hungarian design industry is strongly export oriented, that’s why it is extremely important to strenghten the local products’ international availability, which supports the brands’ economical stability. HFDA entered into a strategic partnership with the Italian Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in August 2019, through which internationally aknowledged design experts support Hungarian designers in the famework of the mentoring programme. The programme’s significance stands not only in the support of foreign expansion through knowledge transfer but in providing such a network for participants, that could be a kick-off in realizing their ideas.

This year’s participants of the mentoring programme are as follows: HANNABI, operating a modern upholstered workshop; IO, providing furniture design, exterior and interior design and technical know-how; LumoConcept, planning and manufacturing unique lamps; Magnelit, producing magnetic, modular, smart lamp families; and Project BRUT, mixing antique heritage with modern aesthetics. During the training, the brands receive all the help on how to position themselves successfully on local and international markets and to identify critical points of their operation. The third design SPEED mentoring programme is approaching to its end, during which in the last months the mentees participated in a 5 modular lecture series and a number of individual consultations where world famous professionals with deep practical experience contributed to their development.

As a beginning, the participants had modules on brand marketing and brand management with guidelines from Jacopo Bargellini, internationally renowned strategic business and marketing consultant. They examined which aspects do they have to take into consideration in case of a competitor analysis, and got several useful advice on how to identify their own target group. Jacopo Bargellini used to work for giant brands like Panasonic, JVC and Swarovski, but we shouldn’t forget about his role in innovation, either. Through sharing his experience as a consultant at Banca Intesa Innovation Startup he provided a comprehensive picture about how researches can serve the appearence of innovative approaches in value chain.

Afterwards, the participants were able to master from Alberto Bottalico, strategic CEO of Burson Cohn and Wolfe, such PR and sales booster techniques, that could come in handy in the strong competition resulted from the pandemic. Furthermore, they got insight on which of their strenghts are worth emphasizing in a newspaper article or even in case of applying to a foreign fair.

With approaching to the end of the training, mentees could listen to the online closing presentation delivered by Giovanni Ottonello, Art Director at IED, with the title of “NEW NOW: How to read the contemporary to plan the future”, about the last two years’ significant changes and their effect in the international trends. As a last step of the design SPEED mentoring programme, mentees participate in a study tour in Milan in the end of November, when they are to visit a number of various concept stores and showrooms. As a closure, with knowledge and experience gained during several months of training, mentees present their work at the headquarter of IED.