Mikov and designer Natálie Navrátilová triumph at Designblok 2024
4. října 2024
The international jury of the Designblok 2024 festival awarded designer Natalia Navrátilová and Mikov the first prize in the Best New Product category for the Office stationery collection. The award was presented at a gala evening on 3 October 2024 at the Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle.
"I'm glad that the more than three years of effort behind the development of Office has come to such a nice end. I am very happy about the award, but I am equally pleased with the enthusiastic reactions of visitors to the Mikova stand. These come both from design professionals and from school children and students who are very interested in these office supplies," said Natálie Navrátilová.
The Office collection includes six products - a pencil sharpener, a letter opener, a scalpel, a straight ruler, a protractor and a triangle ruler. The DLC finish gives the collection its unique, minimalist and clearly recognisable at first glance look. An integral part of the products is the graphic and packaging design prepared by Kateřina Pravdová, a student of graphic design at UMPRUM.
"As a company that continues the almost three-hundred-year history of knife and small industrial goods production in Czech Switzerland, we know well that the future of the industry depends on innovation, design and quality. That's why we like to give chances to young and talented creators like Natálie Navrátilová. And we are delighted that the international jury took into account both the undeniable qualities of the Office suite and the connection between industrial tradition and youth in their evaluation," said Karel Ježek, owner of Mikov.
The aim of the Designblok Awards is to highlight exceptional product innovations from hundreds of exhibitors, to point out innovative approaches or ideas with a society-wide impact and to draw the attention of the professional and general public to them. The winners are decided by an independent five-member international jury headed by the President of the Designblok Awards, who this year was Ben Hobson from the UK, co-director of the Dezeen platform.