7 minute read
FIERCE WOMEN CONTRIBUTING TO SOCIETY
IN THESE interviews we present Maša Udovičić & Mirela Ivanković Bielen for Croatian Zoetrope, Gabrijela, Diana, Doris & Željka for Fierce Women social enterprise, and Matea Bručić for Buqele House of Fashion
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Croatian Zoetrope and Flipbook are new creative souvenirs that came out of your Luma film studio in Zagreb. How did you come up with the idea of creating such original souvenirs?
Since we run the School of
Animation for Children in Zagreb, we have noticed that kids & their parents are delighted with the large zoetropes we use when teaching about the animation process. We wanted to share the magic of animation with a larger number of people, and came up with the idea of producing a small and affordable zoetrope.
As the construction of the new zoetrope was demanding and time consuming, during the development we came up with another toy - a flipbook. It is much easier to produce, so it was a winning combination for us. Two super fun toys for animation, one complex & the other simple to produce!
Can you describe your two products in more detail and how zoetropes and flipbooks work in general?
These are two optical toys with a series of drawings that merge into a unique animation before the eyes of the observer. Zoetrope is a sleeve with holes, into which a strip of drawings is inserted. It needs to be rotated by hand to enjoy the animation. A flipbook is a small booklet with drawings whose pages need to be flipped quickly with two fingers. Both toys come with ready-made animations drawn by professional animators. They serve to enjoy the animated scenes, but also as an example of how users can animate on their own. Namely, empty zoom papers come with each zoetrope, and the flipbook turned upside down becomes an empty polygon for a new animation.
You often say that your products are souvenirs for happy people. What do you mean by that?
The slogan came from the smiles that spread on people's faces when they spin zoetropes or flip a flipbook and see the animation.
Since a large number of people encountered animation at school age, our products arouse nostalgia in viewers. We believe that using our toys for animation cheers people up at least for a while.
What can we expect from you in the future?
We entered this project out of a desire to extend our love of animation to the general population. Animation as well as illustration communicates with viewers visually, without the use of language. That's why animation erases all boundaries and everyone likes it. As for the animations for zoetropes and flipbooks, we have in mind specific motives related to our beautiful country that we will realize soon.
FIERcE WoMEN, FIERcE WoMEN TEAM: GABRIJElA, DIANA, DoRIS & ŽElJKA
Who is behind Fierce women? How did you come up with the idea to create a card game in which all the characters are Fierce Women?
The Fierce Women card game was developed in an organization called Common zone through a nonprofit media VoxFeminae. net, and its section called Fierce
Women - consisting of more than 300 biographies of women who made great contributions to society. Thinking about how to reach even more people with stories of Fierce Women,
Common zone’s founder,
Gabrijela Ivanov, came up with the idea to develop a game, so we invited gaming enthusiast Želimir
Periš to develop the original gameplay, and commissioned 8 talented Croatian artists to create the portraits of fierce women included in the game. At the end of 2017, we had a prototype!
What can players expect from this game? What message did you want to send and what are the reactions you have received?
We summed it up in four words - Inspiration. Education.
Empowerment. Fun. The gameplay is simple, so it can be played by all generations. While playing you can learn about the women included in the game and their accomplishments. It is also very important to girls and women to have role models and to know that there is nothing they can’t do just because they are women.
The reactions in the community are very positive, people love the design, the educational component & the story behind the cards. Along with Fierce women, the WOW cards extension is also available - can you tell us a bit more about that, as well as your recent picture book “Fiercey Asks Difficult questions”?
WOW Cards expansion was developed as a promotional product and is not for sale. It was a result of the collaboration of the Fierce Women brand with four NGOs from Slovenia, North
Macedonia, Ireland, and Croatia, so the expansion celebrates women from those countries.
The future will definitely bring commercial expansion decks. "Fiercey Asks Difficult Questions" is our newest product. It’s a picture book about a girl called
Fiercey who is driven by a thirst for knowledge. She learns about life with an open mind, fearlessly posing questions that even adults often shoud. It’s ideal for kids aged 6+, for girls and boys alike, because only together we can build a more equal and just society for all. The book is written by the award-winning
Croatian author and Fierce
Women gameplay developer
Želimir Periš & illustrated by
Ivana Štrukelj. Both the Fierce
Women card game and the picture book are available at the design store Take me home, different bookstores and design shops in Zagreb and via our Etsy shop - https://fiercewomenart. etsy.com/, where you can also find some interesting posters/ art prints.
BUQElE, MATEA BRUČIĆ
How did Buqele come into its existence?
Buqele is an innovative and creative design that is affirmed in terms of clothing, fashion accessories, but also textile, unique works, as well as fashion illustrations. The brand is synonymous with freedom, changeability & metamorphosis, a kind of versatility that always has the essence of elegance and simplicity at its core. The name itself was created from a foreign word for chameleon- an animal that adapts its skin to the environment. Being different and being your own, prone to change within the environment, that is
Buqele.
You are the House of fashion, bringing together so many different female designers and artists. How does your collective work? What can we see in your showroom?
The collective started on the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk - everything in one place, combining multiple art forms, design and purpose.
My love for a vintage concept of a house of fashion, where a client would enter the showroom and leave it with satisfaction, finding everything that he or she needs, was driving me towards what we have today. I contacted a few female designers whose work I really loved. I wanted to give them support and an opportunity to present their work, as well as creating new beautiful projects. Buqele House of Fashion offers capsule collections by Buqele, custom tailored pieces for men and women, haute couture garments (mostly for wedding fashion), crochet wear and accessories, handcrafted designer jewellery, wooden products and jewellery, home decor, organic wear, wire creations and installations for different type of spaces (work, event or home related), graphic design and products such as illustrations, postcards, gift cards etc., macrame decorations and soon more.
You yourself create clothing items. How would you describe your fashion brand?
Every owner of a Buqele product knows that it is among the few people who own it and that there will be no more produced. All collections are special; limited number and model, something that restores the spirit of craftsmanship, handmade and unique work.
How do you see the future of fashion and designer industries and a female role in it?
The future, in my opinion, leads toward sustainable and eco fashion. Limited production with a deeper meaning and more purpose in a multifunctional way, should take a turn in the future global platform in terms of raising consciousness, mindfulness and a new era of future generations that seek a different lifestyle.
My main goal is to establish and form a network of female designers, artists and innovators, reduce and, wishfully, end the massive production in textile industry, find local producers, local art and more.I think that our regional market is still marked as a man's platform, and our female designers deserve a bigger chance.
