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Designmonat Graz

30 Apr - 29 May 2016

In 2016 Graz once again became a stage for creative and design enthusiasts from all over the world in May: Already for the eighth time, Designmonat Graz with its diverse and comprehensive programme brings all facets of design to the UNESCO City of Design on the Mur River. Again this year, the ionion “SELECTED 2016” showcased the most current interior design trends in Europe. The fashion and design festival assembly presented the newest works of (inter)national designers and artists. The exhibition “Slow” set new accents. In a time in which we have gotten used to finishing all tasks as quick as possible, “Slow” placed the focus on deceleration and slow (production) processes.

Designmonat Graz 2016 was held from April 30 to May 29 and shined a light on design creations and creative disciplines from different divisions for 30 days. With its dense, interdisciplinary offer of exhibitions, festivals and a comprehensive discourse programme, Designmonat Graz has established into one of the most interesting design events throughout the world. The events offered countless opportunities to make design and its value understandable for economy and society: The scope reached from initiatives from individual designers up to the large local design educational facilities and institutions. In 2015, more than 64,000 design and culture enthusiasts visited 86 individual events. The eighth edition of the event was once again coordinated and organized by the Creative Industries Styria (CIS), the network of the creative industry in Styria.

Programme focus
Design Thinking – Thinking Design was the programme focus in Designmonat Graz 2016. One the one hand, it provided a field for the trend “Design Thinking” as a method for generating ideas in multidisciplinary teams, one the other hand, it was concentrated on the term DESIGN and also on how designers think in a conceptual way and implement ideas.

Opening Weekend
Designmonat Graz 2016 opened on April 29 in the designHalle with a concentration of design presentations: The exhibition SELECTED 2016 was dedicated to contemporary international interior design trends and Thonet shows a special exhibition. The installation Beautific Break by the Berlin-based tape art crew TAPE OVER suprises with an innovative artwork combining tape art, graffiti, painting and light. As an international partner, Creative Coratia showed the exhibition Awarded Design from Croatia. The following day, on April 30, the Kick-Off of the proven format Design in the City and, in the evening, Klanglicht 2016 at the three locations Oper Graz, Schauspielhaus Graz and Next Liberty will take place. Also on April 30, the exhibition Nothing Stops Detroit created by three students of the sudy programme exhibition design at FH Joanneum was open at 16.00, showing a polarizing and vibrant design metropolis.

One highlight of Designmonat Graz 2016 was, just as in the year before, the exhibition SELECTED 2016. Current European interior design trends by 47 labels from 15 countries were being presented. The exhibition, on the one hand, offers design lovers an extraordinarily diverse range of creative works and, on the other hand, the possibility for the presenting labels to use the economic location of Styria and the bordering countries to establish cooperations. Also the annual designWORKSHOP was also held and offered the visitors the possibility to be creative. In the last weekend of May, the exhibition rooms in the designHalle were again into the designSUPERMARKET, where the showcased products could be purchased directly.

The urban Graz Joanneumsviertel was again the centre of attention in Designmonat Graz for countless renowned designers. The fashion and design festival assembly combined product and fashion design with textile art and architecture theory. For four days, national and international designers and artists showed their current work and gain discussion topics, inspiration and the newest trends.

The formats Design in the City, which changed the entire city into a design course, Klanglicht, projecting light installations at the break of darkness with the help of countless large projectors, LEDs and reinforced light and sound on the facades of the opera house, theater and Next Liberty and the FESCHMARKT with more than 100 young designers, artists, young gastronomes and creative individuals were again fixed programme points of Designmonat Graz 2016.

At the FH Joanneum Lecture Days, this year for the first time, the whole department Media and Design, including Information Design, Exhibition Design & Communication, Media, Sound and Interaction Design also Industrial Design, Journalism & Public Relation and Content strategy, were integrated.

Find out more: http://www.designmonat.at/en/