Three of the best designs will debut at a key European design and innovation event
Kyiv, October 15, 2020. — From 17 to 25 October, Ukrainian designers will take part in the Dutch Design Week — the largest design event in Northern Europe. This year, our country will be represented by three teams who have won the competition within the framework of the international European Design Upgrade project. The project is being implemented in partnership with K.Fund, GoLocal and Brussels Creative, Belgium and Urban Mill, Finland.
“At the time of serious global changes in Europe and the world, Ukraine’s participation in the role of the leader of the international consortium of cultural institutions is especially important. In the process of implementing the project, Ukrainian designers and mentors exchanged a huge number of ideas with Finnish and Belgian partners and enriched each other with invaluable experience,” Olena Dobrorodneva, Vice President of K.Fund, conceptual leader of European Design Upgrade project, said.
“The European Design Upgrade project has shown how resilient our creative community is. We are often pointed as the future engine of the European economy. And I think the Covid-19 challenges will increase the importance of this role. During the pandemic, our program changed into a hybrid format – and as a result we got a lot of new and inspiring ideas, and cross-cultural teams made projects more creative and multidisciplinary,” Alan Heureux, co-founder of Brussels Creative, said.
The participation of Ukrainian designers in Dutch Design Week was preceded by a lecture program, a hackathon, prototyping and competitive selection, according to which three winning teams were selected from 37 applicants. All projects have a social impact and are trying to solve acute social problems.
• The authors of the Nano Retention project have developed a special biomaterial that can retain water and block the noise of the city. To do this, designers use bacterial cellulose -— a material that bacteria produce during the fermentation of kombucha.
• The Changeable project team creates removable textile and 3D printed prosthesis covers. This approach allows not to hide the prosthesis, but to make out of it a stylish accessory.
• Prints on clothes from the Pink Glasses project in ultraviolet light are complemented with new details – and highlight the problems of global warming, pollution, war or discrimination.
During Dutch Design Week, Ukrainian designers plan to hold presentations and meetings online. Details will be published on the project’s Facebook page.
In addition, on October 22 at 10.30 am within the framework of Dutch Design Week in the UNIT.City innovation park (UNIT.Core premises), an exhibition of the design projects of finalists will be held. It will open with an international discussion “What is radical creativity?”. During the discussion the experts from Belgium, Finland and Ukraine will talk about the challenges that the Ukrainian creative ecosystem is facing and discuss opportunities for development and cooperation.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Dutch Design Week is the largest annual design event in Northern Europe that presents works and concepts from over 2,600 designers to over 355,000 visitors.
K.Fund was founded by Ukrainian entrepreneur Vasyl Khmelnytsky in 2015 to support projects in the field of education and economics. K.Fund’s mission is to provide keys for development and implementation, provide opportunities for acquiring new knowledge and skills, to promote discoveries and help to reach a new level.
The project is funded with the support of the European Commission. The publication reflects solely the views of the author and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use of the information contained therein.
The project is funded with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
The UNIT.City innovation park (Kyiv) and Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) have presented the detailed overview of the key elements of Ukrainian IT industry, according to which a total of 184,700 designers worked in 4,000 IT companies in Ukraine in 2018. According to the data of the App Annie research company, every fifth global company working in the field of software development for mobile platforms has an office in Ukraine, according to the overview.
According to the study of The State of European Tech 2018, Ukraine has almost 184,700 IT designers. According to the report, last year Ukrainian startups managed to attract more than $290 million of investments.
“Over the past five years, the growth pace of the Ukrainian IT industry is calculated in double digits. Every fifth Fortune 500 company uses Ukrainian IT services. Therefore, today is the best time to open or expand own innovative business here. This guide will help international partners know this to be true,” UNIT.City CEO and Managing Partner Max Yakover said.
According to the overview, the IT industry is second in Ukraine in terms of exports in 2018, while in the world Ukraine ranks 24th among the most attractive countries for software development, and in accordance with the Global Innovation Index Ukraine ranked 54th out of 126 states.
“It is necessary that international partners have as much information as possible and have access to breakthrough local startups and entrepreneurs. The technology sector is of strategic importance for the Ukrainian economy and can change how Ukraine is perceived in the world during the digital transformation,” WNISEF President and CEO Jaroslawa Z. Johnson said.
The review also indicates that there are more than 110 research and development and design centers of companies located in Ukraine. The largest R & D partner of Ukraine is the United States (45% of companies), followed by the EU and Israel. The areas of expertise of Ukrainian R & D centers cover games, e-commerce, work with BigData and artificial intelligence, telecommunications, the Internet of Things, software development and other areas.
More than half of the R & D centers are located in Kyiv, and the major research centers are also Dnipro, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Vinnytsia.
As reported, the UNIT.City innovation park of businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky officially opened in April 2017 on the territory of the former Kyiv Motorcycle Plant. On its territory there are co-working space Chasopys-UNIT, UNIT Factory IT school, three laboratories, a business campus, a foundation and five accelerators.
