Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Photo: Ian Anderson’s workshop
The third Pop-Up! Sarajevo – Student Festival of Visual Communications was held in Sarajevo and was attended by some of the leading regional and international designers.
The organisers of Pop-Up are the students of Graphic design at The Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo with help and support of their professors and collaborators.
The exhibition of selected works from this year’s guests and lecturers officially opened the Festival. The young artist Sha Nay’s performance was enjoyed by more than 150 guests, which was then followed by the exhibition.
There was an opportunity for all visitors to attend Pecha Kucha Night in Art Cinema Kriterion where 11 young creatives from across BiH presented their work in an interesting and dynamic format. The presentation was by: Azra Šahinović, Šejla Bratić, Ajla Salkić, Enis Čišić, Boris Lalić, GSU Brodac, TJT, Atelier 01 Concept Studio, Vedad Dizdarević, Nadrealistički integracionizam, Zdravko Cvjetković and Sabina Cvjetković. In relatively short space of time it was possible to see a new generation of BiH artists who are creating design, architecture, photography, art, comic art, illustration etc.
The Festival programme started with two morning workshops at the Academy of Fine Arts. The workshops were run by Ian Anderson the founder of the legendary studio The Designers Republic and Hrvoje Živčić, the young Croatian typographer.
Hrvoje Živčić said of the workshops: “Through translation of subjective impressions of letters we tried to create expressive logotypes. The students’ task was to select a certain concept they then had to illustrate using a particular typographic style. Given the time constraints in the workshop, I’d say they performed excellently.”
The main events of the Festival – the lectures and guests’ presentations were held during the afternoon at the Kriterion. The first lecture was given by Hrvoje Živčić (Cro), followed by the designer Felix H. Beck (DE), Boštjan Botas Kenda (SLO), BiH photographer Zijah Gafić, Emil Kozola (SLO), comic artist Stevan Subić (SRB), the typographer Nikola Đurek (CRO) and the festival was ended by the British designer Ian Anderson.
A separate lecture by Slavimir Stojanović was organised in association with Mixer House Sarajevo.
These presentations were perfect opportunity to see diverse fields of creativity through works by some of the best regional and international designers. Over the two days of the festival some 400 visitors had the opportunity to witness some the best examples of design, typography, photography, comic art, design engineering, etc.
When asked about the Pop-Up! Festival and its importance for the students, Ian Anderson (The Designers Republic) said: “It is important for students to be exposed to different ideas from different designers, because they all have their own personal creative approach. During training it is almost impossible for students not to be influenced by a limited number of people (mentors, professors, etc). For that reason these events are very important because they give you an opportunity in a very short time to see a variety of methods. My advice to students would be not to listen to the facts of a specific stories that the speakers tell, because those stories are the speakers stories, they are not yours. So it is important to take small elements that suit you and it’s OK to be selfish, it’s OK to think about yourself and what you need because that’s what you’re going to take with you into the future, it is the opportunity to be open to a lot of different approaches.”
