Polish designers and Polish business: how to build bridges between them?

The ideal country for designers is one that promotes its design abroad, with the effectiveness of Italy or Switzerland, not Poland. And one where universities are approached by companies in search of projects and collaborations. And also one in which the country does not export wood at no cost, but leaves it for its own furniture industry, said designers during a discussion in the Salon of ‘Rzeczpospolita’ devoted to cooperation between the industrial design sector and business.

Cooperation increases brand reach

‘If we refer to the furniture industry, we are one of the few countries in Europe that has factories and is able to give the opportunity to cooperate with designers in terms of creating products that will be sold all over the world, we are the first in Europe and the second in the world distributor of furniture, so we have great potential,’ said Michał Mrożewski, owner of the PR agency Profundo, which cooperates with the brand Paged. He emphasised that the result of cooperation between designers and brands are products that are sold abroad at a higher rate.

The designers pointed out that design helps sell abroad, but also – the country's brand. One of the panellists pointed out that a Polish company produces its products in Pomerania, but thanks to a company in Switzerland – it sells these goods under the Swiss brand, which allows it to have a much greater sales range. 'This is the weakness of the Polish brand, it is enough to stick the Swiss flag and it improves the positioning of the products,' agreed the designers.

Is design appreciated in Poland?

It is important to be recognised abroad and to make the skills of production companies credible to the clients, but the atmosphere for industrial design and its recognition – in Poland – is also important.

'For me, an important moment was the opening of the permanent exhibition of Polish design achievements after '45 at the National Museum. This exhibition was opened several decades too late and the collection is too small, there are missing links in this chain,’ noted Paweł Kubara, design & marketing manager of the Comforty brand.

All panellists noted that Polish consumers do not yet have a fully formed aesthetic taste, we do not have a tradition of reaching for design, ‘which is where consumer mistakes come from later’.

The support of countries at major international fairs, as in other industries, is important, but according to the panellists, Polish design gets too little support in terms of expansion.

'Support in the presentation of our products abroad and the appearance of Polish brands at international fairs is a very important thing, and subsidising education, the academies of fine arts where industrial design is taught, shows that there is a huge difference between Polish and Western universities,' said Jan Kochański, designer and owner of Studio Jan Kochański.

According to the panellists, Polish promotional events organised by Polish institutions are still far behind the achievements of Italians or Germans. What is also needed is support for equipping the Academies of Fine Arts with tools that help students create products that will be competitive on the market.

An extremely important factor for the education of both designers and all cooperation is the presence of... companies at universities.

'At the Politecnico di Milano, there was much more interest from producers to collaborate with young designers. The university was often approached by institutions asking students to develop assumptions or even a complex product for them under the supervision of professors,' said Jan Garncarek, a designer, graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and the Italian Politecnico di Milano, and an employee of the Institute of Industrial Design.

In his opinion, people in Poland do not know that they can approach universities and propose some kind of cooperation, dialogue.

China spoils the market

There is another aspect that affects the condition of an industry in which Polish design is very influential: the lack of raw material caused by excessive exports. ‘Our policy cannot be to sell raw materials that leave Poland for practically nothing, or to sell it to the energy sector instead of using it by the furniture industry,’ noted Michał Mrożewski, referring to the continuing crisis in the furniture market, related to the excessive export of wood to China, which began during the Law and Justice Party era, and the introduction of ‘wood energy’.

China also has a negative impact on the condition of the Polish industry by flooding the country with cheap furniture. Designers pointed out that some companies in Poland try to use cheap imported furniture, giving it minimal modifications in Poland in order to be able to offer it as Polish production.

'We are losing tenders because a Chinese piece of furniture, to which only two screws are attached in Poland, is entered in the designs, so it is much cheaper than Polish furniture after a discount. These are shocking situations and we must prevent them,' said Paweł Kubara, design & marketing.

'When furniture arrives on the Polish market and it is so cheap that even the most industrialised factories don't stand a chance at the selection stage, it poses a problem. I believe that we should somehow influence either the market acceptance criteria, through certification, approved materials, research, or through political decisions that will regulate this issue,' said Paweł Kubara. He pointed out that the situation is very similar to the discussion about electric cars, which threaten the European automotive market.

Daniel Kraszewski, founder of the aleto.design studio, employee of the Institute of Industrial Design, emphasised that in order to improve the market situation, business and designers need to be taught... to talk and interact with each other.