Published: 8 February 2024
Creative workshops: a joint mission of the School of Form and the Paged company
This winter semester, second and fourth year students at the School of Form will take part in interesting workshops organized in cooperation with Paged Sklejka. Under the watchful eye of experienced instructors - designers Anna Bera, Agata Nowak, Marta Rowińska, Megi Malinowska and anthropologist Prof. Ewa Klekot, projects will be created entirely from recycled materials from furniture production.
Business Project
The Business Project course, led by Anna Bera and Prof. Ewa Klekot, is part of the final stage of education at the School of Form in Warsaw. This challenging project aims to throw participants in at the deep end and prepare them for their future professional environment. Through this initiative, they will have the opportunity to apply their acquired knowledge to solve specific problems and communicate with clients. They have to familiarize themselves with the project brief and face the constraints that often occur in their profession, such as the availability of materials and technology issues.
The main task is to design and produce a prototype of an object measuring no more than 40 x 40 x 40 cm. It will be a small gadget that will be distributed by our business partner, the Paged company. Each project team will receive a set of materials to be used in the construction of the prototype, including parts representing three woodworking technologies and wood-derived products. The materials provided include plywood modules, bent-wire parts and planed or turned elements. Each group will be required to create products that not only reflect an innovative approach, but also rely on recycling waste generated during the furniture making process. The team can use other materials in their project, but these should not exceed 20% of the total object.
The project brief states that the object should be unconventional, humorous, surprising, intriguing and give the impression of coherence and integration, for example through the use of color. The final project should be based on specific and real usability.
The humanities part of the workshop will consist of four sessions led by anthropologist Prof. Ewa Klekot. The first sessions will introduce the concept of affordance in the context of design. They will discuss the functionality and meaning of the object, as well as creative aspects such as how to incorporate humor and elements of surprise into their work while maintaining functionality. Part of the sessions will focus on the cultural contexts of gifts, souvenirs and "gadgets", with particular emphasis on "marketing gadgets". The second set of meetings will define research questions for desk research. These questions will be analyzed in more detail in the third session.
Furniture Design
"Furniture Design" is a course for second year students specializing in product design at the School of Form. It is led by Agata Nowak, Megi Malinowska, Marta Rowińska and Prof. Ewa Klekot, who is responsible for the humanities part. In the six-week project, which is carried out in pairs, the students are tasked with creating a system consisting of a maximum of three structural elements, mainly using plywood as a raw material.
The whole design process is quite complex, including preliminary research, sketching, modeling and prototyping. Sessions consist of short lectures or presentations integrated with practical work on projects and consultation sessions. Participants work under the guidance of tutors, but the final decisions on the function and form of the projects are up to them. It is not only an opportunity to apply knowledge in practice, but also to develop presentation skills and gain experience of the wider design process.
Successful collaboration
This is not the first time that the School of Form has worked with Paged. Last year, students used CNC technology and materials provided by the company in their projects, which are used in the production of furniture. Their final projects were exhibited at the Targi Rzeczy Ładnych, Paged Sklejka headquarters in Pisz and the SWPS University campus in Warsaw. /p>
Prowadzący
Megi Malinowska
Co-founder of the furniture brand Tabanda – www.tabanda.pl, established in 2009.
Over the course of twelve years, the creative minds behind Tabanda have curated a collection of exceptionally crafted furniture, earning widespread acclaim in Poland and abroad. Their designs have graced the pages of renowned publications such as Wallpaper, Elle Décor, ICON, and Designboom. Notably, they have received the 'Must Have' distinction ten times at the Łódź Design Festival for their outstanding products. Their innovative designs were recognized when they received the title of Creator of the Year in 2014 from Design Alive for the interactive exhibition "Strefa Testów" at the Łódź Design Festival. In 2015, they collaborated on the national exhibition "Do it your way" at the Milan Design Week in Milan, an event organized by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The year 2020 brought further accolades, with the British magazine BUILD honoring them as the Best Sustainable Manufacturer in Europe. In 2021, they were honored with The Best of Elle Decoration in the category of Author's Brand. Throughout the years, they have been present at furniture fairs and festivals in Poland and worldwide, including IMM Cologne, ICFF New York, M&O Paris, Milan Design Week, Warsaw Home, DMY Berlin, Łódź Design Festival, and Gdynia Design Days. Megi Malinowska also expresses herself artistically, mainly in land-art installations.
Marta Rowińska
Co-founder of the Beton Design Studio
She is an architect who also specializes in interior and exhibition design. A finalist for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2011 and the winner of the first edition of the Architectural Award of Polityka in 2021. Her works have been exhibited at various events including Design March in Reykjavík, Gdynia Design Days, Helsinki Design Week (2016), Ventura Lambrate in Milan (2015), Gdynia Design Days (2014), London Design Festival (2013), and the Korea Foundation Cultural Center Gallery in Seoul (2012).
Ewa Klekot
Art anthropologist and translator
She studied archaeology and ethnography. Holds a doctorate in art studies. Ewa Klekot is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Warsaw. She is interested in interdisciplinary approaches to research of the meanings of objects and visual performances. She lectures on anthropology of art, anthropology of museums and the social construction of monuments in Poland. In School of Form she coordinates lectures and workshops in anthropology.