Building the Russian design system

The MDW has become a point of reference for a contemporary Design in Russia. This gives you the possibility to intercept Russian trends, especially among emerging designers. What recurring or common trends have you seen from a stylistic aspect, considering the way the objects are designed? And what about from the business perspective, what is a designer’s business approach to Design? Are designers producing more also thanks to the growing platform represented by the Moscow Design Week and other collateral opportunities?

Every year is different. We have more people coming and taking part in this exhibition. More Russian designers have gotten interested in the project as well as Russian architects, who are interested in developing their business through the Moscow Design Week . For instance, we had an installation made by an architect who has been inspired by the possibility of showing his work, which he didn’t think possible before he came here. Architects and designers, here in Russia, are considered as a unique figure - we don’t really distinguish them in this sense, but rather address them as representatives of design.

This year we have more Russian designers at MDW because the commercial structure has improved from last year. The number of projects is lower than the last editions, but they are definitely more interesting.

We also changed the concept of “Super Heroes” of design. These “heroes” are those who recognize themselves as designers (Fabio Novembre, Ora-Ito, Cappellini, Ingo Maurer) and are pioneers. This year we invited people who are not really known in Russia, but they are more interesting since their designs attract more attention. We wondered whether they could be in line with the aforementioned pioneers, so we decided to solve this problem by giving a new name to the theme: Super Anti-heroes. Their philosophies, works and lives are very different from what we were used to. They just create projects with the aim to show it.

Our objective was to show the Russian audience that design could be completely different: different approach to life and the way you think of yourself. That’s the main idea of the MDW, to show the other way that things can be.

What is the goal of MDW? And its role?

We can give three answers to this question. The first aim of MDW is becoming bigger and bigger: attract more people and, ultimately, become more commercial. This is just a business objective. Secondly, from a social aspect, we want to show our population, especially our youngsters, that design can be different- so they can get ready, in a way, to change our country. So the aim is to motivate young Russians to think differently, showing and inspiring them to new alternative ways to make things. This also overlaps with a long-term political aim.

If you had to give a foreign company some advice to get into the Russian market, like investing in the design industry here, what should it do?

There are many companies, especially in Italy, that think that they can just come to Russia and sell. Everyone is in deep crisis in local markets, so they look at Russia as a high spending country. To get profits you just have to invest. Any company interested in selling in Russia needs to invest in Russia, not just look for a local dealer. I mean buying advertising, organizing events, working with architects, designers and so forth. They need a marketing plan which is has to reflect the conditions of the country. If you want to seriously approach this market you’d better have local production facilities(if you are a big company). Russia is raw country. We sell oil and gas. The main idea is that you need to do something in here, with a local strategy and don’t limit your company to sales initiatives. Maybe having some subsidiaries or production facilities, maybe using Russian designers, creating local synergies and so forth. Thanks to MDW, for instance, two Russian designers are going to work with two international companies, so we will have two Russian products. Companies that will work with Russian designers might come up with ideas that better fit our needs (e.g. this is a cold country, so design must consider this point, too).

Furthermore, you can’t sell products that no one knows about. So, promotion is an important part of the investment you need to do if willing to come to Russia.

You are creating an integrated system (events, magazines, etc..). Is there anything missing, that you'd like to add to this system?

Well, if I knew what was missing, I would have done it.

What about in terms of education?

I think that the project People of Design is also part of the educational program. If you mean creating a design school, in Moscow there are a small number of design schools at the moment. The point is that we don’t have teachers here to create it. Even our international guests, who could teach at the school, can’t come here for free. There should be a partnership with an already existing school.

Going from Design to Fashion, this year you made a great step bringing Leon Talley to Moscow (Numèro). We would like to know why you chose Leon Talley? What kind of reactions did you see in the market?

There were many people who could be chief editor of Numero, and when we started to think about who could fill the spot it we came up with 5 names and Leon was one of them. All of them could say no to our offer. Everybody here actually thought that they would have refused it. But ultimately, we have been lucky to have Leon on board. In regards to the fashion system, it is not really evolved here in Russia. Numero magazine is one of the leading fashion magazines here and I am sure that it is going to become the most popular also because it is managed by a very powerful fashion professional (Talley). For a magazine, it is important to hire the best professionals, especially those already known by the market. This is the main reason a magazine becomes popular and influential.

In regards to the market reactions, we have two different opinions. One side, many find him as a great professional. The other, thinks that he has a very American approach to fashion publishing, which, in reality, is true. Sometimes his material looked outdated, with a stereotypical facade of Russia; but now that he has spent more time in Moscow he is developing a better and deeper sensitivity to the local culture.