First designers of the 2018 season!

BIG BERRY hosted the first designers of the season: seven students from the Faculty of Textile Technology in Zagreb: Maruša Zorko, Martina Vinčazović, Veronika Levak, Stjepan Gluščić, Helena Matić, Ariana Juratović, Analisa Marić and their professor Irena Šabarić and her assistant Franka Karin. During the 5 days of their stay at the BIG BERRY Kolpa River Resort, they brought freshness to BIG BERRY brand elements.

During those 5 days, BIG BERRY team and designers spent and shared amazing moments together. On Monday, BB team welcomed them properly with a nice and healthy barbecue lunch - we all enjoyed fish from BIG BERRY partner Kmetija Zupančič and vegetables seasoned with some garlic ghee from BIG BERRY partner Zlati ghee. After we filled their bellies, the process of (re)designing BIG BERRY brand officially started! During the afternoon, the designers had the opportunity to get familiar with the BIG BERRY team, the resort and finally the Design Year Project - Fashion Design and Product Design.

After the afternoon filled with information, BIG BERRY team organized a movie night for the designers, so they could relax and enjoy all together. The following day, we enjoyed another lunch together in the resort after which the designers demonstrated their creativity by working in stimulative RIC Bela Krajina.

After hard working days, the designers went to see one of the biggest textile factory of Slovenia - Beti , where they learned everything about rich textile producing history and had a chance to see the process of production thanks to Maja Čibej, Beti’s directress, and Matija Štrucelj. They gave us a warm welcome and a tour of the production site where we learnt more about textile production and weaving.

Inspired by everything they have seen, designers continued with the development of their products.

We couldn’t think of a better way to finish this more very productive day but to visit Pivovarna Vizir in Črnomelj and enjoy Maja’s guidance through Vizir’s amazing history, their  laboratory and the whole brewery. We didn’t just learn, we actually had a chance to taste it - beer tasting time! She presented different types of beer they are producing and selling and we had the opportunity to taste 8 of them with some traditional bread. It was really nice and we all enjoyed!

On Thursday, the day after, BIG BERRY was an epicentre of design knowledge because we greeted two amazing guys - the third Mastermind of the season: Tomaž Aupič, who decided to talk about designing and sales, and Robert Klun, an architect, private and public project developer, designer and furniture maker.  Our seven designers had the opportunity to participate in the talks and the workshop that was organized especially for them.

After this great afternoon with inspiring people, we all gathered around the barbecue where we enjoyed dry meat and cheese from Totter , wine from Šuklje and traditional pogača from Domače Dobrote Mojca. We enriched our button tree with new berry buttons  and celebrated this amazing week.

For the last day, we went through all designed items and celebrated Franka’s birthday with a nice strawberry cake from BIG BERRY partner Domače Dobrote Mojca !

Designers were inspired by all those experiences and motivated by our Luxury of Freedom, because they were designing surrounded by nature in its best light. This resulted in numerous new designs and various redesigns. From a BB sleep mask which can turn into case for glasses or phone, over shirts, skirts and pants as part of a BB outfit over to multifunctional elements like cushions and blankets which can be used as games for children (and grown-ups too!) and bag-pencil box-cushion. We were amazed by their energy, ideas and enthusiasm and are convinced that we will hear a lot about these young designers.

BIG BERRY is so proud to have greeted those fresh designers and so glad to have had the chance to see their creativity bloom at the BIG BERRY Kolpa River Resort.