Moholy-Nagy Design Scholarship 2013 with the participation of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory

Herend, 25th March 2013 ... Dr. Miklós Bendzsel, President of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office and Chairman of the Hungarian Design Council and Dr. Attila Simon, CEO of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory signed an agreement of cooperation today. It is the first time that in addition to financing a scholarship, a prominent actor of the business sphere joins the Moholy-Nagy László Design Scholarship by inviting applications for a design assignment as well. The Porcelain Manufactory respected as a world-famous representative of the Hungarian design culture asked applicants to create trend-setting dinner sets from Herend porcelain by combining traditional and 21st century elements.

The board evaluating the applications for the 2013 Moholy-Nagy Design Scholarship starts working tomorrow, on the 26th of March 2013. In the evaluation process of the close to fifty applications, their innovation content, as well as their social and economical significance is taken into account, while their novelty, even in international comparison, is also an important factor. The list of this year's grantees is to be published in the next few days.

At the ceremonial signature of the cooperation, dr. Miklós Bendzsel, President of the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office and Chairman of the Hungarian Design Council said: “The most important aim of the Moholy-Nagy László Design Scholarship is to support the individual creative work and professional development of young talents in order to further strengthen the Hungarian creative industry, which gives 7.85% of national gross value-added and 11% of national gross output. The Herend Porcelain Manufactory is a stable bastion of Hungarian design, where traditions and innovation, solutions of the future exist and operate together in perfect harmony. The over 185 year existence of the world's biggest porcelain manufactory clearly proves the economic potential of the creative industry and is a perfect example of the form of the European Design Innovation Initiative that builds upon traditions.” Dr. Miklós Bendzsel added: “The participation of the Manufactory is a milestone in the history of the Scholarship that will hopefully be followed by a series of similar cooperations between the state and the industrial sector.”

In connection with the cooperation, Dr. Attila Simon, CEO of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory said the following: “It is our principle that in product development others should follow us and not vica versa! In addition to satisfying the requirements of individual customers, acting as a trendsetter in product development is an important part of the Manufactory's work. Symposiums organised by the Manufactory serve this purpose while calling the attention of today's art society to the fact that the close to two-century old, leading Manufactory is open for new, innovative ideas that can be converted into porcelain and would like to draw external intellectual capacities in the daily artistic development work of its in-house designers. The scholarships announced by the Manufactory itself, as well as the ones we join, are also part of the trend-setting product development work. The cooperation between the Herend Porcelain Manufactory and the  Hungarian Intellectual Property Office is exemplary.”

The Moholy-Nagy László Design Scholarship

The scholarship founded close to thirty years ago has been updated by the Hungarian Design Council. Grantees of the scholarship that is now in line with the requirements of our time receive a grant that is higher than before (150,000 HUF per month) for a total of 6 months, at the end of which the results of the grantees' work are presented in the framework of an exhibition. Every young designer with a college or university degree of a related specialisation working in Hungary can apply for the scholarship.

Announced in 2013 by the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office acting in the name of the Hungarian Design Council with the participation of the Hungarian Public Foundation for Creative Art, the Moholy-Nagy Design Scholarship is financed by the Ministry of Human Resources, the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office and the Herend Porcelain Manufactory.

The Herend Porcelain Manufactory

Presently, the Herend Porcelain Manufactory is the world's biggest porcelain manufactory. Its product range contains over 16,000 forms and over 4,000 patterns, thus the number of its possible product types is 64 million. The porcelain pieces of Herend are still handmade. The sales network covers over 50 countries. By now Herend has become the world's biggest porcelain manufactory, a fact based on its profitable operation, the number of export markets, or the close to 900 employees.

Founded in 1826, Herend Porcelain Manufactory has proven its place in the luxury industry at several significant international competitions, while a report of the New York based Luxury Institute said that Herend was the most popular luxury porcelain brand in the US market, Herend spectacularly won on the basis of the “Luxury Brand Status Index” (LBSI) ahead of luxury brands like Cartier, Tiffany & Co., and Rosenthal. The French national luxury association of luxury industry companies, called Comité Colbert offered Herend a membership, making it the only Hungarian company in the luxury brand club of close to a hundred brands (among them Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Cartier).

 

 

Further information: www.herend.com, www.sztnh.hu

Further information for the media:

Natália Fábics
Arven PR & Communications
(for the Hungarian Intellectual Property Office and the Hungarian Design Council)
+36 30/924 42 24
fabics [169] arvenpr [961] hu

Jávorka Gyula, PR vezető
Herendi Porcelain Manufactory
+36 88/523 146
gyula [961] javorka [169] herend [961] com