Polish design: A metamorphosis

• Author: Czeslawa Frejlich
• Position: Professor, Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow and Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw and editor-in-chief of 2+3D design magazine
• Pages: 30-32

p. 30 2013 | 4

POLISH DESIGN:

a metamorphosis

By Czesława Frejlich,

Professor, Aca demy of Fine Arts, K rakow

and Academy of F ine Arts, Warsaw and

editor-in-chief of 2+3D desi gn magazine.

Until recently, Poland was not perceived as a coun try with a

strong design sector. Poles themselves were qu ick to admit

that this was not the strong suit of our econo my. A brief l ook at

Poland’s post-war history offers some explanati on. In the 1950s,

the economic focus was on rebuilding our industrial sector with

emphasis on heavy in dustry and mining. Amid efforts to boo st

the country’s consumer products industry in the 1960s, Polish

industrial design was re born. This was, in large part, due to the

efforts of the Institute of Industri al Design and the creation of a

number of new design scho ols, but is also attributable to the

successes of designers who broke through the “iron curtain”

which had precluded professional contact with designers from

the West. This resurgence, however, was short-lived. A lack

of competition in the market in the 1970s and the widespread

practice of purchasing Western lice nses for new technologies,

and product models, hamp ered the work of Polish designers.

By the early 1980s, during the Mar tial Law period in Poland,

things had almost come to a complete sta ndstill.

SIGNS OF CHANGE

With Poland’s transition to democracy after 1989, the country’s

focus was on learning the ropes of the new economy, primarily

in the area of trade. Industrial des ign was not an immediate

priority. The rst visible sig ns of change came about in the early

2000s, with the emergen ce of a number of large companies

that had grown from small family in itiatives. These companies

were slowly nding their feet in th e national market, elbow-

ing out cheap foreign imports. The introduction of modern

technologies and exposu re to new management, promotional

and sales techniques a s a result of subcontracting ser vices

for Western companies also made a signicant impact on the

sector’s development. In a relatively short p eriod, we saw the

evolution of home-grown furniture companies such as Balma,

Vox, Proem, and Comforty. By 2011, Poland was ranked four th

in the world for furniture expor ts (according to United Nations

statistics for 2011 - see http://tinyurl.com/o3xc5l7). Companies

like Solaris (buses), and Pesa and Newag (the rail ind ustry) and

Reserve, House, and Ry łko (clothing) were also competing in

international markets with growing c ondence.

GROWING AWARENESS OF THE ROLE OF DESIGN

IN BUSINESS

While the dynamic ec onomic growth rates of recent years have

slowed as a result of the current glo bal economic crisis, the

average is still on the plus side. Produce rs who have thus far