Some countries in Europe have established themselves as hotspots of design with a justifiable right to call themselves such. Dutch Design or Swiss Design comes to one‘s mind, same as Spain, of course Italy, Germany, France or England. Austria might not be listed among those.
In reality Austria has quite a thriving design scene, in all areas to make a proud point, in industrial design as well as product design, in graphic as well as illustration, in typography as well as experimental design or fashion design. Reasons are a good education system, but more than that the fact, that Austria has found it‘s place in the centre of Europa and our young designers do not hesitate to study abroad (for which the EU is of big help) and the country is able to attract many designers from abroad at the same time. The geographical position of Austria – quite in the centre – also helps all of the creative class to be well connected to the neighbour countries, plus an openness of the country itself supports these networks.
Many organisations in design reflect this change and understood, that this new strength in design needs platforms to be seen and heard. Some of them have been around for a very long time. Others are much younger, but seek the same aims, to make design more accessible, to transfer knowledge, to support design and designers, to advise companies in reaching economic success and a unique position through working with designers, or simply present design and designers to a wider public and celebrate the achievements. Seven of those organisations have now decided to combine their strengths and their networks in order to present Austrian design abroad and communicate the activities outside of Austria in a unified form as AustriaDesignNet - designaustria, designforum vienna, Creative Industries Styria, MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, CREATIVE.REGION Linz & Upper Austria and departure, the Creative Unit of the Vienna Business Agency. By each keeping their different approaches and perceptions of design the initiating partners of AustriaDesignNet aim to communicate the whole of Austria‘s vivid design scene, the results, activities and successes to an international public
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