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Imperial Design Symposium in Karlovy Vary

08.10.2013

Included in the category: News | author: Redakce

The Imperial Design Symposium is a project launched by the Imperial Karlovy Vary spa company seven years ago with the aim to establish and promote long-term cooperation with Czech designers. The main objective of the Imperial Design Symposium is to maintain the world-class standards of the Czech spa industry and to modernize the local spa environment.

The first year of the Imperial Design Symposium held in 2007 brought the world famous Kala spa cup that represented the Czech Republic at a number of design shows and exhibitions, the most notable being the "Object Factory" at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York, and the "Čerstvé! Fresh! Design 1999–2009" presentation of the most recent additions to the collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. The Kala spa cup has been chosen as an official gift of the Czech Republic presented to foreign statesmen during the meeting of the presidents of the countries of the Visegrád Group in Karlovy Vary.

The second year featured, among others, the author of the Kala spa cup, Štěpán Kuklík, one of the few Czech Emmy Award winners, Maja Rašková, or the 2009 Czech Grand Design Discovery of the Year winner, Lucie Koldová. A coffee cup from the Balneo set by Martin Přibík and the corporate graphic design for Hotel Imperial and Spa Resort Sanssouci by graphic designer Filip Cvrček were among the executed projects.

Achievements of previous years >>

As last year the theme was Spa Fashion, the participants of this year's seventh Imperial Design Symposium were given absolute creative freedom.

What did the lucky "seven" bring to the spa?

This time, designer Martin Přibík from the local Futuree Studio left out his typical material porcelain to design new park furniture for Hotel Imperial and the Kros Imperialos slippers for hotel guests. Both his designs incorporate elements of the uniform visual style of the hotel.

Petr Mikošek also focused on the footwear of hotel guests and designed beach sandals in the characteristic style of Hotel Imperial. The practical sandal cover is the work of his colleague from the BOA Studio, Michaela Vrátníková. The set is complemented with a textile bag, in which hotel guests may carry their things from the room to the swimming pool or to various spa and wellness procedures. Or they may take the bag back home with them with a sample of the local mineral water or the world-renowned herbal liqueur in a special gift bottle designed by Petr Mikošek as a present to their family or friends. Michaela Vrátníková did not forget about the hotel staff who will undoubtedly welcome her system for labelling hotel linen.

When designing their limited collection of fans for Hotel Imperial, Anežka Podzemská and Dana Elsterová, who form the DURCH duo, drew their inspiration from the pre-war spa atmosphere. However, instead of lingering in the long-gone times of parasols, chignons and promenades when fans were a necessary part of the "outfit" of every lady, their creations are an original fashionable accessory of our modern times.

With his design, Václav Mlynář from the deForm Studio sought to reflect the long tradition of the hotel along with its continuous effort to improve and modernize its services to be able to compete in the 21^st century. He thus focused on an item in the shape of an old room key concealing a modern flash disk, on which the presentation of the hotel and other useful information may be provided to the guests. The co-founder of the deForm Studio, Jakub Pollág, was inspired by the abundant history of Karlovy Vary and design a truly "kingly" cup with a rather fitting name "Drink like a King".

Adéla Lejsková Rašková, who designs furniture and interior accessories under her own adadesign brand, presented the Black Lilly coffee set, which embraces the elements of the corporate design of the Imperial Karlovy Vary spa company. In addition to porcelain ware, the set also includes an original blend of coffee, as well as marzipan and ginger cookies prepared according to the special recipe that was developed by the author in collaboration with professional confectioners.