Design Austria
Design Austria (DA) is Austria's only professional association and service organization representing the interests of designers from all the creative disciplines graphic design and illustration, product design, and web design.
The association was founded as early as 1927 als Bund Osterreichischer Gebrauchsgraphiker (BOG). Outstanding artists' personalities, such as the illustrator Alfred Kubin, the typographer Rudolf von Larisch, and Joseph Binder, a pioneer of modern Austrian graphic design, numbered among its members. Today, renowned designers such as Stefan Sagmeister or Ferdinand A. Porsche continue this tradition.
In 1992 the association opened up to embrace also other fields of design, apart from graphics. This was due to an increasingly interdisciplinary professional approach and because of the fact that individual creative processes are at the basis of all design activity. Today, Design Austria has some 1,300 members from all design disciplines, most of whom work as freelance designers.
Service is one of the main concerns of Design Austria. Besides the individual counselling of its members, basic information is on top of the list. Members are primarily informed through the association's own publications and periodicals, such as the calculation and competition guidelines, which assist both designers and clients or competition organizers. This mandate to inform goes hand in hand with an educational programme: Design Austria organizes seminars (client acquisition, creative techniques, calculation, copyright), lectures featuring international speakers, and excursions.
Events are held regularly in Austria and abroad; besides comprehensive exhibitions meant to promote Austrian design and a variety of small-scale presentations, Design Austria has been the host of the designforum MQ together with the Austrian Design Foundation since late 2005. Design Austria organises international and national design competitions, such as the Joseph Binder Award, the Romulus Candea Prize, and the Adolf Loos National Design Prize.
The association was founded as early as 1927 als Bund Osterreichischer Gebrauchsgraphiker (BOG). Outstanding artists' personalities, such as the illustrator Alfred Kubin, the typographer Rudolf von Larisch, and Joseph Binder, a pioneer of modern Austrian graphic design, numbered among its members. Today, renowned designers such as Stefan Sagmeister or Ferdinand A. Porsche continue this tradition.
In 1992 the association opened up to embrace also other fields of design, apart from graphics. This was due to an increasingly interdisciplinary professional approach and because of the fact that individual creative processes are at the basis of all design activity. Today, Design Austria has some 1,300 members from all design disciplines, most of whom work as freelance designers.
Service is one of the main concerns of Design Austria. Besides the individual counselling of its members, basic information is on top of the list. Members are primarily informed through the association's own publications and periodicals, such as the calculation and competition guidelines, which assist both designers and clients or competition organizers. This mandate to inform goes hand in hand with an educational programme: Design Austria organizes seminars (client acquisition, creative techniques, calculation, copyright), lectures featuring international speakers, and excursions.
Events are held regularly in Austria and abroad; besides comprehensive exhibitions meant to promote Austrian design and a variety of small-scale presentations, Design Austria has been the host of the designforum MQ together with the Austrian Design Foundation since late 2005. Design Austria organises international and national design competitions, such as the Joseph Binder Award, the Romulus Candea Prize, and the Adolf Loos National Design Prize.
