Industrial designers to launch series of activities

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Burçak Madran (second L) director of the digital museum and Gamze Güven (third L), ETMK’s project coordinator say the project focuses on the history of local industrial design, specifically examining manufacturers, supported by the municipality.

The Industrial Designers Society of Turkey (ETMK) is preparing for a marathon of talks with foreign commercial attachés to promote Turkish design abroad in 30 countries. As part of a larger promotion plan, which was funded by Istanbul Development Agency, young and ambitious Turkish industrial designers are inviting foreign firms to test the quality and cost-effective, mass-produced Turkish design solutions.

The promotion plan includes a digital industrial design museum, details of which will be made public June 12 with the opening of an industrial design exhibition at Beyoğlu municipality’s art gallery. The exhibition focuses on the history of local industrial design, specifically examining manufacturers, supported by the municipality, who began their businesses in the Beyoğlu district in late 19th century.

ETMK and its programs

ETMK was founded in Ankara in 1988 and launched its industrial design contest, known as Design Odyssey, in 1994. It has been hosting Design Turkey awards since 2010. ETMK ran the “Turquality” program between 2008 and 2010 with the Turkish Exporters’ Union and the Secretary of Foreign Trade.
 
In 2011 the society applied for Istanbul Development Agency’s grant program for creative industries.

Since the grant was submitted ETMK has organized sectoral meetings, bringing manufacturers and designers around a table to discuss any problems developing in a given sector, ETMK’s Project Coordinator Gamze Güven told the Hürriyet Daily News. “We have turned these meetings into sectoral reports and submitted to the participants. We are turning the data we collected into an action plan to be submitted to the development agency,” Güven said.

The international aspect of the project included participation to the Tortona Design Week in Milan last month to promote Turkish industrial design brands and products. “We screened a promotion video at the fair, and served our guests Turkish coffee and rakı,” Güven said.

Digital Museum to turn into a real museum

The establishment of a digital museum was part of the society’s funded promotional activities. Burçak Madran, director of the digital museum, emphasized that the project was not a virtual museum, since there is not a physical museum open yet.

“It is only [existing] on the digital platform. The project is more about providing a data base about Turkish industrialization rather than exhibiting designers’ products. We are hoping to turn it to a real museum, which is not a very costly effort. Collecting digital data was already hard and to collect the real items will require twice as much effort,” she said.