Hi again
We are Dima Stefanova and Henk Groenendijk from Amsterdam. Together we form Icecreamdesign. A design studio focusing on media-design, education and research.
We are very honored to participate again in the latest version of Sofia Design Week 2010 “Less or More”. We will present an open workshop for every student in the academy called “Bird’s Eye View”.
For more info on us link to Rietveld’s Designblog
As a result of our successful workshop "New Obstructions" in 2009, Amsterdam based Icecreamdesign was invited again by Sofia design Week 2010 to organize a 5 day 
workshop at the National Art Academy in Sofia.
The workshop took place from 10-15 May making it possible for a mixed group of students to participate and the results 
to be presented during the Design Week in June.
Based on the current theme "More or Less" we called the workshop "Bird's-Eye View" to emphasize the intention to look at the conceptual design process in an alternative way. As such trying to emphasize the focus on investigating and confronting the difference between looking and seeing.
15 students started with what they do best –making a portrait drawing– and ended with something that they never allowed themselves to be possible before.
Looking at each other's skillfully drawn portraits, made these students question if they really saw what they where copying. The workshop anticipated on this question with short exercises to bring forward a more thorough and personal analyses of the object (the model). 
As a result of 
that process the object became subject.
An investigative process of mapping and selecting presented new viewpoints to connect to sketchy ideas on a variety of designed "products' based on the students academical backgrounds and personal area of interest. Working with students of different levels created a lively level of presented concepts.
Presenting an idea is strongly connected to the conventions of culture and education. In our workshop we tried to make clear that only a free attitude towards these criteria can successfully lead to innovation in the design process.
After careful analyses of the presented sketches we demonstrated this by creating 
rigid individual obstructions for the works presented, allowing and forcing the students to go beyond their own limitations, producing new and inspiring products.
The successful results of this educational process was presented in the Academia Gallery next to an exhibition of students from the Dutch Gerrit Rietveld Academie. This exhibition "The Perfect Human, 5 X Obstructed" presented student documentations and work results of a project initiated as part of the Typography program of their department of Graphic Design. Both presentations aimed at the academic students as an audience in an effort to exchange views in education and enrich awareness and autonomy in the designing process.
If idea and result overlap the design process dries out. Defining individual and personal obstructions create a new and open chain of discovery driving that same process onwards.
This post presents the sequence of Elitsa Atanasova's process. 
Nicolay Petrov (her model) made this portrait of her
Commitment is all. Investigating and creating new work in the process. If it was not for our limited workshop time it could have been hundred variations ! sad – in love – shy – excited – secret – greedy – curious – angry – happy – bored – cheeky – naughty – cowardly – silent – mean ….
This post presents the sequence of Nadejda Petrova's process. 
We made this snapshot of her
This post presents the sequence of Nicolay Petrov's process. 
Elitsa Atanasova (his model) made this portrait of him
Comparing a model drawing with a photographical portrait, led to the determination of the objective and subjective characteristics “round, sharp and expressive”. This was later developped into an ingenious tool incorporating all elements from content to function.
This post presents the sequence of Leda Vaneva's process. 
Joan Zenkov (her model) made this portrait of her
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your own story
total darkness
no explanation
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In my visual answer to the obstructions
I decided to keep the basic colours of my stickers:
yellow, green, black and white,
to use typography as an emotional and visual language,
to use cute, crushed, folded colored papers as background of my posters.
The small and inderect visual language of the stickers is counter productive to the goal. The use of the language of the street signs connects them also to the language of “The Public System” which it is opposing. Using clear messages and simple emotional structures involves the reader instead of telling him/her. Text rules over images.
When I received my obligations, which are: no colors, no numbers, no grafic elements but use frame, I started to think about my new project:
I choose to use glasses for main elements because the glass is transparent and has no color. In this way I keep my obligations not to use colors and grafic elements.
I arrange them 
on a black plate 
with a rectangle form and in this way I had a frame. I chose glass with different forms and heights and in this way I reproduce the main purpose of the project to visualize different percentages without using numbers.
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no colors
no numbers
no graphic elements
use frame
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signing contract in 10 phases
1 podium
in white
mapping
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Life is not abstract. Life is real. Connect to reality.
The make over of the “CO2-Diet” campaign brings the message across with direct force presenting problem and solution at our doorstep.
You, Me, Our Place 
HOW DO YOU MOVE
HOW DO YOU LIVE
WHAT DO YOU LEAVE BEHING
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use your own photographs
about your personal life
keep the concept
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Thank you for the good mind-disastrous workshop 
and sorry
for being a little bit late with the resume of the working process that you need.
“New Obstructions workshop provoke me to think a lot about what is in the core of the obstruction and that’s why I did my work in the last 13 hours of the deadline. Just to improvise and to experiment how you can experience the obstruction and to gain as much as you can. I felt a lot of stress, attemps for concentrating, a millions of questions and millions of questions about the answers. The result is that I found new horizons. “
With a lot of respect,
Iliyan Parigvozdev
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unsharp
1 material only
change the medium
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>
in black & white
one continuous and unbroken line
in public space
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How to make a bell?
In 2008 a group of friends of the New Culture Foundation restored the stolen bell in the village of Gorna Bela Rechka in Bulgaria and built a new bell tower.
The images below show the book which collects the lessons and stories born in the process of making that new bell.
We decided to share them with more people, because making a bell turned out to be a profound almost life-changing experience for all of us. The book combines design, details of stories and photography.
you can also find information on the website made after this project: search among many other interesting projects on www.e-rayo.net
This project named “Light Design Lab” is a part of team project ” How to script De-Sign in Bulgarian”. “How to script De-Sign in Bulgarian” is a project-study with an exhibition and a panel lection/dicusion.
Stages of the project
1. Stage 1 – inquiry (in process) 01.08-30.09.2006. Preparation, realization and popularization of online and offline inquiry. Collection of data: http://www.designfield.org/de-sign
Inquiry topics:
- VISUAL COMMUNICATION / GRAPHIC DESIGN
- UTILITARIAN DESIGN. DESIGN OF DAILY ROUND
- CITY DESIGN
The inquiry topics and the questions of the inquiry was consulted with sociologist.
2. Stage 2 – analysis
Analysis of the inquiry data received. Team work with a professional sociologist.
3. Stage 3 – visualization of the data and of the inquiry questions. Series of team meetings. On a basis of the analysis we created art projects on the base of visual language of design as well as the visual language of art.
There are two directions of inventing and realization of the visualization projects:
1 – original art interpretation and visualization in various original conceptual forms of the sociologic data from the inquiry.
2 – creation of works with ideological basis connected with a question or a group of questions from the inquiry.
4. Stage 4 – Exhibition. Concomitant discussion. Lection.
Results from stage 3 was exhibite in RED HOUSE – Center of Culture and Design; ALTERA Galerie – Interpred Office Trade Center.
Means of expression: photography, collage, large format printings, lights, space and multimedia installations, 3D objects, etc.
I made Art visualization of the question:
“What’s really selling a product?
The main reason to choose this question was the results of answers: Only 45% from the people employed in marketing and advertising field believe that advertisement selling.
NEW – EUBG – URBAN COMMUNICATION : Off-line and on-line urban action/installation
The concept of this project focuses on Sofia as a place of different conflicts and contrasts; a place where it’s increasingly hard to live in, breathe, move and consume. I made series of graphic signs printed on stickers (9×9 cm). The idea of the project is to mark different urban design or architecture object in the city of Sofia and to provoke communication and reflection.
(Why not some other city 
). Conceptually, they cover part of the titles:
An ugly building / An ugly architecture / Inhumane architecture
Grass plots – “NO”/ Grass plots forbidden
Forbidden for mothers with prams / Inaccessible for prams
A killer-building / A crumbling building
A city design that has fallen ill / A sick city design / A city design with prosthesis
