Why Design? A Selection of the Slovak Design Award 2024 + 2025

The Slovak Design Center (SCD) and the East Slovak Gallery (ESG) invite you to visit the exhibition Why Design?, subtitled A Selection of the Slovak Design Award 2024 + 2025. The exhibition presents the diverse forms of contemporary design and demonstrates that its role extends beyond providing functional solutions: design also raises questions, sparks discussion and explores new possibilities.

Through five thematic sections, visitors are invited to discover how design responds to the needs of individuals and society, and what role it plays in culture, everyday life and shaping the future.

Design as a Question

Does design always have to provide a ready-made solution? Or can its value also lie in challenging established ideas and encouraging us to think differently?

The Design as a Question section presents author-driven, experimental and research-based projects that use design as a critical and cultural practice. Experiments with typography and books, new ways of reusing materials, and projects that create spaces for dialogue demonstrate that design does not always need to have a predefined function or a clear-cut outcome. Its contribution may lie in the process of exploration itself, in the experience it creates or in the questions it invites us to consider.

Design for the Public

The Design for the Public section focuses on projects that serve the wider public interest and contribute to the quality of our shared environment.

Visitors will discover information systems, solutions for cultural institutions, means of transport, medical equipment, furniture for children and devices designed to detect environmental risks. These diverse examples demonstrate how design can improve safety, make information and culture more accessible, facilitate mobility and support the work of professionals across different fields.

Design for Life

The Design for Life section explores solutions we encounter at home, while on the move and during our leisure time. Furniture, lighting, exercise and camping equipment, as well as graphic design from our everyday surroundings, demonstrate how form, materials and carefully considered details shape the user experience. A bed that can be assembled without tools, exercise equipment integrated into an interior, and objects designed for multiple uses remind us that even seemingly straightforward solutions are the result of careful observation of people’s needs and everyday habits.

Design for Memory

What do we preserve from the past, and how do we carry it into the present? The Design for Memory section presents projects that connect cultural heritage, identity and contemporary creative practice.

Books, typefaces, visual identities, wine labels, clothing and costumes reveal the many ways in which design documents the stories of places, develops traditional craft techniques and communicates cultural values to new audiences. The works also remind us that cultural memory is not fixed or unchanging. Every new interpretation determines what we preserve, what we rediscover and what meaning we give to inherited stories and objects today.

Design for the Future

How can today’s design contribute to a more responsible future? The Design for the Future section addresses environmental, social and systemic challenges, exploring how design can respond to them.

It presents the development of new materials, clothing and accessories, alternatives to car transport, as well as communication campaigns combating disinformation and encouraging voter participation. These projects demonstrate that sustainability is about more than the choice of materials and production methods. It also encompasses how we use resources, engage people, share information and make decisions about matters that affect us all.

Why Design?

The five thematic sections offer five perspectives on what design can mean and how it shapes our lives. From experimental author-driven practice and solutions for public services and everyday needs to cultural memory and a sustainable future, the exhibition presents design as a creative discipline that responds to the world around us while also helping to change the way we understand it.

Curators: Juraj Blaško, Michala Lipková

Exhibiting designers and contributors:

Companies, studios and design practices

Architekti zerozero, BELVE s.r.o., Botas a.s., Büro Milk, DIPLOMAT DENTAL s.r.o., eRobots, ILLOLA, janevat, JAVORINA, v.d., Komplot, LAB SNG, Mayamay, RABADA, SAM INDUSTRIES a. s., Studio Echt, Škoda auto design, THIS IS LOCCO, VNEM Studio, Vstúpte, n.o., WERKEMOTION, Wiktor Leo Burnett, Zeitgeist Unlimited s.r.o.

Authors and co-authors

Katarína Balážiková, Pavol Bálik, Max Basala, Michaela Bednárová, Juraj Behún, Marcel Benčík, Filip Birkner, Patrik Bujňák, Matúš Buranovský, Simona Császárová, Daniel Csúz, Samuel Čarnoký, Adam Danko, Petra Debnárová, Dano Dekan, Terézia Denková, Mikina Dimunová, Adrián Dvorský, Jon Dujaka, Robert Finkei, Dominik Fodora, Aurélia Garová, Zuzana Gombošová, Peter Hajdin, Romana Halgošová, Lenka Hámošová, Diego Hernando, Matúš Hnát, Marián Horkovič, Juraj Horňák, Martin Chlpík, Barbora Chudá, Rastislav Chynoranský, Patrik Illo, Matúš Ivanko, Adam Janečka, Simona Janišová, Martin Jenča, Sylvia Jokelová, Ondrej Jób, Monika Juríková, Eva Mária Kaprinayová, Tímea Kepová, Juraj Korec, Juraj Kováč, Barbara Kowalczuková, Šimon Kožička, Tomáš Kráľ, Lucia Stümpel Krnčanová, Veronika Kurcinová, Marián Laššák, Peter Liška, Tereza Maco, Peter Machata, Andrej Maruška, Branislav Matis, Miloslav Melichárek, Marek Menke, Matej Mihályi, Bystrík Míček, Ester Mládenková, Lucia Mlynček-Tóthová, Pavlína Morháčová, Maris Nisu, Michaela Novosadová, Daniela Olejníková, Slavomír Ozaník, Beáta Paňáková, Jisung Park, Michaela Pašteková, Barbora Podola, Martin Polakovič, Jakub Pollág, Patrik Platko, Kristýna Pundová, Matej Rabada, Veronika Rabadová, Martin Remiš, Igor Rjabinin, Filip Ruisl, František Michal Sebestyén, Peter Simonik, Jozef Sklenka, Viliam Slaminka, Michal Sládek, Georgios Somarakis, Vít Staněk, Aleksandra Stencel, Chloe Scheffe, Hana Šegedová, Daniel Šmíra, Lukáš Štepanovský, Mária Štraneková, Viktor Tabiš, Jakub Teringa, Michal Tornyai, Tomáš Toth, Helen Tóth, Miroslav Tóth, Jana Vaterková Ťapaj, Anna Ulahelová, Katarína Vass, Stefan Webelhorst, Ján Zachar, Adam Zakucia, Stanislav Zeman

Production Team

Director of the East Slovak Gallery: Dorota Kenderová

Director of the Slovak Design Center: Maroš Schmidt

Slovak Design Award Coordinator: Zuzana Böhmerová (SCD)

Exhibition Production: Valér Bakajsa (ESG), Gabriela Rybáriková (SCD), Michal Štofa (ESG)

PR and Media Contacts: Katarína Barloková (SCD), Soňa Stano Jambrichová (ESG)

Accompanying Programme: Viera Ballasch Dandárová (ESG), Petra Tušan Filipiaková (ESG), Gabriela Rybáriková (SCD)

Expert Collaboration: Silvia Seneši Lutherová (SCD)

In Collaboration With: Slovak Museum of Design

Visual Identity and Graphic Design: Terézia Denková, Barbara Kowalczuková

Architectural Design and Exhibition Construction: Jakub Tóth (Ateliér Tóth s. r. o.)

Exhibition Installation: Richard Tomory (ESG), Peter Vrábel (ESG), Adriana Štetiarová (ESG), Júlia Deáková (SCD)

Films Featuring the Award Winners: Living Documentary OZ / Vladimíra Hradecká

Curators’ Guided Tour: 19 November 2026 at 5:00 p.m.

Opening: 19 November 2026 at 6:00 p.m.