At the end of June, the European School of Design, a long-standing and active partner of the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, opened its office in Italy, for which we sincerely congratulate it. On this occasion, we sent our congratulations to the founder and head of EDS, Dmytro Medyanik, directly to Italy, where he and his team are now actively working, establishing connections and educational work of the Italian branch of EDS – The Italian Gateway, located in the city of Manzano, preparing for recruitment her first listeners.

Dmytro learned that this new and important page in the School’s history was opened in cooperation with “Cluster Legno Arredo Casa FVG” and with the support of the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. All 13 years of its existence, the European School of Design has been approaching this milestone stage of its development, bringing Ukrainian design to the level of European standards. For years, plans were hatched for the School to expand its borders, and it finally came true. The war not only did not prevent but also, one might say, accelerated the successful implementation of the ambitious plan. The European School of Design has been European in essence since its inception, and now geographically as well. Currently, the Ukrainian branch of the School, led by co-founder Olena Shestopal, continues to take care of the Ukrainian market and provide educational services to those who have started their studies and to those who are joining distance programs today.

We asked Oleksandra Medyanyk, the co-founder, who is also currently in Italy together with colleagues preparing EDS-The Italian Gateway for the premiere academic season, how specifically the Italian representation of the School will contribute to the development of Ukrainian design.

– At least by the fact that we will train future designers using slightly different programs than those we train in Kyiv. I can already say that we plan to apply innovative technologies and adapt our programs to modern challenges and certain features of the European design market. We expect that listeners will be, in particular, Ukrainians, who, especially now, are in large numbers outside of Ukraine and are actively looking for employment there. And I also note that the educational programs will be taught in English online and with the possibility of on-site classes in Italy. In addition, our branch in Manzano will perform a certain informational and mediating mission, for example, promoting the involvement of Ukrainian designers to participate in large-scale European design competitions and commercial projects. We can also talk about the search for projects that could be undertaken not only by Ukrainian designers but also by manufacturers, in particular, members of the Association. And in these matters, constant communication with UAFM cannot be dispensed with.

The Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, which, as we know, also makes its significant – not only theoretical but also to a greater extent practical – contribution to the development of domestic design (for example, by holding prestigious competitions in which the art of object design is fully taken into account – it is no coincidence that among members last year’s jury was our manager Dmytro Medyanyk), so he can fully be considered our partner in this matter. Such partnership relations are even documented and sealed by the Memorandum of Cooperation between the European School of Design and the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers.

Of course, yes. And such recognition is well deserved. We reminded EDS partners that UAFM’s efforts to develop Ukrainian design are not limited to holding industry competitions. By the way, if we talk about contests, recently, despite the state of war in the country, the results were summarized and awards were presented to the winners of last year’s “Furniture Maker of the Year” contest (by the way, the European School of Design was recognized as one of the winners in the nomination “Reliable Partner of the Year”). . One cannot fail to mention directly the design competition “MMOD” – a subject design competition for the mass market, which is overseen by a member of the board of UAFM, Oksana Donska.

The fact that furniture design is one of the priorities in the activities of UAFM is also evidenced by the fact that the Design Platform has been effectively functioning within the structure of the Association for a long time, headed by the authoritative Ukrainian designer, member of the board of UAFM Vitaly Ivakhov, who as a speaker and business trainer has conducted dozens of workshops – design classes.

It has already become common for Association members to hold Speed-dating and Design brunches, communication and educational events, the purpose of which is to introduce and establish a cultural dialogue between Ukrainian architects and designers with national furniture manufacturers in order to initiate mutually beneficial cooperation, joint commercial projects that could bring Ukrainian furniture to the wide way of world recognition. Participation in such familiarization events for EDS employees and young, creative designers – its graduates is indispensable. In the work practice of UAFM, there is also the experience of inviting foreign (specifically Israeli) designers to Ukraine to get to know Ukrainian furniture manufacturers, and exchange experiences with colleagues, all with the same goal: to initiate cooperation.

The topic of furniture design was not left behind at last year’s first Ukrainian B2B exhibition “FUBE”, the founder and organizer of which is the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers. The mission of this exhibition was and will continue to be not only the creation of a convenient platform for the productive communication of representatives of the furniture industry of Ukraine with Ukrainian and foreign buyers, the search for partners for the purpose of concluding mutually beneficial contracts – it is also intended to promote all kinds of rapprochement between designers and furniture manufacturers and their suppliers for the implementation of joint ideas and projects Within the framework of the exhibition, the design community also had the opportunity to communicate and exchange experience, information, to show their achievements. The design component for this exhibition is really very important because it is the unique design that is able to more powerfully bring the Ukrainian furniture industry to the world markets.

Returning to the informative reason for this publication – the opening of the Italian representative office of the European School of Design – it is safe to say that this expansion of the borders of EDS and its educational opportunities will provide additional opportunities for the expansion and deepening of our partnership relations.