Speed Date / ŠTEFAN NOSKO, KATARÍNA BELIČKOVÁ, designers, Mejd
Where are you from?
Š: Závadka nad Hronom.
K: Kováčová near Zvolen.
Where did you study?
Š: Shaping of industrial products at secondary school, later product in the Art Design Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design.
K: We both studied at AFAD in Bratislava under Prof. František Burian in the Studio of Product Design (now it is Art Design).
Who was your best teacher?
Š: Koreň, later Burian and now life:)
K: There were many.
Who were/ are your parents?
Š: Saleswoman and electrician and in my spare time a decorative seamstress and DIY.
K: Dad was an electrician, mom had a drugstore.
What don’t you enjoy in design?
Š: Pretending that I enjoy something.
K: Wiping the dishes.
And on the contrary, what do you?
Š: There have been more, but I don’t enjoy doing monotonous mechanical work (and I don’t mean doing it behind the belt) for long periods of time.
K: Paddleboarding.
What do you listen to?
Š: Mostly rock, but also electronica.
K: Solange at the moment.
Your favourite film or cartoon?
Š: There are a lot of those, but I really like the movie Big Fish by Tim Burton. Animation… probably Up!
K: I don’t have a favorite, I like biopics.
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
Š: Oki Sato from Nendo, Marcel Wanders, and if I have to choose someone from my immediate surroundings, it could be Jiří Pelcl, or in Slovakia Maroš Schmidt.
K: People who are trying to build their dreams honestly.
What thing did you last buy?
Š: I have no idea, probably a book by Ted Chiang, the one that everybody is reading now. (Editor’s note: science fiction genre, Ted Chiang: Stories of Your Life)
K: New diary 2018. I’ve had the same one for 6 years now.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
Š: Occasionally a book or magazine, but I tend to read more scholarly stuff on the net.
K: Yes.
Do you vote?
Š: Yes, but I might stop.
K: Yes.
Who throws the best parties?
Š: I’ve had good parties in France, but Atelier Art Design has nothing to be ashamed of either 🙂
K: I don’t know, I don’t go to many parties.
Your favourite dome?
Š: Probably the one from Esztergom Cathedral (the one I remember the most from my childhood) and of course the Pantheon in Rome.
K: I don’t have a favourite dome.
Party dress. Made by…?
Š: I don’t divide it that much.
K: From Lenka Sršňová.
Hero from the past?
Š: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, Ghostbusters.
K: I don’t.
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
Š: I draw a lot and don’t think much, I only start when I don’t want to draw anymore. But in general I like to sketch a ton of paper.
What’s on your desktop?
Š: A picture of Saturn from the Cassini spacecraft.
K: A wave on the ocean.
Best exhibition, work of art?
Š: Antony Gormley in 2009 in Saint Étienne, but Kintera in Rudolfinum was also great. I would like to see Olafur Eliasson.
K: Design Week in Milan, London, Holland but also here 🙂
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
Š: From the domestic scene I respect mainly the initiative of the Slovak Design Museum, the collecting and educational activities of the people involved. Overall, I’m a fan of people who do things differently, who know how to secure production and sales, but at the same time maintain their style.
K: People who have managed to start their own brands and are making their own products and thriving.
Ethics or money?
Š: Morals, but the older I get the more I know that you can’t just be a dreamer.
K: Morals.
Extraordinary book?
Š: One hundred years of solitude.
K: I don’t have an exceptional one. I take from each one what I need and what interests me.
Optimists, pessimists, nihilists?
Š: I try to be as much of an optimist as possible, but I’m quite a skeptic about some things.
K: Optimist.
Do you have any hobby?
Š: Film, music, mountains.
K: There would be a lot of them if there was time, money and possibilities :), but I like surfing.
Solo or in a collective?
Š: It’s hard to do things without the help of others, you have to learn how to solve things in a team. This is still lacking here in Slovakia. People don’t allow others to join their ideas, projects, even in professional companies.
K: In a team.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
S: I hope so. Although I do want to go through a few countries, at least for a few months, possibly a year.
K: I love it here, but I’d rather live in the warmth by the ocean.