„Different“ was this year’s motto of the design students’ competition in Turkey
The Turkish stone branch goes to great length and makes every effort to break into international markets with high-end goods. The trade organizations have been staging competitions for young designers for some years now, and the Izmir „Marble“ Trade Fair jumped on the bandwagon two years ago with the „Young Creative Ideas Platform”.
This year, the motto of the competition was „Different“.
Design students and studio staff between the ages of 18 and 30 developed and presented household products in natural stone. The competition is about true industrial design, i.e. items which can be put to use in daily life, and which can be mass-produced at reasonable costs.
There were 112 entries – 39 more than last year: a remarkable increase. One can conclude that more Turkish design universities have taken up natural stone in their curriculum. A purse of 5,000 Turkish Lira each (currently valued at 860 US-$) awaited the three award-winners.
The 25 best entries could be taken up for production. The prototypes were presented at the Fair. The distinguishing factor of this competition is that natural stone producers must participate as cooperative partners next to the designers. We described the process some issues back.
The companies competed for the Best Cooperation Awards which went to Sirmersan, Akdo und Granitaş.
Marble, Izmir (April 01 – 04, 2020)
Photos: Odul Turreni / Akdo
(05.07.2019, 07.05.2019)