On Road To Designer Branding

Published on : Sunday Leader

Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) 2011 is conceptualised by Academy of Design (AOD), Sri Lanka’s (SL’s) leading design campus.
AOD organizes the festival in association with industry leaders and the government and will be held at Mount Lavinia Hotel next month (November). The event is to take place under the theme “Close-up on Sri Lanka,” extending an  invitation to the world to take a look at Sri Lanka’s potential to lead in design and creativity.
As SL’s pioneering creative dynamic, AOD organizes the design festival annually to highlight the country’s creative wealth in several sectors like the apparel industry, fashion, design and crafts. AOD has established creativity’s role in development by fusing the major creative-based industries like apparel manufacturing with young design talent and raising the bar in creative education by implementing model projects in craft revival with design intervention. Therefore SL is positioned to set an example on utilizing design and creativity for socio-economic development as the island makes use of its human, natural and cultural resources for development. SL design festival is the single major international platform that shows those creative and sustainable developmental solutions to the rest of the world.
SLDF 2011’s fascinating  “Close-up on Crafts,”-the festival highlights livelihood development and craft revival projects involving artisan communities in the North and East and traditional craft communities in the central and Southern provinces and an exciting new weaving project in Divulapitiya under the government’s “Liya Abhimani” project. The close-up on craft will feature homeware, fashion and product design through an exhibition, a pop-up store and a fashion show. SLDF 2009/10 secured international retailers like ASOS UK to work with artisans along with local retailers. SLDF 2011 is confident of establishing more market links for local crafts.
As Sri Lanka’s largest and the most influential export industry, the apparel trade will once again be a main focus of the event.  The most prestigious apparel forum in South-Asia, “South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum” that has so far tackled pressing issues and has made groundbreaking plans for the Sri Lankan apparel industry such as the GSP plus trade benefit, investment in sustainability and going green etc. will go on to discuss topics such as design technology and rebalancing of apparel production that will impact the industry’s course. A close-up on fashion will come through SLDF’s industry fashion shows and exhibitions. SLDF is known to bring down big names in international graphics and advertising such as Barry Schwartz–cofounder of ADDIKT award-winning design firm from Amsterdam and Rajesh Dahiya-Co-design India. This will help in sharing global design knowledge with local designers through the festival’s many shows, forums and workshops.
The festival endorsed by its key stakeholders Sri Lanka Apparel and Economic Development Ministry and is supported by Coats-official thread partner, Textured Jersey–official fabric partner, Trade Card–official software partner, Hellmann–official shipping and logistics partner, SriLankan– official airline, Mount Lavinia Hotel–official host, Bates Strategic Alliance PR–Communications Partner, Images India–Indian Media Partner, Fashion TV–fashion media partner, Social mIdea–social media partner, Norwegian Embassy –cultural partner, Addikt Design Movement–motion graphics partner and British Council–Knowledge Partner. SLDF is organized by AOD.
For more information on the festival contact SLDF Secretariat at Lauries Road, Colombo.