Interviews with two representatives each of ten areas of applied and desing art on their own careers and the current state of profession | The artists talked to Hedvig Dvorszky and László Attila Márton

- How did you find your way to the area in which you became a well-known and recognised artist?
- In which of your works do you think you succeeded in realising the objectives you had set?
- What is the current situation and the future of your profession like? What are its opportunities?

Design is a creative process seeking the common denominator between sense and sensibility, instinct and intellect, spirit and substance, beauty and goodness, tradition and innovation, individualism and collectivism, analysis and synthesis. It is the art of agreement (not compromise), and that of finding balance.
– Man is a sentient being. Designers must therefore understand the world around them, and always arrive at logical and viable conclusions by perceiving
its dynamic changes.
– Man is an emotional and instinctive being. Designers must therefore be aware of the effect colours, forms, surfaces, factures, structures and proportions
have on the human psyche, and they must consistently use (not abuse) this knowledge.
– Man is a social being. The activity of designers will therefore only assume its true meaning in a social context. Designers must cooperate with others
and serve the needs of others! It is also important that they seek their own answers to the challenges posed by society.
– Man is a being capable of creating and sustaining cultures. We must understand what makes individual cultures unique and functional. Designers
play an important role in this process of understanding, as well as in sustaining and building human cultures.
– Man is predestined to live a full life. I believe that inherent in every person is the ability to live a full life. Designers can do a lot to help people to
realise this as much as possible.
I can see many achievements in the Hungarian design profession, especially those by young designers. But change is a two-faced Janus. I am concerned about artisan, traditional crafts but I equally worry about the future of traditional industrial design. I am worried about artisan cultures. More and more people realise that design is a way of thinking and a methodology that can be applied in many areas of life. The palette of training is more and more diverse and new areas of design are coming into being. The question is what will happen to traditional crafts, some of which look back on a tradition of thousands of years. Can we preserve and create values? There are only a limited number of places where classical industrial design is
done at a high standard, despite the increasing need for such knowledge. Hungarian design education and Hungarian designers possess this classical knowledge.

Interview conducted by László Attila Márton

At university my teacher was Professor Stefan Lengyel. He had just returned from Essen at the time, and had a lot of ties with German companies, including Mercedes Benz, so we did a few car-related projects together. First, I went to ŠKODA Design for a six-month traineeship. Luckily, in those days it was possible to upload our drawings and ideas on the internet. This is how I received an invitation to BMW and went to Munich. I even made my degree project – a two-seater sports car– at BMW.

Of my most important projects I would mention the Twin’Run concept car I made for Renault, and the related car, Renault Twingo, which you can still see on the roads. Nowadays, designers work in a rather distinct area in most companies. When the designer sits down to draw a new model, many elements are already given, for example the market segment or the marketing research that was done. It was the same with Twingo: the task was already provided. When I entered the competition, virtually without a chance to win, I did not care what they wanted. I designed what I had in mind. What did I have to lose? So mine was virtually the only design that significantly differed from the rest, and in the end I won.

To a certain extent, our creativity is placed within boundaries in applied art because the companies know pretty accurately what they need in a given market segment based on the surveys and research they conduct. I think the term applied art expresses this precisely, as we are applied artists quite literally. We have some freedom within a predefined area, but not beyond it. It is particularly true for car design as there are so many requirements to satisfy – safety, environmental-friendliness, government decrees –, and this area has so many boundaries that it is a real challenge to be creative.

Interview conducted by László Attila Márton