The international festival of design DAN D in Zagreb

The international festival DAN D is going to take place in Zagreb again this year. It is held from the 15^th to 17^th June in Stara klaonica in Heinzelova Street. The central exhibition will again gather the most interesting authors and teams from the region. The only condition is that they are less than 35 years old. The deadline for application is extended to the 10^th of May.

DAN D event is being organized by HDD (Croatian Designer Society) and Pepermint.

The central exhibition is again held by 100 best young authors and teams from the region who present their concepts, own ideas and works in the field of design of visual communications, industrial design, fashion design, new media design etc. The project was started in 2010 and the aim of the whole thing is to support and promote the works of young authors. The event should give them the opportunity to show their work in public and to strengthen the cooperation among individuals, institutions and designer’s initiatives from the region. They should also be able to connect with their partners from the field of economy.

This year’s event will last for three days and some new content areas have been introduced. The reason for this is to encourage the interaction between exhibitors and potential buyers of their design – entrepreneurs and craftsmen. This is the purpose of the initial day, so called Working Day D. It is meant to connect and stimulate the cooperation among young designers and entrepreneurs. The first day will therefore consist of different forms of interaction: educational lectures about design management and the examples of successful cooperation of designers and entrepreneurs which had led to attractive products. There will also be speed dating event, guided tours through the exhibition, dynamic informal meetings and presentations. The informal one day co-working session will motivate the exchange of ideas and cooperation.

As opposed to the non-commercial central exhibition, D-market will present the best domestic and regional designer’s brands, carriers of small productions. These are unavoidable if we want to reach higher quality.

DAN D 2012 will also include many guests like, for example, the initiative of Mikser called Young Balkan Designers. There will also be the presentation of a recently launched project called Design Tourism: Croatian Holiday ’12, the international platform Ministry of Pleasure and several others. DAN D will bring lectures of foreign designers and experts of design theory, long presentations of authors and teams and, of course, a lot of socializing and entertainment.

From its beginning in 2010 DAN D has been trying to show the power and potentials of young designers. Some of them are still at the faculty or have just graduated from it. They are already known at the scene or are going to start their careers. The only limit is the age – less than 35. We are also interested in students’ projects, in stimulating individual productions and in the strategy of self-presenting.  We would like to know how you communicate with your partners, clients, cultural scene and industry. We are interested in developing the projects which would raise competitiveness in the region and better quality of life in the society. We support the cooperation among authors, institutions, designer’s initiatives and partners from industry, entrepreneurship and craft in the region and wider.

We are looking for works that have already been realized or are especially designed for DAN D event. These could include orders or individual works, mentored or individual projects in all the areas of design – product design, visual communications, fashion design, concept etc. – all things that could present you in the best possible way!

The application deadline for DAN D 2012 is Thursday, 10^th May.