ABSOLUT CREATIVE SPACE

Аbsolut Creative Space is a brand new event which happened at the beginning of June in Sofia. We were invited by the organisers ABSOLUT vodka Bulgaria to work in collaboration with the advertising agency DDB Sofia in building a program dedicated to themes like design, creativity and sustainability. This first edition was located in the mobile structure Аbsolut Creative Space shipped from Sweden and specifically designed to accommodate various formats in its modules. The blue containers were parked in front of the socialist hotel Rodina, nowadays disused and in continuous reconstructions.

As content and organization we were honoured and happy to take care of the following elements:

– Sustainability through Creativity: Group exhibition with projects by Bulgarian creatives and entrepreneurs

The exhibition gathers positive examples about the important role design plays as a medium of sustainability. The project is a provocation to think about what we use in our everyday life, and an invitation to pay more attention to the choices we make. The examples displayed in the exhibition are quite various – from jewellery, through home accessories to a new generation beehive. They track the process of creation, the origin of the materials used, the up-cycling of old objects and some of the possible ways of involvement of high technologies in the intelligent building of new design systems. Participants are: Beeograph, Dimitar Delchev, Evgenia Tzankova, Lambent, Marina Dragomirova, Neva Balnikova, Odd Matter and Yana Dvoretzka.

– Lecture and closed conversation with Alex Bec: Managing director of It’s Nice That and INT Works

Alex has helped take It’s Nice That from а start­up to а respected creative media company that reaches half a million people every month. Applying both his vision and business acumen across It’s Nice That and sister agency INT Works, Alex has helped nurture a network of the most exciting creative talent in the world alongside some of the world’s most influential brands including BBC, Nike, Unilever, ASOS and Selfridges. Alex has also worked as a Visiting Creative Director at Wolff Olins, been awarded a D&AD yellow pencil and a nomination for the prestigious Designs of the Year award at the Design Museum, at which Alex is also a member of the judging jury. He has also started to write on his experiences in creative management here: https://medium.com/@alexjbec

– workshop by product designer Marina Dragomirova of London based STUDIOFURTHERMORE:

You can read more about her work – here.

– The ABSOLUT cocktail set: Specially commissioned project realizaed by Yana Yunakova

In accordance with the theme of the festival “Sustainability through creativity” Bulgarian ceramics designer Yana Yunakova bases her idea on combining two different and completely recyclable materials – paper and beeswax in order to design a limited edition cocktail set for cold ABSOLUT drinks. Yana Yunakova is a well recognized and successfully established Bulgarian ceramicists. Her objects emanate subtle imagination combined with precise style and characteristic forms.

– 7 Chairs for 7 Days: a site specific project by Punkt Workshop – more about it here.

– The ABSOLUT ZINE and HUB: One of the places at Absolut Creative Space turns into a hub for young Bulgarian illustrators, graphic designers, photographers and journalists who are working on the creation of a zine documenting the everyday activities of the festival. Through their creative language, they are interpreting what they see and feel at the events, through the communication with the guests, at the parties and the overall atmosphere of the first edition of the festival. Their work is assembled into a specifically created print edition in a limited series.

– workshop and lecture  by Yana Dvoretska.

Yana Dvoretska is a designer and fashion teacher at New Bulgarian University. She supports the idea of slow fashion and fights against consumerism and pollution with design. Yana created her own fashion label for ethical and ecological fashion YOD in 2009.

– and furthermore: workshop and demo day with board games, created and 3D printed by SmartFabLab; jewellery workshop with professor Dimitar Delchev; demo days with the one and only HalfBike; entrepreneurs panel with Harmonica , Еscreo ,  Playground Energy and ElDrive); design thinking workshop with a focus on night life;

We thank ABSOLUT vodka Bulgaria for the invitation and to DDB Sofia for the good cooperation.