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Prague's international Designblok festival is the largest design and fashion exhibition in Central and Eastern Europe. The event is visited annually by over 41,000 people including designers, curators, buyers, architects, interior designers, journalists, and design enthusiasts. The Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art presented two exhibitions at this year's event, which took place from October 8 to 12, created in collaboration with several studios. 

The appearance of the Designem do designu (Design into Design) installation was inspired by the traditional St. Matthew's Fair, which, as Designblok, takes place at Prague's Exhibition Grounds. Visitors found themselves at a fairground shooting range, where they had a seemingly simple task – to hit the displayed ceramic objects and mugs with a laser pistol. Successful players were rewarded with a short animated show and received information about the objects they hit.

"With the students, we created a laser pistol that's closer to a joke and a sci-fi parody than a real weapon. We were going for playfulness, absurd shapes, and visual humor – from comic-book proportions to bizarre experiments. It's not meant to frighten, but to entertain," explained Jan Korabečný, head of the Industrial Design studio. "In this installation, ceramics stepped out of their traditional role as utilitarian objects and became part of the game. At the same time, they retained their fragility and beauty," added Gabriel Vach, head of the Ceramic Design studio.

The Designem do designu (Design into Design) installation was created through team collaboration between the Industrial Design, Ceramic Design, and Animation studios together with Digital Media students. The graphic design of the exhibition was then created by students from the Graphic Design and Digital Media studio.

The Product Design studio led by Zdeněk Veverka and assistant Kateřina Klímová presented a diverse palette of projects at Designblok. Visitors could taste prototypes of chocolate pralines designed with emphasis on aesthetic, haptic, and taste qualities, biophilic products enriching everyday environments with therapeutic properties of plants, or a tableware set for senior homes.

"Our exhibition was complemented by a tableware set designed by studio graduate Marie-Magdalena Kvěch Jiřenová, which is the result of meticulous aesthetic development and psychosocial research," said Kateřina Klímová. The research included a questionnaire survey among seniors, consultations with medical staff and nutrition experts, and study of experimental color psychology. The set combines ergonomic elements for easier food manipulation, health-safe materials (porcelain, glass, silicone) as an alternative to plastics, and takes into account the psychological aspect of dignified dining, thereby contributing to a better eating experience and users' mental well-being. The exhibition also included automotive shape concepts from the previous academic year.