top of page

Hungarian Design Yearbook

Editor in Chief - Project Leader

2014, 2015

As the person behind the idea of the Hungarian Design Yearbook, its initiator and Editor in Chief, I was convinced that publishing these yearbooks is in the interest of the entire Hungarian design profession. The professional publications settled many decades of debt towards the professional audience (on some 200 pages) by providing a structured impression of domestic processes, whose interpretation was left unattempted by any other similar publication before.

  • Acting as Editor in Chief and Project Manager, with overall project management duties

  • Writing articles, analyses and copy

  • Selection and management of authors, translator, graphic artist, photographers and printer

  • Writing grant applications

noun_back_940637.png
noun_link_1043498.png

The Hungarian Design Yearbook 2013 and 2014 Yearbook was a niche volume that settled a debt decades in waiting, to Hungarian design: it addressed a summary and quintessence of the achievements, trends and phenomena of contemporary Hungarian design, and being bilingual, it enabled Hungary to enter the international dialogue with head held high. The essays in the first part of the publications were used to provide an analysis of relevant Hungarian phenomena, while the roughly 130 works and projects featured each year were structured by special themes and keywords that also took global and international trends into consideration. Naturally, this book did not take a sectoral / materialistic approach to individual design trends, consequently, it was instrumental in helping the establishment of new concepts, terms and approaches in design for both professionals and the public. The summary, communication and dissemination of achievements certainly raised the prestige of the design profession, and increased trust towards design, i.e. the social integration of design, among decision-makers with power to influence the future of the profession and laymen. The yearbooks published by MOME had a clear message: The university is a think tank that, besides shaping the Hungarian design scene by way of its daily practices, is willing to set its own particular interests aside to act as a responsible caretaker, being the strongest and most aware, i.e. unavoidable player of the design scene. The Yearbook did not intend to register and document all the players on the Hungarian design scene in the respective year; it was much rather a thematic selection that featured students’ mid-year school assignments, graduation works and professional products side by side. Of course, we did not focus on MOME’s achievements alone, but the whole of the Hungarian design scene. This way the works of other institutions and designers who graduated elsewhere receive the same respect as our ‘own’ works, including Hungarian designers living abroad. Consequently, it provided the largest possible variety and the widest possible focus.

Website: www.hdy.hu

copyright © 2019

Halasi Rita Mária

bottom of page