Speed Date / BRAŇO LAHO, designer

Where are you from?
Bratislava.

Where did you study?
AFAD (Academy of Fine Arts) in Bratislava.

Who was your best teacher?
Jozef Kovalčík who led the theory of design.

Who were/ are your parents?
My mum works in the financial sector, more I don’t know.
My father is a lab technician at the Faculty of Chemistry at the Slovak University of Technology.

What don’t you enjoy in design?
When a thought/an idea becomes vogue.

And on the contrary, what do you?
When different types of nonsense negate each other, while indicating their aimlessness.

What do you listen to?
Hip-hop on Devín radio. This medium is out of ordinary and I’m glad it exists.

Your favourite film or cartoon?
I recently recalled that probably my two most favourite Slovak films are “The Sun in a Net” and “Pictures of the Old World“ by Slovak director Dušan Hanák.

Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
…

What thing did you last buy?
Two small table clamps, at a charity jumble sale.

Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
Yes and very gladly. The book I last bought was on the history of the Czech art “Guide through the Restless Territory: Stories of the Czech Art (1905 – 2015)” and recently I got a book on graphic design: “Typography and Script Design in Slovakia”. Both of them have a yellow jacket.

Do you vote?
I do.

Who throws the best parties?
I really enjoy the Bratislava’s Hochspannung parties; they have brought here essential contemporary club music artists, at the time of their rise. Hochspannung team have an excellent overview and taste.

Your favourite dome?
It would be an inverted dome. There are more of them. I’m talking about the roofs of 4 round garages on Pionerska street in Bratislava.

Party dress. Made by…?
Buffet is my favourite brand.

Hero from the past?
Cyprián Majerník, Jozef Jankovič, Absalon, J. Dilla.

Best/nicest house?
I really can’t answer this.

Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
I guess so. First I try. If I’m fond of it, I try more. Mostly I screw it. I draw inspiration from the screwed thing. Then I try again.

What’s on your desktop?
Dark colour and a picture of a dancing cat.

Best exhibition, work of art?
The already mentioned Absalon and his modules designed with the view of ergonomics of one person.

What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
If I should pick one of each category, I’d choose the local duo Mitrikova & Demjanovič. They make objects that are powerful from the point of view of their idea as well as form.

From the foreign design, I respect Muller Van Severen studio. Their design doesn’t pretentiously show off.

Ethics or money?
“Money have never IN MY LIFE been problem “ is a slogan I repeat now and again.

Extraordinary book?
Dušan Mitana: “Slovak Poker” (1993)

Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
I want not to give a fuck, but I’m a failure.

Do you have any hobby?
Road and cyclocross bike.

Solo or in a collective?
Often solo. A collective makes me a bit claustrophobic.

Slovakia as the Promised Land?
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