THE EXHIBITION OF CROATIAN DESIGN 21/22 (Lauba – House for People and Art, 10. – 22.1.2023)

On Tuesday, January 10, 2023, at 7 p.m. in LAUBA – HOUSE FOR PEOPLE AND ART, the biennial EXHIBITION OF CROATIAN DESIGN 21/22 will be officially open! The exhibition presents the best design works from the past two years in all areas of design activity, from visual communication design to product design and packaging design, to fashion design, design in digital media and concepts. As many as 324 professional and student design works will be exhibited in Lauba, which is the largest number in the last 24 years, since the HDD Exhibitions of Croatian Design have been held. Ahead of the opening, you can view all of them at the online exhibition at www.izlozba.dizajn.hr/2122!

The Exhibition of Croatian Design is the central and most important professional design event in Croatia, bringing together the highest quality design works created over a two-year period in all areas of design, divided in eight professional and student categories: : Visual Communication Design, Industrial / Product Design, Digital Media Design and Interaction Design, Packaging Design, Fashion and Clothing Design, Spatial and Graphic Interventions and Systems, Integrated Project / Product and Concept / Initiative / Critical Design. This year, for the first time, the exhibition will be held in a new space, Lauba – House for People and Art, after 10 years of collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Crafts, which is in the process of restoration due to damage caused by the earthquake.

A total of 573 works were submitted to the exhibition, of which the Selection Committee (consisting of: Robert Čanak, Dario Dević, Nataša Negovanović, Luka Perić, Cvetka Požar, Zlatka Salopek Radić and Juraj Zigman) selected 324, of which 258 were professional and 66 were student works. So far, since the first edition of the Croatian Design Exhibition held in 1999, this is the largest number of submitted works, but also the most extensive selection made as part of this biennial exhibition project. For the first time this year, student works that will be presented at the Exhibition come from seven higher education institutions from Croatia and two from abroad. The exhibition and its extensive catalog, Croatian Design Review 21/22, are a document of the development of Croatian design over time and its greatest achievements and current trends.

All works at the exhibition are also included in the competition for the Croatian Design Society Awards, the most prestigious Croatian awards in the field of design, which are awarded in 8 professional and 8 student categories. At the opening ceremony of the Exhibition of Croatian Design 21/22, the winners of the awards will be announced, and we will also promote the new printed publication Croatian Design Review 21/22. The awards are decided by the International Jury, which consists of members of the selection commission joined by two other foreign members, designers Ajdin Bašić (Slovenia) and Kostas Medugorac (Germany).
One award is already known – it is the HDD Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented to designer Boris Ljubičić. Three works competing for the Croatian Designers Association Grand Prix are also known, namely: Crna Roda Visitor Center (Clinica studio, Roth i Čerina, Niko Mihaljević, Ivana Fabrio, Franka Tretinjak, Borna Demel, Novena and Vanja Cuculić), the publishing project Oaza Books (Oaza / Nina Bačun, Ivana Borovnjak, Roberta Bratović, Tina Ivezić, Maja Kolar, Maša Poljanec) and Kunsthalle Wien Publications (Dejan Kršić and Lana Grahek).

The designers of the visual identity and exhibition design of the Exhibition of Croatian Design 21/22 are the reknowned design studio Šesnić&Turković. After Zagreb, in the spring of 2023, the exhibition will also be shown in the Multimedia Cultural Center in Split. Ahead of the opening, you can view all selected works at the online exhibition at www.izlozba.dizajn.hr/2122!

From the text by Zlatka Salopek, member of the Selection Committee and International Jury of the Exhibition 21/22:

„ During the selection process, the question of how Covid-19 affected design in Croatia came up several times. In the previous Croatian Design Review 19/20, a certain discomfort permeated with uncertainty was expressed, and the answers to these questions were postponed for a later time when it would be clearer how our environment has changed and what level of influence it has had on our lives and design work. I can repeat the good news that there are more submitted works than ever, and I can also announce my personal delight that a significant shift towards inclusivity, care for mental health and respect for human emotional states can be felt in a large number of works. This deviation is felt in all fields: from the topics the works deal with, through the way they approach the problem, to the diligence with which they successfully transfer narratives and efforts from one medium to another.”

From the text by Maša Milovac, the president of the Croatian Designers Association:

“Besides the consistently strong visual communication design category, what can be noticed at first glance is the increasingly stable number of works submitted in the category Design in digital media and interaction design, which we see as a result of the development of new technologies and market needs. However, we can also observe this through the prism of recent events and conclude that a significant change in the way we use digital services and apps in our work and everyday life is indeed visible in the works presented at the exhibition. Personally, I am happy to see a large number of design commissions for publications and books which somehow refutes predictions that printed books will lose their function and that reading will find its alternative in the digital medium. Because, just like digital technology, printing technology is also developing, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the direction of environmentally friendly colors, paper and sustainable printing methods. Spatial interventions and systems are an increasingly interesting and comprehensive category, and increasingly important because through the selected works it faithfully demonstrates the diverse role of designers in these projects, which underlines the multidisciplinary aspect of our profession, which we often point out to as a professional association.”

From Marko Golub’s text about the design work of Boris Ljubičić, winner of the HDD Lifetime Achievement Award:

„Writing about someone’s life’s work always means writing about its importance, about why it is relevant in the context in which it was created, but also how far it has reached beyond it, what makes it special and different, what it means to us and how much it means to us. The answer to that question will always be somewhat subjective and subject to conventions – we understand that culture and art are socially important, even when reality seems to contradict us and when it looks like that their weight evaporates as soon as we leave the institutional context of culture and professional standards of the cultural, artistic and design communities. Looking back at Boris Ljubičić’s design work so far, from the beginning of the 1970s until today, I would say that it stems from the explicit belief that design is unequivocally vital part of our environment and that visual communications permeate all aspects of our daily lives. From such a belief follows responsibility, which Ljubičić himself beautifully formulated in his author’s motto, which says that a designer must take “responsibility for the time and space” in which he works. This responsibility is not only a matter of principle, it specifically applies to every design intervention in our visual and cognitive reality – regardless of whether it is a design or a redesign, a detergent packaging, corporate or institutional identity, poster, video, calendar or book. If we look at Ljubičić’s numerous works, we witness not only the extraordinary power of visual communication, but also works that teach us how to look at and how to read our contemporary visual reality. Almost all of them conceived extremely ambitiously, Ljubičić’s identities, posters, books, campaigns, even the packaging he designed, strongly speak of our time, of our perception, they speak of what it means to be immersed in the world of images and information, as we all are, regardless of whether we are aware of it or not.“


Nominees for the Croatian Designers Association Grand Prize

Crna Roda Visitor Centre, Osekovo

Product Design: Clinica studio d.o.o. (Vedran Kasap & Ozana Ursić)
Architecture: Roth i Čerina d.o.o. (Mia Roth and Tonči Čerina)
Graphic design: Niko Mihaljević
Interpretation: Ivana Fabrio
Illustration: Franka Tretinjak
Sculpture works: Borna Demel
Multimedia applications concept: Novena
Multimedia art director: Vanja Cuculić
Client: Javna ustanova Park prirode Lonjsko Polje Krapje 16, Jasenovac

Explanation by the Selection committee

„The architecture of the visitor center sensitively approaches the specific situation encountered, creating an unobtrusive and respectful dialogue with place and time. The design of the permanent exhibition – which includes interpretation, excellent illustrations, design of multimedia and material exhibits and furniture, and visual treatment of the entire space – carries forward this measured approach, achieving a harmonious multi-tactile whole. The center is located in the heart of the war-ravaged county, which, despite reconstruction, has never recovered and has been on a downward trajectory for 25 years, greatly accelerated by the devastating earthquake of December 2020. In addition to the fact that the construction of the center created a new place of contemporary architecture and design to improve the socio-cultural dimension of the life of the local population, the project is also an excellent example of strengthening continental tourism in Croatia. Such projects truly present tectonic shifts and are of crucial importance for the survival of the region.“

Oaza Books

Concept, art direction, design, editors: Oaza / Nina Bačun, Ivana Borovnjak, Roberta Bratović, Tina Ivezić, Maja Kolar, Maša Poljanec
Contributors in the development of the projest: oazabooks.com: Petra Milički (design), Hrvoje Živčić (typeface Bosco), 925Studio / Karla Jurić (photography), Mario Lončarić (web development)
Authors of the publications: Una Bauer, JJ Bibby, Ben Cain, Ivana Đula, Juan Echeverry, Hana Erdman, Tina Gverović, Sanja Iveković, Michael Kargl, Sven Klobučar, Ana Kovačić, Nina Kurtela, Ana Kuzmanić, Stefhany Yepes Lozano, Maja Marković, Gabriel Meija, Hana Miletić, Vedran Mimica, Maroje Mrduljaš, Jelena Oroz, Vijai Maia Patchineelam, Dino Pešut, Marko Pogačar, Adriana Lozano Román, Catalina Jaramillo Quijano, Stipan Tadić, Idis Turato, Nora Turato, Dubravka Ugrešić, Jasna Jasna Žmak
Partneri i suizdavači: University for Applied Sciences and Arts Antwerp, a.pass Posthogeschool voor Podiumkunsten vzw Bruxelles, Sveučilište u Rijeci, DeltaLab, MUO, MAO, Nova Iskra, Mikser, Werkraum Bregenzerwald

Explanation by the Selection committee

“This fearless project gave the designers the opportunity to create an engaged interdisciplinary platform of activity unencumbered by the limitations that designers normally face in their work. The choice of collaborations, the selection of topics, the artistic approach, design and insistence on top-quality non-confectionery work together raise the book production far above similar ones in contemporary publishing. In addition, it is worth praising the departure from the narrow framework of design practice characterized by the existence of the client into the market battle, where the designers are repeatedly overpowered by everything, except the superior quality of their product.“

Kunsthalle Wien Publications

Design: Dejan Kršić and Lana Grahek
Contributors: Communications, Offline Marketing Communications department Khw
Client: Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna

Explanation by the Selection committee

“Great advances were made in terms of the design of this series, because it was necessary to provide a design response to a very wide range of topics, and the designers managed to do this without imposing a hierarchically and formally solid design framework. The open identity approach proves to be the right choice. The publications are refined, different, and yet function perfectly as a whole, recognizable not only to the eye of a connoisseur, but also to the wide audience for which they are intended. Special praise should be given to the superb engagement of Croatian curators and designers in a prestigious foreign institution.”


The printed publication Croatian Design Review 21/22 is a fundamental two-year publication that provides an overview of the highest quality Croatian design output from the past two years. An extensive publication of 500 pages presents works selected for exhibition as part of the biennial Exhibition of Croatian Design 21/22. The publication is more than just a catalog. The first segment includes essays and interviews of domestic and international experts in the field of practice, critique and theory of design, both on current and on methodological, social and cultural aspects of design practice itself. In this sense, the Croatian Design Reviews are an effort to contextualize, critically interrogate and archive the current moment of Croatian design. The second and largest segment of the publication contains a detailed presentation of all selected works in seven categories: visual communications, product / industrial design, fashion design, el. media, etc. In addition to graphic and photographic reproductions, all works are presented in short texts that explain the starting points, ideas and process of project implementation. The third segment of the publication presents the activities of the Croatian Designers Association in the period between the two biennial exhibitions.

THE EXHIBITION OF CROATIAN DESIGN 21/22

Lauba – House for People and Art
10. – 22.1.2023

Organizer: Croatian Designers Association
Project partner: Lauba – House for People and Art
Visual identity and exhibition design: Šesnić&Turković
Supported by: The Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Zagreb City Office for Culture, International Relations and Civil Society
Sponsors: Igepa Plana d.o.o., Ars kopija, Span, Zagreb plakat