Juozas Brundza. The future begins here

Education Vilnius Art academy www.vda.lt

Department of Design of Vilnius Academy of Art:

the future begins here

Juozas Brundza, Head of the Department of Design

In the ocean of things that surround us every day the articles of good product design will be the main factor creating the consumer culture, sustainable economy of the country and tackling social challenges in the forthcoming decades. Alongside technological innovations, design innovations create a huge value added and a competitive edge for the company products.

The Department of Design of Vilnius Academy of Art, which was established in 1961, is the main centre for product design studies in Lithuania. The priority sphere of the activities of the Department of Design is its close cooperation with industrial, business companies and other social partners. Cooperation with social partners is mainly aimed at imparting practical knowledge of the process of developing industrial products and the possibility to work with important problems within a real context, as well as at integrating the latest marketing and technological information into the study process and acquainting the students with the people working in the sphere of industry, business, science, and also with the potential employers and customers. Though the program of design studies is concentrated on the real problems of product, environment and service design, students are not squeezed into the narrow frames of studies. Alongside the projects intended for solving everyday problems of developing company products, projects directed towards a five-ten year future horizon and innovations, which the companies themselves have most often neither time nor resources to develop, are carried out.

The Department of Design constantly carries out projects of creative workshops and master classes in cooperation with foreign designers and schools of design. In 20122013 a number of creative workshops conducted by professional designers and lecturers from Italy, Sweden, Great Britain, Holland and Denmark were organized.

Cooperation with companies and social partners, as well as participation in world 44 |

design competitions and exhibitions during the recent years, has given really impressive results. The projects created at the Department of Design become real products that are competitive not only in the world and local competitions but also in the international market. Many design projects developed by the students have won awards in the world and local design competitions.

Several of such design projects are presented below.

The Italian Lighting Company Status began manufacturing the table lamp Light Stick created by the student of the Department of Design Živilė Lukšytė and presented it at the furniture exhibition “ISaloni” in Milan this year. The German Company Berlin Heart manufactures the Master’s final project of Jevgenija Sidorevič’ – the artificial heart equipment bag. Inesa Malafej’s Bachelor’s final project My writing desk won the “IF Concept Design Award” in Germany and at the present time it is being manufactured by the Company Emko. The project The Aid created by Eglė Ugintaitė won the international “Fujitsu Design Award” in Japan. At the present time the Company Fujitsu is developing this project and this year it has presented the functioning prototype of the product. Gabrielė Meldaikytė’s project Single-Handed Cook that is intended for the disabled people to enable them to prepare food with one hand, won a number of awards in the international design competitions in Italy, China and Russia. The chair KU-DIR-KA (the manufacturer is Contraforma) created by the student Paulius Vitkauskas, which was exhibited in the most famous design exhibitions, has become probably the best known and most often publicized Lithuanian chair abroad. The design of a dishwasher Bifoliate by Toma Brundzaitė earned the prize of the finalist at the world competition “Electrolux Design Lab”, and Vilius Dringelis’ design of the tester of food freshness Fridge Nose was qualified for the semifinals out of 1200 designs presented. Folding Table by Aušrinė Augustinaitė won Lithuanian Design Prize “Good Design” this year.

Mobile Solar Panels, designed by Laura Vanagaityte won “Atverk” competition in 2012. It was joint project of Vilnius Academy of Arts, company Arginta and five technical universities.

Also, the Department of Design is engaged in a number of other sustainable energy, electronics, domestic appliances, furniture, transport design projects in cooperation with Lithuanian and foreign companies. | 45