The sixth annual DesignMarch festival kicked off yesterday. Events at this year’s festival include exhibitions and installations, lectures and workshops.
Iceland’s first national design strategy was recently published. The strategy enhances the importance of design in all conception, development, and manufacture of products, with the aim of strengthening Icelandic companies’ competitive position and increasing value creation, as stated on icelanddesign.is.
Prepared by a work group put together by The Ministry of Industries and Innovation and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, the design strategy discusses the role of design in the Icelandic society in the following three categories:
Education and knowledge to develop, promote and strengthen design education
Work and support environment to increase professional emphasis, simplify solutions, and encourage initiatives.
Promotion to instruct, promote and exhibit Icelandic design projects locally and internationally.
In other DesignMarch news, the official festival candy, DesignMarchipan (Icelandic: Hönnunarmarsipan), an enormous licorice allsorts cube, was designed by Arna Rut Thorleifsdóttir and Rán Flygenring and produced by Sambó. First introduced in 2011, the colors of the candy change every year.
The Reykjavík Fashion Festival runs concurrently with DesignMarch. The fashion shows will be held tomorrow.
The full festival program is available on the website of the Iceland Design Center.
