Turkey’s leading design event, Istanbul Design Week, is a multifaceted festival dedicated to design. It is a showcase for designers, a business opportunity for companies to present products and activities to an international audience.
Turkey’s leading design event, Istanbul Design Week, is a multifaceted festival dedicated to design. It is a showcase for designers, a business opportunity for companies to present products and activities to an international audience. Working to help to make Istanbul a design capital, it has placed Turkey and its designers on the global design stage.
Istanbul project co-ordinator, Sinem Kocayas of the creative agency, dream design factory (dDf), outlines what we can expect to see as part of Istanbul’s participation in Destination at Dubai Design Week.
How did Istanbul Design Week become involved in the Destination initiative?
It is a natural evolution for us, as we have positioned the Istanbul Design week as a destination for international design since its inception. When we consider the geography of the festival, it’s an open event to the entire world and does not just carry local values. International exhibitors participate and we’re involved with international organisations and design competitions. It is an outlook that is supported by the economic and geographical position of Istanbul.
Can you summarise in a few sentences what the design scene in Istanbul is like? Any common characteristics of Turkish design?
Istanbul has grown into a very large urban development over the past 10 years. Contemporary lifestyle here is developing in direct relation to design. Fashion, art, food and beverage, and entertainment culture come together with design to lead new life forms. The greatest evidence is the newly opened restaurants and hotels. In parallel, there are traditional art and craft traditions in Istanbul that have existed for hundreds of years.
Design products are being produced in craft, high-tech and through contemporary concepts. The design aesthetic of Istanbul is a blend of North and South, East and West. They melted and involved with each other. Istanbul is natural platform between Europe and Asia. At the same time it’s in an interaction with North Africa, Middle East, Mediterranean, Northern Asia and Black Sea. In this way, Istanbul is full of emerging surprise design that evokes tradition.
What are looking forward to seeing/experiencing in Dubai?
We are expecting to develop new business relations or future projects in Dubai especially; in design, lifestyle, marketing communications projects and of course we are expecting to develop some projects for Expo Dubai 2020. Dubai and Istanbul are two very important cities in terms of business. We hope that further development of relations between the two cities continues.