Tag: crafts
Bojana Nikitovic
Bojana Nikitović’s work in costume design spans theatre, opera, ballet, and film.
She graduated as Valedictorian from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1989 and began her career in theatre, designing costumes for more than 100 productions, including productions of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Dickens, and Molière. Her contribution to the performing arts has been recognised with numerous awards, including an EMMY NOMINATION for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes for her work in Dune Prophecy, a winner of the Costume Designers Guild Awards for Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Television for her work in Dune Prophecy, four Sterija Awards, two Ardalion Awards, and the Grand International Award for Spectacle Design at the YUSTAT Biennial.
Since 2001, she has worked internationally, collaborating with Academy Award-winning costume designer Milena Canonero on films such as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Marie Antoinette, and The Wolfman. Her film credits include Coriolanus, A Good Day to Die Hard, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and numerous other international productions.
Richard van der Laken
Laken practice advocates for designers’ responsibility to engage with societal issues and contribute to systemic change.
Richard van der Laken is a designer and creative director, and co-founder of the international platform What Design Can Do (WDCD). Through WDCD, he has led numerous campaigns, conferences, and design challenges that bring together multidisciplinary communities to rethink the role of creativity in urgent global challenges such as climate change, inequality, migration, and the transition to circular systems.
Recently, he founded Laecken, a contemporary fashion label that explores men’s self-expression through clothing, accessories, and textiles. Rooted in global craft traditions from regions such as Mexico, Japan, Ghana and India, the brand draws on geometric simplicity and the traditional menswear.
Henriëtte Waal
Artist and designer known for her interdisciplinary work in artistic research, environmental design, and community engagement.
She is the artistic leader of Veenweide Atelier and the co-founder of Atelier LUMA, LUMA Arles’ biodesign lab dedicated to bioregional practices and material engineering. Henriëtte has led fieldwork in Mediterranean wetlands, collaborating with remote wetland communities from Southern Europe, Africa, and West Asia. Her work spans co-fabrication systems for beverages, footwear, colors, crafts, and spaces, as part of an ongoing search for new ecosocial balance. Her projects have been exhibited internationally.
In her recent book Water Works (Waal & Driessen, 2025), she outlines ecosocial design as a method, in which the relationship between humans, ecology, and systems is central. The book positions water infrastructures as socio-ecological systems that require new forms of ecological imagination, storytelling, and alliances between human and non-human actors.
Resilience in Design
Turning Wood Waste into Valuable Resources
Velo Light Glow in the Dark
These innovative stickers, made from special glow-in-the-dark materials, harness phosphorescent technology to absorb light during the day and emit a soft glow at night.
The glow effect lasts for several hours after exposure to light, drastically improving the visibility of cyclists in low-light conditions.
“Our goal was to create a simple yet effective solution that can be used daily,” stated the team behind the project. The stickers are easy to apply and can be placed on bike frames, wheels, or helmets. With
customizable designs and colors, they add aesthetic charm while enhancing road safety. The project has already sparked interest among local bike shops and traffic safety organizations.
MOWO, move with wood
MOWO, move with wood, uses wood in a completely new way, using it as an elastic, flexible material that allows movement when sitting. All products are made from molded plywood and do not require any metal or plastic – the wooden elements are connected solely by cords, which combine stability and flexibility.
MOWO is an Austrian brand owned by architect and designer Lisa Stolz. All products are manufactured by a Greek family business that has specialized in the production of molded plywood parts since 1991.
MOWO uses the FSC-certified veneers. The certificate that ensures that the wood products come from forests that are managed according to the strict standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). These standards ensure that the wood is sourced from forests managed sustainably, respecting ecosystems, biodiversity, workers’ rights, communities, and economic sustainability. Follow MOWO, move with wood!
Bobby Kolade
Kolade’s brand first collection is titled Return to Sender, and is made entirely out of waste textiles sourced from second-hand markets across Uganda. Each piece is redesigned and redistributed to the Global North, where the raw materials were originally bought and discarded.
Bobby Kolade is a fashion designer from Uganda who started his career in Berlin and Paris, cutting his teeth at major companies like Maison Margiela and Balenciaga. In 2018, he returned to his hometown of Kampala and was struck by the severe decline of the country’s textile industry. Today, he is the creative powerhouse behind BUZIGAHILL, an independent label that brings attention to this issue through art, clothing and activism.
As co-host of the podcast Vintage or Violence, Kolade further examines the true cost of the global fashion industry and the impact that waste colonialism has on local communities and ecosystems.