Barbora Šajgalíková: Every Contribution to Surplus Value Changes Us For The Better

Barbora Šajgalíková (1980) is a graphic designer, stage designer, and founder of the visual communication department at the Slovak National Theatre (SND). She led the department for two years and later served as the director of SND communication for almost four years. She studied at the Faculty of Architecture at the Vienna University of Technology (2006). She interned at the Jean Nouvel studio in Paris and Bell Architects in Washington. She then continued her doctoral studies at the Academy of Fine Arts (VŠVU) in Bratislava (2013). As she increasingly focused on graphic design, she applied for a master’s degree at the Department of Visual Communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (2017). In addition to creating book covers, posters, and visual identities, Šajgalíková maintained an overlap with architecture in the form of navigation systems and exhibition design proposals, primarily for the Slovak National Gallery (SNG), but most of all in scenography. She has dedicated her recent years to the work of unifying visual communication for the SND, which became a challenge and a mission for her at the same time. In 2023, she won the Social Act of the Year award for creating the Theater for All Children program in (SND). Lucia Satinská’s book Milý Tato. Listy z tohto sveta received an honourable mention in the Most Beautiful Books of Slovakia 2022 competition. She exhibited at the Slovak Design Award in 2016, 2020, and 2024.

As an architecture graduate at the Vienna University of Technology, weren’t you more inclined towards scenography than graphic design? Why did you finally decide to work in the field of communication design?

I am inclined towards scenography as I am towards communication design. I enjoy both, and both are important to me. Scenography is great because it is only a part of a whole in which many other people participate, and it is precious in its transience — it only lives at a specific time in a specific place. Graphic design is reproducible, but it can also be preserved more easily, for example, in a library.

As an author, you design visual identities, posters, and book graphics; which field of communication design do you consider the greatest challenge and why?

I used to think that I would be most proud of some specific work, assignment or institution that would be the frame of reference for what would fulfil me. Today, I think that the greatest value of the work you do is the people you can collaborate on it with. In addition to the  aforementioned Matúš and Matej, I would add Alexandra Kusá, Katarína Bajcurová and Július Barczi, thanks to whom I worked on projects  in contact with fine art. I feel privileged to have experienced how they work and think.

Which part of communication design is closest to you, which one do you like to work on the most and why?

I have made many posters and books, a few information systems, and a few identities, but I don’t know if quantity is a measure of closeness. In some ways, it is harder for me to find a new approach to areas where I already have almost routine experience than to those that have remained in the realm of semi-ex plored territories. Every project I collaborate on is important to me. The work I have devoted the most  energy to has a special place in my heart.