David Karásek mmcité Zlín Czech Republic phone: ++420 606 700 943 d.karasek@mmcite.cz www.mmcite.com "First let me introduce myself. I am David Karásek, thirty-four years old. I come from Brno and the seat of my company is Zlín, Moravia, the Czech Republic. I am a designer and my main field of interest is street furniture and outdoor public design. The Czech Republic is a traditional industrial country and, in my opinion, the history of design is quite rich. Czechoslovakia between two world wars in the last century was a broadly developing country and the level of the design grew remarkably as well. As examples we can take Ladislav Sutnar's work and aerodynamic shapes of Tatra cars. During the reign of the communists design, as well as the whole life of our society, we got into an unnatural position. Industrial art design studios were opened at art colleges and the majority of companies collaborated with professional designers. However the absence of market and low quality technology changed a lot of interesting activities into parodies. Now there is a possibility to study design at more colleges than before and the streaming is more variable. There are a couple of exhibitions and displays organized annually, namely active is the Design Centrum of the Czech Republic. For over ten years they have been advertising annual design prices. As well as the system of state grants to companies directed to the development of design this has been working quite well. We can say the present design scene is rich, active and much more interesting. Public notices design first of all through media. In media it is namely interior and furniture design which public interest is focused. People have lacked them for a long time and they present well. There I can see a problem because industrial design is often much more demanding and important. For example trams or other machines are by far much less presented in media. After the entrance of our republic into European Union I am not expecting any great changes in our field. So far our country and the design as well have been connected to foreign countries a lot. There is almost no Czech student who through his university studies, did not take part at least once at educational study. We will see how foreign competition will be active in our country and we have to be active abroad. First of all through exportable Czech designed Czech products. We, designers of our company mmcité, have already started. You can buy our designed street furniture not only in Germany, but as well in other European countries. This is an example of a successful design export and I think there are a lot other similar makers. I assume the field of communicational and web-page design has been developing fast for some time. These are the things new technologies bring. But I do not think they are basically different from traditional graphic design. A designer is dependent on the changes and the development of the industry and they are influenced by the changes and the development of the market. A designer can as well be influenced by the initiator of the changes. I expect close Europe will be even closer and the people will be even more self-confident. It may form the demand for higher general aesthetic level of subjects of everyday use and together the demand for Czech designs. I am not afraid of the American influence on our life and I think we can combine the good and teach each other. I do not suppose that the Europeans are more clever than the Americans, but we are also not duller. America has become a challenge and we Europeans can not refuse it. In my opinion it is the natural development." Brno 17th March 2004 Mgr.A. David Karásek