Wiktoria Kijowska
The predominant focus in all my work is the history of design and antiques. I take a bold and fresh approach to spreading their importance with others, especially younger generations. I think these topics are a very overlooked aspect of a design process and so my work is heavily based on exploring design histories and how they could be transformed and used in a contemporary way. I create educational products and content to highlight forgotten histories and show how they are relevant and important in modern life.
Do You Know Your Furniture?
A set of cards to help you discover more about furniture and your relationship with them which will guide you to make more environmentally friendly choices.
The product is divided into three parts; reflect, play and display.
Completing part 1 (reflect) will help you think about your relationship with furniture and the values that you attach to it. The reflection cards are divided into 6 categories: place, money, people, manufacture, function, and time. Each card has a question relating to this category. Draw one card at a time and the more you draw the more you will begin to reflect. There are 5 extra ‘environment’ cards that you can pull out to find out why choosing not to throw away furniture and buying better quality or second-hand pieces is important for the environment. Part 2 (play) is a memory game and playing it will allow you to find out interesting facts about the furniture pieces that once were very expensive and difficult to possess but are now commonplace. Part 3 is all about display. The product comes with a stand that says, ‘What is your impact?’ on it. It can be used to display the reflection cards or photos.
Polish Folklor
Polish Folklor is a collection of flower vases inspired by the traditional Polish folk craft of cut-outs from Łowicz. As the patterns found in this folk craft have been popularized and placed on many types of consumer goods, their history and meaning have been forgotten. These vibrant vases celebrate and bring back this forgotten history. They include changeable front and back panels with a universal middle vessel. The vases can be displayed together to create the full story about the cut-outs from Łowicz or separately to suit the user’s needs.
In this collection, there are 3 patterns, each focusing on a different aspect from the history of cut-outs from Łowicz. The stories conveyed in this collection are about the traditional methods of manufacture and people that made them, the symbolism of the traditional shapes, patterns, and colours found in the cut-outs from Łowicz, and their traditional use which was to act as a ‘poor man’s painting’. To learn about the history and symbolism of the patterns, the user can visit the product’s website ( www.wiktokijow04.wixsite.com/polishfolklor ) which has a more in-depth explanation of the history, symbolism, and tradition of the cut-outs from Łowicz.
