The 360 Design Budapest exhibition enchanted those interested in design for a whole week. Full house curatorial and exclusive guided tours, numerous unique design objects, exciting installations, and fruitful roundtable discussions put the cherry on top of last year’s event’s success. The experiences do not end here; you can find the exhibition and the discussions about design’s unique world on the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency’s YouTube and Spotify platforms.
The second 360 Design Budapest awaited the audience interested in design and professionals for one week. Success was not lacking this time either: the exhibition, which won several international awards last year, enchanted design lovers once again. This year the exhibition, Art Market Budapest and the Budapest Design Week mutually supported each other as strategic partner events. It was seen in the number of visitors since almost 3500 people viewed the contemporary Czech, Polish, and Hungarian creations and the Slovakian ones displayed online. Besides Hungarian and foreign artists, investors, and students, even families and visitors with dogs attended the event regardless of their age. The considerable interest for the event was visible from early on since those interested could register on 360 Design Budapest’s webpage since September, which has reached almost 40 thousand views in the last two months.
At the exhibition, the creations of 28 Hungarian, among which six talented entrants, and ten regional design brands, debuted. The almost 180 design items on display at the event attracted huge interest every day of the week. The experience of this year’s exhibition was enhanced by the fact that the second 360 Design Budapest expanded its programme offer by inviting international experts, and with roundtable discussions and exciting surprises, thus presenting the world of design pervading our everydays even more uniquely.
Within the event’s framework, the event “Meet the designer” was realised so that visitors could meet their favourite product designers in person. The educational roundtable discussions were very successful as well, which are available on HFDA’s YouTube and Spotify channels. Besides, over 120 press releases were published about the exhibition. This year’s exciting novelty was that visitors could sign up for exclusive guided tours held by renowned representatives of different fields of art. The speakers filled and diversified the guided tours with their experiences and presented them to visitors in their own interpretation. Numerous awarded creations could be found among the objects on display, some of which are still visible in Max City.
The exhibition received its particular characteristic from the exhibition space again, which put into the foreground not only the unique presentation of the design objects but also sustainable solutions and attitude formation. The building elements of a house – lumbers, concrete blocks, bricks – were used to place the design objects and furnish the exhibition space, which will take on a new function soon as the exhibition is over. Water’s illusion or the whale built on the ceiling also represented this attitude since while the former was made with reusable material, the latter was put together from plastic packages no longer used.
The spotlight, naturally, was on the debuting product designers who reported outstanding results: furniture manufacturer and trading companies, Michelin-star restaurants, and various store chains have contacted some of them for collaboration. Furthermore, different platforms added to the sales incentivising role of the 360 Design Budapest since visitors of the offline exhibition could get further information using the QR codes placed next to the objects, while online visitors can discover the designers’ websites by clicking on the icons next to the objects. The Agency’s goal did not change this year either; they aim to increase Hungarian and regional product designers’ fame and help them enter the international market.
The creations of the first 360 Design Budapest were of great interest in the online space, so there was no question that the event would be ‘figital’ this year as well. Similarly to last year, those interested could not only view the design objects at the venue, but they could examine them from a brand new perspective entering a virtual world. Visitors could peek into the design tours using VR glasses placed at the exhibition. However, they can still walk through the exhibition at the event’s website online, where they can experience the exhibition through the 360-degree spherical panorama and the virtual exhibition space. Its existence is justified; so far, more than 1600 people have viewed the display in this form. Thanks to the digital space, people from all around the world can discover Hungarian and regional designers and the almost 180 unique design objects created by them since the exhibition is available for everyone at 360 Design Budapest’s website.
You can view the 360 Design Budapest exhibition’s online platform here.