Design gurus meet in Istanbul

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Darren Aranofsky, the director of the Oscar winning movie ‘Black Swan’ is one of the highlighted guests of Alldesign 2013, organized with the motto ‘seeing through mind’s eye.’

Istanbul is hosting a two-day design meeting, Alldesign, hosting design gurus from all over the world. The event, which starts today, will be organized at the Hilton Convention Center.

The meeting will focus on the creative industries that shape everybody’s lives and features experts from various disciplines.

The motto of Alldesign is set to be “seeing through mind’s eye.” Alldesign Group Coordinator Can Gürcan summarizes the basic philosophy of the event as follows: “The need to look differently at life to understand what appears behind the appearance. All our life is design.”

Participants at the event will analyze the use of design in marketing, branding and ergonomics and also to provide today’s and tomorrow’s designers with different perspectives.

“Design is now appearing as the most important force while enhancing the quality of life and product innovation. Visual and ergonomic designs that are developed in all areas of our lives strengthen the quality of work and sales opportunities. We will discover how the design and the designers let us have the most accurate services and affects customer habits and social vision with the 2013 Exhibition and Conference,” Gürcan said.

World renowned names

Among the foreign names who will be participating as speakers at the event include Darren Aronofsky, director of “Requiem for a Dream,” “The Wrestler,” and Oscar-winning “Black Swan”; George Lois, an iconic advertiser, art director, writer, designer, also known as the inspiration behind famous TV series “Mad Men”; Ron Arad, the renowned architect known for the gigantic Swarovski crystal chandeliers, Mediacite in Belgium, and the Holon Design Museum in Israel; Es Devlin, the stage designer of the “Batman” and “Hamlet” shows, the costume and stage designer of famous music icons such as Jay-Z, Lady Gaga and Muse, and also the designer of 2012 London Olympics’ closing ceremonies; John Hardy, the jewelry designer; French DJ/musician Claude Challe, creator of the Buddha Bar music compilations; Tina Earnshaw, make up designer of the “Mamma Mia,” “Titanic,” and “Spiderman” movies; Stefan Sagmeister, the “rock star of graphic design”; and Marco Susani, designer and Vice President of Motorola’s Digital Design.

Along with this illustrious list, Alldesign 2013 will also host significant names from Turkey such as industrial designers Defne Koz, Zeynep Falay, Aydın Mert, Şebnem Timur Öğüt, Ümit Altun, Erdem Taylan, part of the visual effects team of Hollywood animation movies such as “Finding Nemo,” “Antz,” “Shrek,” “The Incredibles” and “Cars”; director Mustafa Altıoklar; Istanbul Technical University’s head of Industrial Design Faculty Professor Alpay Er; producer Mehmet Altıoklar; actress Demet Evgar; art director and designer Ali Gürevin; Industrial Designers Association Chair of the Board and Executive Council member of the European Academy of Design Professor Özlem Er; daily Hürriyet journalists Emre İskeçeli, Emre Oral and Bülent Mumay; and social media experts Genco Demirer, Aziz Kedi, Bora Yeter, Olcayto Cengiz and Bahriye Sarıkaya.

This year, along with from many different activities that will be organized during the conference, Alldesign will include an exhibition area for creative industries interior architecture, decoration, object design and products. The Creative Industries Fair is Turkey’s first b2b platform of the design industry, which will be held at the Hilton Convention and Exhibition Center.

Interior design and decoration products’ designers and manufacturers, architectural project offices, technological product design firms, digital designers, fabric and wall facing, carpet and the other floor coat pattern designers, lightening and accessories designers and producers and also non-governmental organization and sectoral publications will also attend the fair in order to showcase the latest trends of the design world.

Sales departments of companies, retailers, the head managers of the design brands, architects, design offices, construction companies, advertising agencies and the representatives of the hotel sector will also visit the Alldesign Creative Industries Fair.