Nevena Factory in Leskovac

This post about Serbian Design is about a cosmetic factory that produces my favorite baby products, I use them daily when I bath and change my baby-girl, and every day I'm delighted with the beautiful designed bottles and jars, so that I tried to discover more about these products.(picture from danas.rs)

The factory is in Leskovac, the city that was called the Serbian Manchester (in 19th Leskovac was a prosperous textile-city with 13 factories).
The concrete factory building with the fancy "retro"-style logo looks really cool.

The products have a beautiful design, and what is good, the firm never decided to change it!!

 

 

The firm was established in 1953 and as a state firm produced cosmetics, toiletries, and household cleaning products.
The light blue Kosili products for instance were found in most of the Jugoslavian bathrooms.
I love to use them and I stock up with Kosili products every time I'm in Serbia.
They were sold also in Switzerland in the past (manufactured by Doetsch Grether AG) but not anymore….I wonder why...

 

 

The logo is really stylish and fortunately it hasn't been changed radically…just adapted. I like the idea of the letters N, E, V and A made in the same way but just turned around.(logo pictures from serbianlogo.com)

                           

In 2001 Serbia's Privatisation Agency started to sell 70% of the equity owned by Nevena's employees to a strategic investor and then in 2003 it was sold at a public auction. The Dyes and Varnishes Unit of the company was sold to a Serbian private company from Backa Palanka.

But the cosmetic unit was bought from Bulgarian tycoon Hristo Atanasov Kovacki, one of the richest people in the Balkans and a friend of Sreten Jocic (Joca Amsterdam, member of the Serbian Organized Crime), thanks to poor control by Serbia's Privatisation Agency.

Instead of bringing Nevena Company to former glory, workers need to go on strikes to get paid and one's more Leskovac is about to loose one more working factory.
Mr. Kovacki is known to have ruined as many as 15 Serbian firms until now…about 8000 working places lost..I guess that Serbia's Privatisation Agency must feel really proud for that.

                            

To see the building:

HEMIJSKA INDUSTRIJA NEVENA AD LESKOVAC

 Đorđa Stamenkovića bb

16000 Leskovac 

The factory has no webpage and the email address is a gmail account...

Belgrade Sweet Souvenir by Coba Associates

It's not the first time I mention  Coba & Associates a Belgrade based Design. I wrote about their very inspiring publication LIVING BELGRADE not long time ago here.

Now I stumbled upon a cool page called "lovely package" just to find again some great work of Coba!

http://lovelypackage.com/adore-fine-chocolate/

They created outstanding packages for quality Serbian chocolate ADORÈ. (I didn't even know it until now!)

http://www.adorechocolat.net

In a collection of 6 flavors created by ADORÈ and packages created by Coba they put together little pieces of beautiful art!

BG ČO-KO (a black chcolate with dried cherries) got an award for sweet Belgrade souvenir: it's packaged in a city map with a stylish Belgrade-numberplate (read: tcho-kho as chocolate)

 That's my favorite!!!

And here the presentation from lovely packages:

http://lovelypackage.com/adore-fine-chocolate/

Designed by Coba & Associates | Country: Serbia

“Adoré are hand-made chocolates and as such fall under the category of higher quality status both in terms of product quality and packaging design, as well as consumer communication. Bearing in mind the active period in the development of the brand, we needed to create packaging for a new product – the chocolate tablet. The idea was to come up with packaging for 10 different flavors.

Each flavor got its own look and name! Whether it is Crunchy Mint or Orangella, each flavor received a specific packaging which are (from a production standpoint) very specific in this region. Using thermal block foil, laser-cut paper and special printing techniques have resulted in designs that communicate that Adoré Chocolate provides more than just taste – it is a brand that takes you on a journey.”

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Living Belgrade from Coba - Serbian Design and Branding

Some time ago I discovered this publication by COBA & associates called LIVING BELGRADE and I loved it so much that I want to share it with all of you. A magnificent collection of streets, houses and people that come together to create something that we know as Belgrade.

The team around Creative director Slobodan Jovanović-Coba put together an exiting (and graphically apealing) brochure with all their favorite highlights, foods, coffee shops, drinks, clubs, fashion, design, music, stores and much more of Belgrade.

Jovanovic wished to keep a record of the changed and to learn from them and create something better and more honorable. it was also a way for him to point out those little things that make up a big city.

He writes: "We will not be unrealistic and fantasize, but rather offer our professional point of view as a solution and inspiration on how to deal with the daily cacophony of irritation and noise."

You can download the brochure here (in English) and here (на српском) and it's a great adventure to flip through the wonderful pages:

Included are also the  CLASSIC TOP 5 of Belgrade's architecture:

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART(I made a post here)

HOUSE OF THE FEDERAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (I made a post here)

SPORTCOMPLEX 25.MAJ (I made a post here)

PRINTERY BIGZ (I made a post here)

THEDEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COMPLEX (GENERALŠTAB) (I made a post here)

Who is the man behind this great work?

Slobodan Jovanović Coba

 He is the creative director of Coba & Associates a design and branding agency in Belgrade. I'll write surely more about the great work that he's doing with his team.

http://www.cobaassociates.com/

Serbia on expo2010 in Shanghai

On May 1st 2010 the world expo in Shanghai will open and Serbians are preparing what will be their first participation ever in an Expo since the disintegration of Yugoslavia.  

Each of the participating countries will build a pavillon to represent its culture.

The theme of the Serbian pavilion will be ”City Code”, showing how the traditional Serbian weaving of carpets (cilims) as a process  represents the symbiosis of old and new happening in Serbian cities. 

Eight components of the “City Code” which, through the quality of life of its population, define the vitality of the city will be symbolically presented or „weaved“ together inside the interior of the pavilion: the history of the development of the city, the culture of individuality, commerce, citizenship, the city’s lifestyle, urban ecosystems, art and technology and communications.

In the pavilion the idea of weaving is shown by comprising a network of wedges and cables upon which modules (called "srboblocks") made of metal, plastic or porcelain will be affixed. Inside there will be a ramp that will lead to the story of Serbian cities and the other elements of the exhibition. 

In the facade you see this texture showing 

patterns of traditional Serbian cilim carpets

The construction itself will use a model the process of weaving, merging and matching the modular parts into a whole marked and consumed by its unrepeatable code.

The selection of the system of construction represents an important decision in the process of pavilion building because it will depend on numerous factors, primarily the ease and practicality of the construction handling, or on the flexibility of the system in regards to additional construction and replacement using these modules. 

The architectural team behind this idea are Natalija Miodragovic and Darko Kovacev which founded in 2007 a creative network OPTIMISTI Zeleni zub - sustainable living in Almere, Netherland.

More informations are available on the Serbian website for the expo here:

www.serbiaexpo.rs

It's still not clarified if the Kosovo region will be included inside the presentation, even if I expect Serbia to be clear about it and it would be normal to include it. Let's see then....!

JAT Airlines - Design

This post is nothing like an add for JAT Airlines...as I'm rather disappointed about what's going on with this airline, not to mention about the poor service (my friend was not satisfied) and the high prices. But OK, the airline is in trouble and is looking for an economic boost, and it would be fantastic for Serbia if the national air carrier gets its glamour back.

Yes, because JAT Airline , was former called Yugoslavian Air Transport (Југословенски аеротранспорт JAT) and had not only worldwide good reputation (JAT was the first European Airline to buy a Boing 737!) but had a very attractive CI (Corporate Identity, like Logo, Advertising, Uniforms, the Company Image).

When I started flying with JAT, they still had the old logo and because short after the war nobody still had put relooking efforts into the company, it had a lovely almost retro look and you could still feel the glam of the past times.

The glam years

Shortly after the WW II  JAT was founded (1947) from the former airline Aeroput. War airplanes like the Junkers JU-52 were converted into passenger aircrafts.  Multiple international and domestic routes were opened. From the 50's to the 80's JAT was booming.

 The 1951 timetable shows modern airplanes and a traditional peasant in national costume spinning. (source: http://www.timetableimages.com)

During those years, the company carried 5 million passengers annually and served 80 destinations on five continents (19 domestic, 45 medium haul and 16 long haul routes). JAT also constructed a large hangar to accommodate wide-body aircraft and a jet-engine test stand at their Belgrade hub.

Here some of the JAT ads from the 60's.  The colors, the graphics..the composition showed an optimistic and playful style.

But the Balkan Wars of the 90's set an end to the prosperous company. 1992 Germany (the largest market for JAT in Europe, with 7 flights daily and 40 million German marks gross annual profit), followed by Italy and then by the U.S and later Canada interrupted any air traffic with Yugoslavia.  JAT could not really evade to domestic flights instead, as destinations like Nis, Tivat, Podgorica and Uzice (yes, they used Ponikve Airport for a short time) were just money consuming and made no profit.

An attemp of the government to boost the company in 1998 (8 Airbuses were ordered) failled inevitably in 2000 when instead of paying the aircrafts or trying to sell them to another airline Serbia was bombed for 78 days and the CEO of JAT was murdered in front of his house in Belgrade.

 

Above a plane with the older logo and livery

After the regime's overthrow on 5 October 2000, the FR Yugoslavia was accepted back into international organisations and sanctions were dropped and in 2003 the company name was changed into JAT Airlines and introduced new livery.

 

The new identity: New livery for the planes and a new corporate design

JAT is not the only airline to operate in the red, so all the standard remedies are tried (alliances, frequent flyer and so on). In 2007 and 2008 the airline received an award as one of the five best brands from Serbia.

It's not enough, after strikes of the staff and a failed privatization an the company is still rum entirely by the Government of Serbia. Can the airline go back to the former impeccable shape?

Researching for this post I run into a great blog: http://exyuaviation.blogspot.com

 

 A JAT meal, looked weird...but was much better than expected (and it was for short flight Belgrade - Zurich)

Serbian design – The Sajkaca

My favorite Serbian design item is of course the Sajkaca (Шајкача) the icon of Serbdom all over the world. That was also the reason why I choose it as an icon for my blog about Serbian architecture and design, there is nothing more "Serbian" that the Sajkaca!

I usually don't wear Sajkacas
though
I love to pose with them

The Sajkaca is a Serbian national hat, used by ethnic Serbs since the 18th century. Orginally worn by the Serbian river fleet on the Dunav river in the time when they conducted raids agaist the turkish ocupators.

Also Boris Tadic (President of Serbia) sometimes wears a Sajkaca

The style of this caps spread quickly among the Serbian community and today it’s still wor in some national dresses of Central Serbia (e.g. Sumadija) or by peasants.

3-D source of a Sajkaca

The cap is of a simple but neat design. It’s recognisable by its top part that looks like the letter V or like the bottom of a boat (viewed from above).

The material is usually an elaborated wool and mostly it’s of a grey-olive color. But there are all kind of types, like dark blue or black ones and there are also some made of a heavy cotton.

The shape of the Sajkaca gives a typical silhouete to the wearer as the V-shape is recognizable at the first sight. That makes it a good logo either, with two or three strokes you can draw a cap and you immediatly know it’s a Sajkaca.

The Serbian version of Facebook "serbbook"
uses exactly this easily remembered shape
of the Sajkaca for its logo

The hat was used by the Serbian army in the first world war. From then on the cap kept also a symbol for military units. The Sajkaca exist also in a officer version decorated with emblems and stripes (like General Ratko Mladic and other military commanders wore in the Bosnian War in the 90’s).

Also it was the cap worn by Chetniks

before and during the World Wars.

Here a grafiti of Draza Mihailovic

on a wall in Belgrade

A good fonctionality and a high value of recognition make it a smart and distinctive piece of design. No wonder it’s used as a „brand“ for promoting Serbdom!

The Serbian skater brand "Cetniks Skejtbords"

uses national elements for its logo

and among them the Sajkaca

Serbian entry for Eurovision Song Contest

Yesterday I watched the final of "Beovizija" the Serbian music festival to qualify to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. At first I was not very enthusiastic about the entries, but the winner song "Ципела" (Shoe) from Marko Kon and Milan Nikolic stands out from the rest.
At first glance it's a strange performance but the song is really cool, and after a while I even got used to the peculiar looking singer. I know, some might think he should go to get a haircut...but I think that's really OK for such an event to sport a special hairdo! Напред Марко!

Balkanology in Switzerland

Picture: Tom Bisig, Basel

Saturday I visited the Balkanology Exhibition in the Swiss Architecture Museum (SAM). A very nicely done exhibition that shows projects in pictures and films and probably it's the first time that an exhibition is dedicated to the Balkan region (reduced to Jugoslavia and Albania) in Switzerland. Here the press release.

What I liked, it's that an exhibition of this little-known architecture was presented to a broad audience here in Switzerland and it gives good explanation about the socio-poilitical changes in the region and their impact on the architecture.

From architectural masteripieces of the past with "iconic" effect like: The Museum of Modern Art in New Belgrade, 1965 (Ivan Antić und Ivanka Raspopović), The Federal Ministry of Defence in Belgrade, 1963 (Nikola Dobrović), the National Library in Pristina, 1983 (Andrija Mutnjaković) or the Yugoslavian Pavillion in the World Exhibition in Brussel of 1958 (Vjenceslav Richter) to new projects that are about to be realized like: The reconstruction of the Usce Tower in New Belgrade, 2006 (Slavija biro and ARCVS), A Media Center for Novi Sad, 2007 (Srdjan Jovanović Weiss / NAO) or the new proposal for the terazije Plateau, 2010 (Re:act), the exhibition covers a lot of outstanding buildings.
(The buildings above are already covered or will be soon covered on this blog, that's why I mentioned these)

Another part of the exhibition is dedicated to Urbanist Studies: of Belgrade (from Dubravka Sekulić und Ivan Kucina), of Zagreb (from Platforma 9,81) and of Prishtina (from Archis Interventions) and to Urbanist Interventions: of Tirana (Co-Plan) and Kotor (EXPEDITIO).

What I didn't like so much about this "Balkanology" is, that from several points of few, it ends up always to the same conclusion, that the Balkan Region can get rid of its "negative image" and its problems by adopting more of a Western approach of planning and to learn to be avare of the devastation of environment by inadequate building.

Is this environment adequate behavior?

On one side it's pretty ridiculous, to pretend that for instance a country that got bombed and some of its most significant buildings got destroyed should understand the meaning of "environment adequate behavior" and on the other side, it's questionable if the "balkan"-image is really just a negative identity that needs to be broken down.

random improvisation (from LHE)

Isn't the diversity, the exotism and the improvisation that comes with the "balkan" word even an advantage that could make a brand, the "balkan brand", an instrument to give this region an identity back, a positiv fascinating identity, without necessarily using Western benchmarks ?!