One Design Week 2014 - Design Bazaar

Every year the Design Bazaar at the end of One Design Week becomes better and better. This year there was some phenomenal stuff by local artists and designers working in Plovdiv, as well as by some design studios from Sofia. I ended up spending quite a lot of money there, but it was all worth it, I think. I love having handmade stuff, and I also love giving handmade objects as gifts. I think that it is very nice to know that you've been given something that's one of a kind. I have always loved handmade jewelry as well, so I ended up getting a couple of items from a very cute local shop, which was not really a part of the bazaar but had interesting stuff all the same. Since brooches are my new thing, I got an earrings and brooch set in beige and green, as well as a bird brooch (I am obsessed with birds, yes).

So here are some highlights from my design shopping experience:

Piron 
http://pirondesign.com/bg/

This was by far my favorite booth at the bazaar, and I ended up purchasing one of these flower trays for my mom. The trays and coasters on the photo are made of pressed flowers covered in transparent resin with a wooden frame and beautiful decorative handles. They have such a rustic charm, and they were so fresh and lovely that I couldn't resist getting the one with the purple and yellow flowers on the photo below.

HandДжоб
http://www.handdjob.net/
http://knitrebel.blogspot.com/

The way I first got introduced to this interesting brand was by standing in line to get a croissant at the One Design Week Forum breakfast bar, and I saw that the girl in front of me had this really cool leather bag with a funny tag saying HandДжоб on its little pocket. I thought that the name was quite clever and funny, so I looked it up online, and I decided that I might buy a bag once I get back to Sofia. To my pleasant surprise, the designer had a booth at the bazaar, so I bought a bag there! It's the red one form the photo below.

evgeniya tsancova contemporary jewellery 
http://evgeniyatsancova.blogspot.com/

This jewelry designer makes really cool necklaces, bracelets and rings of knotted cords or laces (not sure what to call them). Head over to her blog for some more designs.

Photos from http://evgeniyatsancova.blogspot.com/

I also bought a very cute "KoseBose" mug (meaning it has a cute birdie) and a very vintagy black-and-white polka dot brooch that I can't wait to wear. They are by artist Albena Djokova (https://www.facebook.com/AlbenaDjokova) Here they are:

There was much more to see at the bazaar, of course, and also in the Kapana neighborhood, but I can't possibly write about it all. Here are some other interesting shops, designers and their work:

https://www.facebook.com/find.ser/
https://www.facebook.com/whatamonstar
http://viktorpavlov.jimdo.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Rakodelnicata
http://malukindian.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/yana-tankovska-design/236167473120229

And just a few words about Cable Lovers: awesome light fixtures! Both retro and modern, and very interesting! Check them out here: http://cablelovers.com/en/

Photo from http://cablelovers.com/en/

One Design Week 2014 - Kapana Logo Deisgn Contest

Those of you who have followed my blog over the years know that I am quite the fan of Sofia Design Week, and I try to attend the forum every year if I can. This year, to my surprise, Sofia Design Week became One Design Week (named after the organizers, One) and was moved to the city of Plovdiv. At first I was annoyed. How dare they move my favorite event of the year to another city!? What are they thinking!? What insolence! I wasn't even sure that I would be able to go at all if a work thing came up for that weekend. 

But then I sort of liked the idea. True, I couldn't spend a full week in Plovdiv browsing the design exhibitions and attending various events, but I had quite a lot of fun taking a weekend to roam the streets and galleries of this charming city. I spend most of Saturday at the Forum, which I will talk about in a separate post, as usual, but I spent my brakes visiting the nearby design shows, walking along the pedestrian zone and enjoying some parmigiano, sun-dried tomatoes, sausages, and canolli at an Italian food fair in downtown Plovdiv. 

Walking along the pedestrian zone, I also had the chance to look at the logo designs of the finalists in the Absolut Kapana logo design contest. For those of you who don't know, Kapana is a 19th century neighborhood in downtown Plovdiv, which used to house various worksmiths, but has at the edge of oblivion as a cultural playground in the past few years. Now the manucipality of Plovdiv is trying to revive the area as an artistic meeting place, and ABSOLUT joined in the fun by organizing a contest to find a new symbol for Kapana, focusing both on its past and on its artistic future. You can read more about the contest on its official website www.absolutkapana.bg

I snapped a few photos of the entries of the finalists (not all of them) with my phone, which I have posted below with a short commentary for each one. Unfortunately, the logo that I liked best (and even those I liked almost as much as that) was not the winner. I am sure that there will be people who don't agree with my opinions, asking who am I to critisize the work of others. Oh well. They'll have to deal with it. After all, these are just my humble opinions:) 

Let me start by talking about my favorite logo. Perhaps it is not all that minimalistic as is the trend in logo design lately, but it captured my attention right away, which is what a logo should be doing in the first place. I think that this logo carries a certain feeling of mysticism that is inherent in the Kapana area, and it does a great job of conveying the uniqueness of the traditional Bulgarian architecture of the Revival in a modern way, without having too many unnecessary details. Also, I think that the origami-like structure (see the tshirt) that is made to resemble the map of the area gives the design an artistic, DIY, craftsy look that I like very much. 

Photo from http://www.absolutkapana.bg/ 

This next logo is nice and colorful, but for me it fell just short of being original, perhaps because I think I have seen a million other logos with the same bright colors and angular shapes online and in stock vector websites. It is visually pleasing, and I do like the design of the bag, but otherwise I felt it was too generic for Kapana. 

I liked this next logo by Elena Kalpakchieva reminds me of the Hudertwasserhaus in Vienna, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It is good because the logo conveys a sense of cultural richness and the uniqueness of the location with its colors and building shapes, but at the same time it is bad because, well, it evokes the Hudertwasserhaus, which is nowhere near Plovdiv. But perhaps that's just me.

The logo by Boris Bratkov is another favorite of mine, even if it is probably the most abstract in the selection. To me it seems like it is also loosely based on the map of Kapana, and also emphasizes its desired status as a meeting point for diverse artists. Furthermore, I can see a certain letter K shape in the lattice of objects in the logo, which reminds me of the name of the neighborhood. If you go to the contest website and leaf through the finalist booklet, you can also see some other applications of the logo that the designer has presented in terms of themes (astronomy, typography, etc.) that I really liked.

The following logo is very focused on the letter K, and even though the designer explains that it is constructed of architectural shapes typical for the neighborhood, I can’t help but be focused entirely on the K shape. If anything, to me the letter looks like a chair. I guess that there is always a risk when you create a design that can take on lots of shapes depending on how you view it: there is always someone who sees something that you didn’t mean them to see.

This next logo looked interesting to me, and I think that the funnel shape does play into the idea of a “trap,” which is the meaning of the word “Kapana.” It looks like something you fall into and might not be able to or want to get out of. However, you could also argue that it looks like a colorful iceberg or icicle.

The next design by Stoyan Hristov plays with the same means of expression like the logo by Elena Kalpakchieva that I discussed above. I find this design by Stoyan Hristov more appealing, however. There is a certain art deco feel about the typography and colors, though, which does not entirely correspond to the architecture of the area. Still, I think this design was one of my favorites.

Apart from being visually pleasing in its triangular shape, the next logo by Ilia Gruev didn’t seem like it had much to do with the past, present or future of the Kapana area, but that might be just my opinion. The design resembles that of skater apparel, which is nice, but also limits its appeal if we want to real a wider audience. When I read the short description that the designer submitted, I had to agree that he did play around with the idea of a crossroads, but I have to admit that I didn't see that when I first looked at it. Perhaps we are all too jaded by the commercial designs we see each day, and it is hard to look at images without putting them in the context of your own experience.

I did enjoy the design by the team of Mila Ivanova, Tsvetomir Pavlov, and Vassil Krustev, but I do wish that there were options in color. The logo is constructed in such a way as to demand applications in black and white, but I feel like we would lose something of the artistic feel of the neighborhood if we don’t have any color. After I came back to Sofia, I browsed through the contest website, and I saw that they did, indeed, offer an option in color. However, I still felt like there was something small that was missing.

At first glance I found the next logo quite charming: it has a vintage feel and could be viewed as a sort of artistic compass. However, on second thought I decided that while it was pleasing and beautiful, it was too focused on the past and on the specific architectural element of wrought iron and other decorative elements from iron. The designers noticed these elements in Kapana, but I missed them.

The design by Mariska Ferket is decidedly minimalistic, but adds visual interest through colorful patterns, textures, and other graphic elements. Somehow, though, it is only vaguely connected to the atmosphere of Kapana by its shape, taken from the letter K. Looking at the logo, I would guess that it had something to do with design and creativity, but definitely not that it represented the Kapana neighborhood in Plovdiv.

And finally, the winner. It is a good design, constructed out of the letters of the name Kapana and stylized into a square; it is both open, closed, minimalistic and expressive. What I didn’t necessarily like about it was the associations with the art of Mondrian that it brought in me, not because I don’t like Mondrian (which I do), but because Mondrian and Kapana in my mind do not invoke the same feeling and meaning. At the same time, I do agree that the execution is smart and fresh, so even if it is not my absolute favorite design, I definitely see its potential to work wonderfully as a logo for Kapana that is modern, clean, and focused on the future. 

Photo from http://www.absolutkapana.bg/ 

For those of you who didn’t get the chance to be at One Design Week in Plovdiv and look at the design entries in the contest, I do urge you to browse through the official website and check out the explanations of the artists that accompany their design submissions. I always find it very refreshing and enlightening to see the thought and work process of other creatives. Head over to www.absolutkapana.bg And enjoy! 


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A Photo Walk Around Koprivshtica

We've had quite a lot of holidays this month, but since I was quite busy at work, I hadn't actually realized how long of a break we would be having until it was almost upon us. This meant no travel plans, which sucked a little bit, especially when it seems that everyone you know is suddenly going somewhere new and exciting. Oh, well. There's nobody to blame but myself and the Prague trip that some friends and I were thinking of doing but never actually booked. I actually had to work a bit during these holidays, so I guess it was great for my clients that I was here in Sofia, although I would have been happier strolling around Prague's Old Town or, say, enjoying the sights in Sorrento.

Still, some friends of ours called us with the idea of heading to the picturesque town of Koprivshtica for its annual reenactment of the famous April Uprising from 1876 that happened there against the Ottomans, who ruled the area at the time. The town is quite lovely with its Revival architecture, and it has a special place in every Bulgarian's heart because of both its historical significance and the fact that it was the home and birthplace of several important Bulgarian writers and poets. My personal favorite is Dimcho Debelyanov, and I found some translations of his poems here (my favorites are "To Return to your father’s house" and "Remember, remember the quiet yard…", although of course they sound the best when they are read in Bulgarian).

 

The weather here has been iffy all month, and while I like that everything is lush and green, I do not enjoy the constant London-like cloud cover and having to carry an umbrella everywhere. We knew that there was a risk of getting to Koprivshtica and having to run from museum-house to museum-house in the rain, but we decided to hope for the best. We got in early and had a couple of hours of nice weather, walking around the old cobblestone streets and visiting some of the historical places. However, we weren't so lucky as to enjoy a whole day without any rain, and of course it started pouring right at the beginning of the April Uprising reenactment, meaning everyone, especially the volunteers, got completely drenched and all restaurants in the area got fully packed in something like a second.

One of the guys in our party, though, was able to book us a table at a local mehana, so after enjoying some good food and waiting out the rain, we had another couple of hours of nice weather that we used to the fullest to check out all the sights and even buy local sweets and crafty items like my new favorite crooked rustic walnut chopping board. The trip was actually very nice, and apart from the rain, I enjoyed all of it and the opportunity to get out of the city. Strolling along the streets and admiring the beautiful colorful houses was a great change of scenery and, of course, a photographer's dream :).

 

 

 

The locals were also making a huge pot of something between a jam and the English mincemeat, boiling dried apricots, nuts and raisins and selling them fresh from the fire in jars. The dried apricots looked so colorful in their plate that I couldn't resist snapping a picture.

 

And how about this hand-painted sign saying "Cafe-Sweet Shop Delight"? Isn't that just lovely!

Palm Sunday in Sofia: In Pictures

Last weekend was Palm Sunday, which is known here in Bulgaria as "Flower Day" or Цветница. Everyone that bears the name of a flower, tree, shrub and so on has a name day, which probably amounts to half of the population, so it is usually a day of many celebrations. More than a few of my friends celebrate their name days on Palm Sunday, as well as my close friend Lilly.

 
This year it was a day of celebration for me as well, as I had gotten some good news during that week, and I had finally received my MBA diploma. After so much work, long days and weekends spent in front of the computer, I was more than eager to graduate, and I had been expecting the official document for some time now. Getting it felt like the closure of a chapter in my life, and it felt great, like a tangible accomplishment. Therefore, I decided to celebrate my degree with my parents and Pavel with a nice brunch at Cactus, one of our favorite restaurants downtown. After that, we went to light a candle in a nearby church and took a long walk, ducking into various quirky stores along the way. The streets were full of people, and flower sellers were camped outside the churches with tulips, lilac and the traditional willow branches.

We browsed around a very interesting bookstore / novelty shop on Shishman Str. called Elephant, which has painted murals on the outside and an inside full of banners, flags, books, mugs, pins, and various other curious objects, and we bought fresh-from-the-oven loaves of full-grain hand-made bread from a recently opened bakery nearby. During the past few years, Shishman Street has gradually turned from just one more shopping street to an artsy, boutique-y, organic bakery and trendy bar sort of street, where you are sure to meet a friend no matter what time of day or night. I few years ago there was a Sofia Breathes day on that street, which I wrote about here.

It has been quite a while since I had had such a leisurely day outside, and I enjoyed myself a lot by soaking up the springtime city atmosphere. All in all, it was a wonderful day, and one I hope to repeat soon.

Fall Couples Photoshoot with Lilly & Sasho

Back in the fall I had the pleasure of doing a photo shoot with one of my favorite couples - my close friend Lilly and her man Sasho. It's always wonderful to see two people in love, and it was even better this time because it involved people that I care about. I have always been a sucker for romance, so I jumped on the chance to photograph them with the beautiful fall foliage of South Park in Sofia as a backdrop. 

I like South Park as a photo shoot location because it has beautiful ponds and a variety of trees that make for an interesting setting. A few years ago I did another couple's photo shoot there (read more about it here), but while that one was in the spring and featured a lot of blooming trees, this one was all about the red and gold colors of October. I never got around to posting them last year, but I came across them last night, so I thought I'd share.

I am available for couples sessions, so feel free to contact me if you'd like to request one. Enjoy some of the photos from this beautiful fall shoot!