The Best Designed Exhibition in the World

The young Croatian designer team Šesnić&Turković won the prestigious Red Dot – Best of the Best 2010 Award for their concept and design of the Kod Cuculića (At Cuculić’s) exhibition held in the Mali Salon (The Little Salon) of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka. An international judging panel of 15 members decided to award the two young designers from Zagreb in the category of Communication Design where their work stood out among six thousand designs from 44 countries.

It’s interesting to note that the awards in this category usually go to big budget designs by teams with dozens of designers on board. For example, last year, the award went to Audi and Mini Cooper booths at the Frankfurt Auto Show. In comparison, the design of Kod Cuculića (At Cuculić’s) was entirely the work of Šesnić&Turković, and on a virtually non-existent budget at that. The designers will be receiving this important award in December at the Red Dot ceremony in Essen.

The award was given to Croatian designers only twice before: to Boris Ljubičić in 2001 for the I Love the Square and the Circle poster and to Bruketa&Žinić in 2007 for one of their most awarded and renowned works, the Podravka Annual Report.

More on the awarded exhibition from its designers:

“The exhibition of the graphic designer Vanja Cuculić was designed as a rendition of the designer’s apartment. The work was integrated into the exhibition area which was segmented into rooms of a stylized apartment so that the visitors can feel closeness to the work, and to highlight the ubiquity of design in everyday life. The main motif found in the poster and the ad is the designer’s profile created from illustrations. The profile in the poster features drawers which, being opened only half-way, invite visitors to take a peek. The profiles in the ads and the catalogue feature illustrations which symbolize the designer’s work: posters, wine labels, books, identities and tourist destinations.”

Stefano Katunar participated as an associate on the project, illustrating the wall pictures.

*Kitchen

*Living room

*Living room

*Living room

*Hall

*Entrance

*WC

*Yard

The names behind the Šesnić&Turković Design Studio are Marko Šesnić and Goran Turković. They began working together back in college (School of Design in Zagreb) and received recognition in their third year when they won the public tender for the visual identity of the Croatian Standards Institute, the State Office for Metrology, the Croatian Accreditation Agency, and the Croatian Metrology Institute.

Other awards worth noting are the Golden Bra Award at the 2007 Magdalena Festival in Maribor, the Zgraf10 honorable mention for the El Shatt catalogue design, and first place for the design of Croatian Audiovisual Centre’s visual identity, the co-author being Vanja Cuculić from the Cuculić Studio. Namely, Šesnić&Turković share their offices with friends and colleagues: the Cuculić Studio and the illustrator Srđana Modrinić BooBoo.

*Catalogue of exhibition El Shatt

*Visual identity for several state offices

*VIsual identity for Croatian Audiovisual Centre

For more on the Šesnić&Turković Design Studio click here.