The fourth design START mentoring program prepared candidates for enterprise and brand building

The Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency launched its mentoring program aimed at strengthening domestic brands’ stability for the fourth time this year with the participation of six brands. The emerging designers expanded their knowledge in theoretical and practical workshops that helped them make their businesses more successful. The eight-month program further included a two-week internship and a study trip to Eindhoven.

In the design START mentoring program created in 2019, many Hungarian designers have already got a chance to get the business knowledge needed to improve their brands and enterprises. In the fourth year of the program, designers of Anett Safran, Balázs Botos Design, Kata Font Home, Norna,  itthon., and Vivoid could expand their professional knowledge in business development, marketing, communication tools, digital technologies, and many other important business topics.

Anett Sáfrán creates porcelain objects of use and decoration elements that put tactility, i.e. the sense of touch and experience in the focus. Balázs Botos Design’s main profile is also the design and manufacturing of porcelain jewellery and home accessories. Norna’s designers make outdoor furniture that can not only be an integral part of nature thanks to its forms and colours but can also become a determining piece in any home. The brand Kata Font Home was born from an artistic rethinking of everyday objects and small furniture, following minimalist aesthetic design principles while functional details remain hidden behind clear geometric forms, aiding the abstract appearance of the objects. The designers of itthon. create small-scale home accessories made of natural materials based on traditional Vojdovina craftmanship. Lastly, the brand Vivoid offers wall covers, tapestries, wall panels, and design elements made of textile structures created with modular techniques.

After the mentoring program’s theoretical part, the designers spent their two-week professional internship at a prominent domestic manufacturer or designer of their choice, where they gained insight into workflow details from design to series production. They could see the management skills, scheduling, and communication needed to market a design product in practice and they could also expand their knowledge of applied technologies and material knowledge. This was followed by the study trip to Eindhoven, with a visit to one of Northern Europe’s largest design events, the Dutch Design Week. The Dutch Design Week awaited visitors with the creations of about 2600 designers in 110 venues in the city this year, so design START participants were enriched with the participation in a really popular, and exciting event.

During the three-day trip, the mentees familiarised themselves with the pieces and concepts of international designers of the most diverse styles including the collection of the brand Vij5 founded by Arjan van Raadshooven and Anieke Branderhorst, in which, they could discover the aesthetics born as a combination of minimalism and functionality. They also visited the Dutch Invertuals design studio, where products are based on experimentation and redefinition. The Amsterdam-based Studio Henk, the building of which is in close connection with the furniture presented, showed a colourful and exciting face to the designers, and Zakaria Rugs called attention to the meeting of different cultures and sustainability with their handmade rugs. The Hungarian designers could discover eclectic, rebellious, and extreme pieces in the Moooi studio.

Based on the feedback from the designers participating in the fourth design START mentoring program, the theoretical knowledge gained from the professional workshops and the practical tasks helped them see their own brands and enterprises from a new perspective. The two-week professional internship spent at Hungarian manufacturers and designers provided an insight into the daily lives of the host companies and supported mentorees to ask targeted questions about developing their enterprises. The colourful and hectic study trip to the Netherlands was truly inspiring for the emerging Hungarian talents in terms of getting to know the perspectives and workflow of studios representing different directions and fields of activity, and building personal connections.