The steering wheel of a Škoda, Bosch tools, cycling gear from the Swedish firm Thule, but also, say, a beer mug designed for Velké Popovice. The fourth edition of Žně designu presents, in Bílovice, products from twenty brands from several European countries. This year's exhibition opened as part of the WiFič VEN! festival and is now being adapted for longer-term operation. It reopens to the public on 24 September.
INFO: The opening of Žně designu took place on 28 August as part of the WiFič VEN! festival, which drew 3,800 visitors over two days. The exhibition also made use, for the first time, of the new F3 building within the Pole designu campus. Its layout is now being adjusted for operation after the festival. It reopens to the public on 24 September and will remain accessible until the end of the year.
Design that holds up in practice
Žně designu doesn't present design merely as an aesthetic discipline. The curators of this year's edition, Darja Škodová and Richard Vodička, selected series-produced products that combine functionality, quality and originality with technological standard, efficient manufacturing, long service life and a reasonable price.
„We didn't want to pick just products that look good. We were interested in whether they hold up in everyday use, whether they can be manufactured efficiently, and whether they bring their own solutions. Good industrial design has to combine function, quality, originality, technological standard and a reasonable price,“ explains curator Darja Škodová.
From a steering wheel through tools to a glass
The individual exhibits aren't united by a similar look or a single style. The exhibition places vehicles, work tools, sports equipment, electronics, clothing, glassware and household objects side by side. It shows the breadth of the field while also reminding us that industrial design is part of the objects people use every day.
Škoda Auto brought to Bílovice a series steering wheel for the RS models and a concept car's steering wheel. Bosch presents a battery-powered lawnmower and a pair of shears-style measuring tool, Thule a child trailer and bike carriers. The exhibition also recalls the hundred-year history of the Merkur construction set. OKULA and OPTIQA prepared glasses for Žně designu that use new materials and manufacturing processes. The Czech startup Groowia presents the Oliver modular hydroponic system designed for home growing.
Collaborative work hidden behind the product
The shape of a finished product is only the visible outcome of the whole design process. Beneath its surface lie dozens of decisions: how the product will be operated, whether it will be safe and intuitive, how much material it will use, how long it will last, and whether it can be manufactured at a price acceptable to the customer.
This is also where the exhibition's name comes from. Žně (harvest) represents the figurative reaping of the shared work of designers, engineers, technologists, manufacturers, marketers, salespeople and people from many other professions. The result isn't a solitary authorial object, but a product that has to go through manufacturing and then hold up in everyday use.
Fourth edition brings more space and more international brands
The first two editions of Žně designu took place in 2020 and 2021 exclusively as part of WiFič VEN! After the festival ended, the exhibitions were dismantled. The third edition took place in 2025 and, in a limited form, remained accessible in the following months too.
This year's use of the new F3 building made it possible to prepare a larger, more cohesive exhibition that will run until the end of the year. The exhibition's geographical scope has also grown. Alongside Czech manufacturers, it features brands from other European countries. The exhibits aren't arranged by country of origin, but into thematic groups that show shared questions and different approaches to solving them.
An exhibition enriched by personal experience
Žně designu also included conversations with designers and manufacturers' representatives. The discussions traced the stories of specific exhibits from the initial brief through development and manufacturing to market launch. The international guest was Michael Meyer from the studio TEAMS Design, who spoke about working for global brands including Kärcher.
RELATED: The studio TEAMS Design grew out of Slany Design, founded in 1956 by Hans Erich Slany. Born in 1926 in Czechoslovakia, in what is today Loučná pod Klínovcem, he later became a pioneer in the use of plastic housings for power tools. For more than twenty years he also worked as a professor of industrial design and helped found the Association of German Industrial Designers. The studio's collaboration with Bosch dates back to the 1950s. Today's TEAMS Design operates from five studios across Europe, the United States and China, and alongside industrial design also works in digital and strategic design. Its work is represented at Žně designu by two Bosch products – a battery-powered lawnmower and a shears-style measuring tool.
Different professional paths were presented by former classmates from the Zlín design department, Ondřej Václavík and René Šulc. While Václavík gained experience abroad and works for international brands, Šulc has long collaborated mainly with Czech manufacturers and also teaches at CTU. Anežka Berecková and representatives of the brand Braasi discussed designing sports and functional equipment. Ladislav Škoda, Jaroslav Kratochvíl and creators linked to other exhibited products also shared their own experience.
What Žně designu builds on
Žně designu is a conceptual continuation of the work of the Design Centre of the Czech Republic, which was dedicated to the systematic support of the field under the leadership of Karel Kobosil between 1991 and 2007. This isn't merely a historical legacy. The Design Centre's experience is the starting point for considering how to talk about industrial design today, how to bring it closer to the public, and how to connect the field's various players.
In the Czech Republic today, there's no platform dedicated to the systematic development of industrial design. The ambition of Žně designu is therefore not merely to hold a regular exhibition. The project aims to gradually create a space for designers, manufacturers, schools and institutions to meet, and to bring industrial design back into wider public debate.
„Industrial design has great potential, yet it remains outside sustained attention. We want to develop Žně designu as a platform where manufacturers, designers, schools and institutions meet. The exhibition should be one of the impulses that brings this topic back to the table,“ says curator Richard Vodička.
Practical information
Žně designu 2026
Pole designu, building F3
Bílovice 519, 687 12 Bílovice
Opening: 28 August 2026
Reopening: 24 September 2026
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm
Exhibition runs: until the end of 2026
Guided tours: booking r.vodicka@poledesignu.cz
