HFDA launched its mentor program titled design SPEED together with the renowned Italian Istituto Europeo di Designnal (IED) at the end of the summer, for six stable Hungarian designers possibly having some foreign experience who are committed to the further development of their companies. Each week until the end of January, you can get to know another protégé a little closer here, at HYPEANDHYPER – this time it is Barbara Kovács and László Szikszai, that is Sixty Furniture.
László Szikszai, the designer and founder-owner of the company knows the ways from the bottom to the top of the ladder, for sure: he is the proud owner of a diploma in carpentry, woodworking engineering and product development. Later on, he acquired the knowledge necessary for starting the company with 5 years of design work in Vienna. This stable professional basis is an important element of their success: they work with 100-120 German and Swiss distributing partners and had won numerous prestigious German design awards.
László’s partner, Barbara Kovács, as export manager, is responsible for keeping continuous contact with German and English speaking partners and placing orders into production, and she also plays a growing role in establishing long term strategies.
Special lines, natural materials
The design characteristic of Sixay furniture (light, elegant, nature-inspired, softly arched shapes), as well as the consequent use of wood and other high-quality natural materials, such as 100% natural oils, waxes and careful design satisfying the highest of expectations are the trademarks of the brand. They strive to create timeless pieces that hold through generations, and the ecologic direction that is so trendy today has been a standard for them for 25 years. Their most well-known piece of furniture is the SIXtematic dresser with multiple shelves, colored in 9 different wood types, which has become iconic today.
Sixay Furniture is a relatively small company, giving work to 8 people. Everyone has their own task, may it be design, sales, coordination of production or logistics. They would like to implement the developments ahead of them. The construction work of their new site soon commences (office, showroom, warehouse and workshop), which is essential for the further successful operation of the company and for them to be able to expand their existing markets and increase the prestige of the brand.
Sixay Furniture and design SPEED
“We have come to a point from where we could see that the company had significant potential in it, but under the weight of daily routine and tasks, we had no capacity nor potential knowledge to take the necessary steps in the right directions. We hoped to receive some dominant directions here, along which we could start off relatively effectively. This, for the time being, seems to be working, as we have gathered many useful pieces of advice and methods, starting from the proper management of product portfolio to the more conscious building of the brand image” – explained László Szikszai.
“On top of that, the Italian lecturers highlight simple principles or faults that we consider obvious and simple reflections with unlimited patience, using very fine examples. Yet, if we were to put them into practice, it would turn out quite soon that they are much more difficult than how they looked at first… These lectures can trigger lines of thoughts that later can be transformed into actual plans and projects” – he added.
A HFDA design SPEED X HYPE című cikksorozatunkban a design SPEED hat mentoráltjának tervezői munkásságáról, a mentorprogrammal kapcsolatos tapasztalataikról olvashattok hétről hétre a HYPEANDHYPER-en
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