European Design Upgrade: Transnational Capacity Building (EDU) is an ambitious educational project aimed at developing creative industries, supporting talented designers, artists, and technologists, developed in collaboration with leading experts from Belgium, Ukraine, and Finland.
EDU was implemented in partnership with Vasyl Khmelnytsky’s K.FUND, the NGO GoLOCAL, the innovation and technology hubs Brussels Creative in Belgium and Urban Mill in Finland; with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and UNIT.City innovation parks in Kyiv and Kharkiv.
In 2020, the project brought together about 100 talented designers, artists, and technologists who attended online lectures and 5-day hackathons held in partnership with UNIT.City. The 7 most interesting concepts from each of the participating countries were presented at the international exhibition Dutch Design Week from October 17 to 25, 2020.
The following projects were presented from Ukraine:
- ChangeABLE. Decorative textile covers for prostheses.
- NanoRetention. Development of an urban water collection system using a natural hydrogel material – bacterial nanocellulose.
- Pink Glasses. A social poster on clothes printed with ink that appears under certain conditions.
The project was recognized as one of the most successful during the Creative Europe program 2014-2020.
In 2021, European Design Upgrade was held in two Ukrainian cities at once, Kyiv and Kharkiv. 80 Ukrainian designers were selected to study at the updated interdisciplinary course. They had the opportunity to visit creative laboratories of designers and the NEST Hub startup space in the UNIT.City innovation park, met successful Ukrainian design startups, developed their own creative ideas with the support of project mentors; passed hackathons and presented their ideas to the business community.
The audience recognized 5 most interesting projects in Kyiv and Kharkiv
Kyiv:
- Marketplace “TWICE”: sale of leftover fabrics and accessories from manufacturers and consumers, sale of products by domestic sustainable designers, educational articles on reuse and recycling.
- Nasinnya project: development and creation of a collection of lamps made from biomaterials and recycled materials.
- Art & Science Interaction project: communicating important scientific issues to the public through visual art tools.
- Children’s Creative Agency project: involving children in advertising and design developments of large companies.
- The Cognosce te Ipsum project: a personalized collection of sanitary ware with reference to the ideas of humanity and naturalness.
- The Emotions Art Collection of Clothing project: building understanding between people through clothing; drawing attention to psycho-emotional states.
Kharkiv:
- Life After Unpacking project: transforming used packaging into a lamp shade, vase, toy or other decorative items.
- Trash to Treasure project: creating furniture and interior items from recycled materials.
- Digital Arts project: creating an exhibition of NFT artists in the form of holograms; promoting digital art, lectures on digitalization and full coverage of the NFT topic.
- City Art Object project: transforming the walls of Starobilsk into art objects, spreading culture, values, interesting images and myths.
- The Organic Jellyfish Glue project: creating an alternative material from jellyfish – a glue that can be used in cosmetics and industry.
Since the course has been successfully tested with students of specialized higher education institutions and received positive feedback from both the project’s student audience and teachers, the course is planned to be further developed for implementation in Ukrainian educational institutions. Kharkiv Academy of Design and Arts, Kyiv Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design named after M. Boychuk, Faculty of Economics of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, Borys Grinchenko Institute of Arts, Faculty of Design and Advertising of Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, as well as teachers who have completed the program together with other participants have already expressed interest in the project.
