Works from AFAD nominated for the National Design Award 2025
Congratulations to all graduates, students, and faculty of AFAD whose product design works have been nominated for this year’s National Design Award!
Category: Student Design
Diego Hernando – Velomobile Proto
- supervision and implementation: Peter Zelman
- Studio of Transport Design, Academy of Fine Arts and Design (AFAD)
PROTO is a concept of a light, aerodynamic velomobile designed for urban and suburban mobility. It combines the efficiency of a bicycle with the protection and functionality of a vehicle, emphasizing sustainability, design, and self-sufficiency. It is conceived as a light, partially electrically assisted means of transport with the possibility of solar charging and a digital onboard computer. The development focuses on sustainability, simple production from ecological materials, and a low carbon footprint. The project targets a community of users seeking an alternative to the car – ecological, practical, and aesthetically distinctive.
Georgios Somarakis – PHASE lamp
- Studio of Industrial Design, AFAD
Light affects us more than we think. We spend up to 90% of our day indoors — mostly under artificial lighting, which often does not respect the natural biorhythm of our body. For millennia, the movement of the sun across the sky was humanity’s key navigator. PHASE brings this dynamic back into the interior — in the form of light that changes depending on how we direct it. By rotating its body, we intuitively choose the atmosphere: from bright daylight supporting concentration, through warm evening tones, to a fiery sunset that naturally prepares us for sleep. The PHASE lamp thus brings back into everyday life the natural transformation of light that we have almost lost in modern interiors.
Tímea Kepová – Up and Down collection
- Department of Design, AFAD
The collection „Up and Down“ was created as a response to reflection on rest seating. In today’s sedentary lifestyle, I perceive rest as a means to support creativity through body movement. These objects ensure that each seating is a unique experience. They connect sitting or lying on the floor with higher positions, thus achieving standardized height. The work is based on the motto „nothing changes if nothing changes“ and leaves it up to us how we perceive the need for change.
Category: New Horizons
Sylvia Jokelová – Costumes for the album Drôtenky by the band Drť
The collection of performative costumes/objects is a response to the texts of poet and performer Zuzana Husárová for the current album of the band Drť entitled Drôtenky. It has an appealing, critical character and reflects the broader context of contemporary Slovak culture and society. It points to polarization and brutalization of (not only) Slovak reality, to the frustrating power of hoaxes, the dominance of indifference, and prejudices. Through various „characters“ of costumes, it defines and caricatures the neuralgic points of today’s crises. On another level, it is a commentary on the state of women’s rights in today’s society – a sarcastic parade of women trapped in their realities, but also a memento of their active resistance.
Michaela Bednárová – Representative Gift of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic
- co-authors: Juraj Korec, Michaela Pašteková, Viliam Slaminka
Design as artistic activism. The textile work responds to the state of culture in Slovakia. The fabric with woven stylized state symbols was originally exhibited as a „Red Carpet“ during BDW 2018. The installation then offered the opportunity to step on questions of national identity and the value of design work. The fabric from the original piece this year became part of a 24-hour performance „Attention, Culture is Falling!“, where it transformed into a soft protective object for the performers’ physical falls, taking place in front of the Ministry of Culture. The wear and process of destruction of the once grand piece indicate the state of culture today. During the performance, organizers were forced to remove the artifacts, and falls continued in the rain on hard asphalt. By being framed and exhibited, the piece becomes a memento of the era and the devastation left by the arrogance of power.
Marián Laššák – Workshop of Connecting
- in cooperation with: Vstúpte, n.o.
The Workshop of Connecting is a social inclusion project that, since 2024, has been building a platform through creativity to connect the majority with socially disadvantaged people. Connecting is a basic construction principle in design and at the same time an essential social activity necessary for life. For the NCD, we present the outcomes of the pilot project carried out in cooperation with the social institution for people with mental disabilities Vstúpte, n.o. in Malacky, which operates its own sheltered workshop. The result is a series of intimate objects created from fragments of waste material from local furniture manufacturers. The seemingly random compositions arose from a mutually enriching dialogue between the author and the institution’s clients. The objects are not the goal, but rather a record of the process and a means of questioning stereotypes.
Category: Home and Public Space
Patrik Illo – Soap Bubble
The Soap Bubble Collection is designed for handmade production, decorated by hand using the glass painting technique of irisation, which was discovered in the 19th century at the glassworks in Zlatno, in the Novohrad region of southern central Slovakia. It symbolizes local glassmaking history, the craftsmanship of local glassmakers, and the tradition of technological innovation. It is made in the so-called muslin finish.
The author designed this project for the design platform ILLOLA.
All nominations can be found on the SCD website.