I am still puzzled over the question whether there are no rules in Belgrade or nobody obeys rules. Whatever the case, both are perfect for the creation of great ideas and great plans. I met inspiring people. Some of them are genius. The people with whom I want to realize some of the ideas and plans that rooted during the BDW. One day we will say: and it all started in Belgrade.
Life is a system of signs and symbols, where nothing is quite as it seems.
Belgrade Design Week was full of amazing energy, with thousands of people coming from all the neighboring countries. We engaged in great lectures, shows, parties, and intensive discourse about the renewal and new design enlightenment of Belgrade. It was the catalyst for design, branding, and change in Serbia. Design in Serbia took off and became a public subject.
Belgrade Designweek is a masterpiece in the art and science of conference design – and a hell of a good way to spend 3 days in Serbia!
My two big loves of 2010 was Belgrade Design Week and the TMA – 1 by KiBiSi that I presented there.
Both are children of determination, teamwork and eagerness to create a long lasting value. BDW and the TMA-1 are founded on solid content, great vibes and acumen. BDW will stay with me.
Because sometimes you go to some more established places there is always saturation. Here seems that you manage to see things and you manage to talk to people.
Do not make the same mistake as I did when coming to BDW, by planning things too tight and efficient.
But take time to enjoy it to the max. You will not regret it!”
It was great that the speakers and the attendees were actually to share ideas and express their views as opposed to solely exhibition purposed fairs. It was very impressive, how successful and innovative individuals from various disciplines spoke about their worlds and how the audience interactively took part.
To have attended and to have experienced this interaction at Belgrade Design Week made me very pleased. I would like to extend my congratulations to the BDW organizers due to this successful event.
I would like to thank you at BDW and all the others involved for a fantastic experience in the beautiful city of Belgrade! It was truly amazing and extremely inspiring to take part of it and I will keep the memory forever.
We shouldn't think too much ahead. Just be aware of what's happening around you. What kind of talents you have within you. In long run you want to create future, but future easily becomes an excuse to postpone decisions you have to take today. If you don't change today, tomorrow will be like today. So therefore everything is already happening in the now.
It was great for xarchitekten to be invited to BDW as Austrian Architects
We were expecting a great time by experiencing all this different thinking’s
on design issues. At first there was the road movie from Vienna to Belgrade: 600 Kilometers of flat land, an immense impression of wideness - like riding on a green ocean. Arriving Belgrade we were hosted by the perfect Organization and accompanied by very nice people of BDW.
The most valuable element of BDW´s Performing, Discussing, Lecturing in the Theater, Visiting the Clubs and Restaurants of Belgrade has been the linking excellent thinking and facing experts coming from different fields of design as well as different regions of Europe. xarchitekten are convinced about the great role of BDW as an Place for multidisciplinary Evolution, therefore BDW is facing a great future. Hopefully xarchitekten will be connected to BDW again.
Belgrade design week is a unique, inspiring and one-off design event in this significant geopolitical area. It is the only platform that is really working toward a positive change in the sense of perception and understandings of design profession in countries that formed ex Yugoslavia.
I was honored that I was a part of such a beautiful and emotional event.
June 2nd 1010, I approach Belgrade from the sky, over green fields, rain-clouds, grey cityscape and cold air. My first impression is - ugh!
I am greeted by my hostesses and the rest of the crew and immediately flowers start blooming in my mind. Life is everywhere, and after a few days I leave with an energy boost and a great lift in spirits. I am sad to go but I am sure to return. Belgrade is alive!"
Belgrade Design Week is a place where creativity gets the loudest applause in the world!”
A smart thing is Belgrade Design week, inviting great speakers from the whole world and make them meet, discuss, comment and expose their thought and quotes in a very distressed manner in one of the most wonderful and preserved town in Eastern Europe. Thanks I met nice and passionate people.
I loved Belgrade DESIGN WEEK
So many thanks to all colleagues, Jovan and the entire Belgrade Design Week. BDW is quite different from other design events. It is more about people than products. BDW is healing for designer souls.
My BDW began in Milan, having a crazy meeting with Jovan at the design library in ZONA TORTONA.
09:15 A short espresso with Mauricio Ribotti: "Are you sure you have a meeting with Jovan this time in the morning? It must be a mistake!"
09:40 a man with a small black suitcase enters the café: "Hi CARO!" both man hug. "Oh! Galit, you are also here?" We sit down and immediately start to talk "design”. After 3 espressos I know I have found my partner for the next revolution!
Coming to BDW was wonderful, like meeting old friends. BDW is the most passionate conference, full of amazing designpeople that share impossible designdreams. I was honored to be a part of this group - and would love to see you all again!
It changed me, I encountered new ideas that I will live for the rest of my life. The event marked a moment in history when many people in woke up to a bigger and more inclusive world. We were all rewarded for our efforts, style and glamour graced an experience that was food for our souls.
I returned to Belgrade many times to feel the pulse of its rugged heart. Cheers.
Dear design friends, Belgrade is engraved in my heart in many ways. First of all, the people - so open and interested. Than the wonderful soft organization of the event - one of the very best I ever attended. The super building. The joy to be with my dear fried Ross Lovegrove on stage and to meet Karim Rashid. All this together was unforgettable and please invite me again!
It was a true pleasure to participate in Belgrade Design Week. BDW has great speakers and lots of creative energy and I was amazed by the commitment from the organization and their ability to create an international event of such caliber. Even with a small team, BDW sets a standard that other cities in the world can learn from. Actually, many design events would probably feel embarrassed if they visited Belgrade Design Week and compared themselves.
If we tear out one part, if we forget to mention or do not acknowledge one type of region, one type of religion, one type of gender, the whole construction will fall apart
Belgrade Design Week is fantastic! It is a conference with a great international reputation.
I have heard so many friends, professionals and peers who said it was one of the best conferences in the world, and something you must do! So, I had no doubts in saying yes when Jovan asked me to do it 6 months ago. Belgrade Design Week is different, it’s a bit crazy, and the special passion and the energy is what makes it really good!
During the 10 year history of Normann Copenhagen, we have learned that passion for design and architecture is strongly connected to people and not places. Coming from a part of the world where DESIGN is almost part of your DNA and every household has a selection of Design Classics, does not guarantee that passion is found.
When coming to Belgrade for the BDW 2009 we found a dedication and passion at the highest level. We can only be jealous that such events, created with passion and real interest to push the viewers and visitors to the next level are not more commonly found in Denmark.
That again is a tribute to the great efforts found behind BDW and we hope to be part of your events in the years to come.
The Belgrade Design Week was the best design conference I have ever enjoyed – the specific spirit of the city in a kind of in between status, the rough tension which can still be felt ten years after the bombs, the pride and the looking for new orientation especially in the young generation – all this is giving the BDW a special flair far away from the current events of the global design circus.
In addition the enthusiastic organizational team trying hardly but unsuccessfully to keep the program along the schedules, the informal exchange between the international speakers, the loss of any discipline, the parties on the river … what ever and how ever the interrelations between these aspects are working – it makes the BDW an unique, likeable, inspiring and productive event, I will never forget.
Running in the morning through the city (down what the germans call a fussgangerzone) and being amazed by all the grand empty old buildings that reminded me of my Berlin beginnings. Grafitti on buildings. Lovely broken walls with acne'd facades from decades of reverse engineering.
Discovering that all the ships on the river were party boats and open till the morning. Sweating so much in one of the clubs, my phone got messed up. Losing phone in said club. Visiting belgrade police station to report a then stolen phone to a twenty-something cop with a doctor's lab coat, listening to Rammstein (loudly) while hacking out my report on a pre-electric typewriter that looked (and sounded) as if it was from some era before typewriters were invented.
Thinking of Naked Lunch. Thinking of Die-Hard. Listening to architects talk about porous facades. Thinking of old smart bombs. Imagining the flash and crunch of several floors of reinforced concrete collapsing in on themselves. Wondering why I'm the only interactive guy here. Why are there so many beautiful women in Belgrade? Why are there so many beautiful women in Belgrade?!
However unexpected it appears, Belgrade Design Week grows on the ruins of the modern “old world” , the seeds of genetically modified organisms on the promised land of design. I was there – I am still amazed!
Design is illogical. Precisely that is its essential quality.
Bags of energy, overwhelming hospitality, an inspiring mix of people, a refreshing lack of pretence – and of course lots of meat. Belgrade feels like a city where anything can happen, and Jovan and the BDW team have put it right on the creative map.
Belgrade Design Week is a one-off – a unique set-up that is free from the corporate atmosphere that so often pervades other such events. The energy, optimism and warmth of Jovan and his team flows through every event – lectures, workshops, meals & drinks alike!
I’ve never been good at sitting in a dark lecture hall for more than an hour or so at a time but found myself doing three lectures back to back at Belgrade – such was the quality of speakers. Timetabling was crazy at times but at BDW everybody seems happy to ‘go with the flow’ – and has an even better time for doing so. The City of Belgrade should be very proud of this gem!
Some of it will make sense to you, some of it won't make sense. Some of it would be truth, mostly it will be lies.
This is my third time here and I love Belgrade’s frustration, it’s exciting. The reason for my visit is also great, because this conference brings a lot of good energy.
Beograd is a regional centre and BDW is really professional and sympathy all over to me. Major compliments to all, you're doing a great pioneering job. Such a pity that local business and government still don't grasp the real importance and potential of it. If countries like UK, DK, NL support it, this is because it is quality; Serbia should support it because it is important and (more) Serbian companies should participate to reap the benefits in cooperation with Serbian designers.
So what is smart in this consequence? Insert the BDW logo with the year 2011.
What a fantastic feast this Belgrade Design Week was!
Inspiring, exciting and full of intensive dialogue.
More than any other conferences BDW was showing, why we are all Designers – because it's about the vibe, the passion, the people and the culture of exchange.
Belgrade! We'll come back!”
Belgrade Design Week is really good. We were extremely well looked after, and the conference was dynamic, interesting and different. The food and the parties were also very memorable! Thanks for inviting us, we had an excellent time.
Belgrade was an unexpected, inspiring and energizing experience. A very unorthodox & charismatic host, harems of beautiful hostesses, less beautiful speakers with their advantages too (mainly the speaking part) and finally some recognition of my talent as a DJ. Biomega & KiBiSi colonized Belgrade for a brief moment. Actually, for the first time my KiBiSi partners, Lars Larsen, Bjarke Ingels & I were speaking at the same event – a seal of grandeur I gather.
Some day I want to be remembered as the Caliph of Belgrade - & the designer bicycle pioneer.
Belgrade Design week unlike so may other city design events has a wonderfully essential vibe about it. Nothing pretentious in the air but big bags of energy and enthusiasm. It feels like the Serbs haven't already decided what design is and so are open and ready to riff off the ideas that come in to sharp focus over these precious days. The city itself has a gritty charm about it which complements the event perfectly.
Yes to fluid and amorphous forms. Yes to intelligent design. Yes to diverse, interconnected elements. And yes to organic beauty.
Belgrade truly touched and moved me. It is difficult to describe feelings that overow me. Your desire to bring people together, your dedication and commitment to an idea, the need to look the people in the eye, the inner beauty I have encountered here, all is so sincere and real. There are not many such places on the planet. Please, invite me again!
Been a few weeks after the end of the Belgrade Design Week, but in my mind is still alive all the energy collected in the three very intense days in Belgrade. I enthusiastically accepted the invitation to the BDW 2010 but, honestly, I did not expect to live a so unique experience: BDW Conference is an incredible concentration of creativity, freedom, passion and feeling that involves all participants. Amazing the people of the organization guided by the genius and craziness of Jovan!
I stopped working for others because then I have the responsibility and I feel like an advertising agency. When I work for Yello, I can make a fool out of myself. Whatever I do I go through the process of becoming a child, an idiot, totally unimportant. When I have the responsibility to start with it is disturbing."
"I think every human is a God. All our life is about becoming like a child, trying to find out who is really hidden inside yourself, who you really are, who is the divine being inside. Great alpinist climb mountains not to become world famous, but to learn something about themselves, to come closer to that inner-child. If you are exposing yourself to the process of climbing the mountain, it is very important you are prepared to make a fool of yourself, to let yourself fall into the emptiness of vague idea, and to have the courage to be a total idiot. Only then you have a chance to die with the smile on your face.
The audience must believe what they see.
The participant’s list is impressive! Belgrade Design Week is the best professional event I ever participated in. But to me it also has emotional significance. I am in Belgrade again, twenty years later. I was not sure what to expect but I encountered a fantastic atmosphere and amazing people. I have a feeling I have old friends here.
I discovered the most lively platform in the design world, from products to architecture, from strategies to visual experimentation. Design Week was a rich surprise that is beyond boundaries of disciplines and limitations of media. It was a place to meet old friends again and find new ones for future collaborations and exchange. And it was a great party time! - it´s all inclusive!
I just loved attending the Belgrade Design Festival everything was just perfect not only did I feel spoiled by the organization and captivated by the city, the audience was super receptive and it was a great experience to share the Camper story with such a great atmosphere.
Great impressions from the conference, but also from the city, from the parties, and from the food!”
It was an amazing experience attending the BDW earlier this year. Thank you Jovan and all BDW team for making it not only possible but also memorable.
BDW was a wonderfully rewarding experience. I think the mix that made it
work so well was a tangible passion for design realized in the most relaxed
and friendly atmosphere that I have come across for any event like this –
truly inspirational, long may it thrive.
As for what is a smart, forging partnerships and working with like minded
designers and clients always seems a pretty smart and rewarding way to go about design and I have a very good feeling that BDW will be the catalyst for many such collaborations.
During Belgrade Design Week 2009, you enabled participants to meet with representatives from different countries, in professional, as well a sin social settings, which provided the opportunity for spontaneous interactions, where everyone was engaged in true cross-cultural dialogues. This allowed participants from different countries to become familiar with attitudes, ideas, and practices on the common topics of design.
We had received first hand accounts of current situation in creative fields and intellectual status of Belgrade Design Week, exchanged ideas and knowledge, mixed and mingled among each other. And the unique opportunity was given for all of us to establish professional relationships and develop lifelong friendships. We were eager to discover Belgrade and had a unique chance to enjoy the city! No doubt, it was our first, but not our last visit to Belgrade. All the best to Belgrade Design Week for the future to come! We are looking forward to be a part of your success
B.D.W. is "Being with your whole creative self in WONDERLAND". Getting out of the line (box), navigating into the world of sensation and intellect, showing curiosity and sharing knowledge, living in clear and vague situations, bringing Art & design to talk to each other, loving, touching, eating, growing, expecting the unexpected and yet always being surprised, never accepting what was planned a month earlier. And people, interesting people, creative people, wonderful, open-minded people, beautiful people, people who think DESIGN IS A WAY OF THINKING.
All of this is true. I was lucky to be there and loved it.
I stopped working for others because then I have the responsibility and I feel like an advertising agency. When I work for Yello, I can make a fool out of myself. Whatever I do I go through the process of becoming a child, an idiot, totally unimportant. When I have the responsibility to start with it is disturbing."
"I think every human is a God. All our life is about becoming like a child, trying to find out who is really hidden inside yourself, who you really are, who is the divine being inside. Great alpinist climb mountains not to become world famous, but to learn something about themselves, to come closer to that inner-child. If you are exposing yourself to the process of climbing the mountain, it is very important you are prepared to make a fool of yourself, to let yourself fall into the emptiness of vague idea, and to have the courage to be a total idiot. Only then you have a chance to die with the smile on your face.
