Russian season: modern Russian design and architecture

TATYANA KUDRYAVTSEVAart critic, curator of Russian design exhibitions, co-founder of the IZBA ProjectI remember Milano Design Week 2014, while we were opening our collaboration project IZBA with Yaroslav Misozhnikov. The words «Russian product design» got most of the people look a bit puzzled. And here in Russia even more than abroad. Now we can speak about our first product designers, first swallows, and about the movement that is getting more and more confident. Russia has born a whole generation of designers that exhibit on the best worldwide platforms, win international awards, collaborate with the foreign brands, run their own brands. It’s too early to speak of the new Russian design school however we can definitely define the criteria of the new universal designers. Their youth, their understanding of the global context and the ambition to embody an idea in a real product are worth admiration. While the demand for the designers solutions in Russia is still almost absent, many designers turn to the workshops abilities that can produce a quality product by handicraft, and master their skills in production of small series and niche art-pieces. Some of them open their own workshops and productions. They also start actively collaborate with foreign companies and producers.Sometimes the demand for the objects of Russian design can be found abroad. Despite the wave of the interest on the products made in Russia, Russian market for sale of the designers products is still on the early formation stage.However we have to note some positive changes in the perception of the design culture and Russian design in particular. Popularization of Russian design was at first on the responsibility of Russian designers themselves. And a couple of design-enthusiasts. Now it finally gets to the institutional level: Moscow Design Museum shows an exhibition devoted to the developent of design in Russia from 1917 to 2017, Center of fashion and design D3 creates a gallery of Russian design objects, MARS Gallery x British High School of Design start a serie of the exhibitions devoted to the young generation of the local designers. Topic of the month for Design Mate in August is dedicated to the modern Russian design, thus we will take a close look at those and others initiatives. We will highlight individual success stories of Russian designers, discuss the nuances of organizing your own brand, working with production, promoting it in the global field and acquiring international experience. We will also look at the correlation between Global and Russian in contemporary Russian design, and make a step towards forming an idea of what is the face of Russian design.
On the cover - Non-Existent, Supaform Studio