Romanian designers to get help from UK

Romania is to set up a design centre in Bucharest this spring, with the assistance and backing of a voluntary group of UK and Romanian designers.

The centre, called the Centrul de Design, will form a channel of communication between the design community and industry.

It aims to raise design awareness within Romanian industry, and also to provide design management training programmes for Romanian designers.

“The British designers involved will contribute to the scheme by working alongside their Romanian counterparts to set up and provide design-awareness training to industry, in project management and on live projects,” says Chris Spencer, the founder of Design for Transformation, a voluntary group of designers and educationalists.

A comprehensive database is also planned. This will allow Romanian and other international organisations to match project requirements to a list of qualified designers working in Romania.

Romania’s design adviser to the Ministry of Culture, Florentina Badea, has been working with Radu Visan, the fashion designer and instigator of the Centrul de Design, to secure sponsorship for the initiative.

DFT is currently working on long-term funding from the UK for the project. British members of the group have been to Romania 60 times, and some members of the Romanian team have visited the UK since the group was set up two years ago.

Design For Transformation is looking for more members. Contact Peter O’Curry on 0171-723 9655 for more details.