Nova Iskra announces its first course in design management

This March, Nova Iskra will present the first course dedicated to the field of design management in our country. The course is intended for designers, entrepreneurs and micro enterprises. In collaboration with renowned designers and experts from Serbia and Slovenia, the course will address the main aspects of this relatively new field within the design practice. Application is open until March 1st.

For the first time in our region, Nova Iskra is organizing a course dedicated to a relatively new domain, at the crossroads of two major professions – design and management. Traditionally, this domain found its implementation in the management of product design, but it significantly evolved and today includes various aspects of an organization, including operational and strategic levels. This unique course will have exactly this approach, and through two lectures and two seminars intends to introduce some of the key aspects of design management to the local professional audience.

Design Management includes processes, business decisions and strategies that support innovation and create effectively-designed products, services, communications, environments and brands that improve life quality and provide organizational success. The goal of design management is to establish and maintain an effective business environment in which organizations can fulfill their strategy and mission through design. The course represented by Nova Iskra will deal with the place of design management within business systems, process development of “traditional” products, but also challenges and new professions that bring the digital environment and cooperation of creatives and programmers.

On this occasion, the course is designed for designers, entrepreneurs and representatives of micro-enterprises, i.e. those who are willing to upgrade their knowledge in both fields, through lectures and seminars, work with prominent experts from Serbia and Slovenia. The experts are Miha Klinar, founder of studios from Ljubljana Gigo Design and KCDM (Competence center for design management), Jovana Tokić, designer and product/design manager professionally active in the Netherlands, as well as members of the Belgrade branch of the renowned company TEAMS Design (Director Žarko Bubalo, Creative Manager Đorđe Vučković, Senior Industrial Designer Nenad Nenadić and Engineering Manager Aleksandar Mikan).

Gigodesign (www.gigodesign.com) is a multidisciplinary team of designers, programmers and consultants who utilize diverse skills and expertise while working with companies. With over 300 realized projects – from branding and packaging, to design of innovative sailing boats, furniture and cooperations with companies such as Elan, Adria or Slatnar – Gigo is among the most innovative design studios in the region, and beyond.

Miha Klinar, co-founder of the studio, founded Competence Center for Design Management (www.design-management.si) in 2012 , which successfully advocates design management approaches in strategic (re)positioning of companies, as well as the synergy of the business and design communities.  They have achieved impressive business results through the work of 18 Slovenian companies, and the project was awarded first prize at the Design Value Awards established by the Design Management Institute from Boston, the world’s oldest institutions in the field.

TEAMS Design is a consulting firm that participated in defining the term that is nowadays known as industrial design. Since 1956, the company was constantly growing in Esslingen, a small town near Stuttgart, and now has more than 100 employees in five studios on three continents, and works with over 300 clients. The studio in Belgrade was founded in 2004 and since then cooperates with other TEAMS offices in the fields of industrial design and engineering. Today it covers the entire product development process – from the initial sketch to prototypes that precede production. www.teamsdesign.com

Jovana Tokić was born in 1983 in Belgrade. She lives in Amsterdam and works as a Product Manager/Product Owner/Design Manager in the company www.autheos.com. She deals with the design and development of software products and production processes related to the development of digital products and services.

Design Management course will be held in Belgrade between Match 8th and 17th, through four sessions (March 9th,10th,14th and 17th). Participation is free of charge, but the number of participators is limited. All designers, entrepreneurs and representatives of micro-enterprises that are interested can register via the online form  http://bit.ly/2m8xJ9M, until March 1st.

The first lecture within the course will be open to the public – an introductory presentation of Miha Klinar which is scheduled for Thursday, March 9th at 6 PM h at Nova Iskra.

Realization of Design Management course is supported by the Development Agency of Serbia.