Still buzzing from the success of last year’s inaugural Kuala Lumpur Design Week, the annual KLDW Festival is en route for Twenty Ten! The festival is set to pop and fizz its creative ooze with a fresh new outlook. From May 1st until 16th, the city of KL will once again be the center of the creative industry, here in Kuala Lumpur and internationally.
Kuala Lumpur Design Week was launched and had commenced its festival showcase last year from March 28th until April 5th 2009 and had managed to draw a record of over 25 millions viewership, physically and virtually from all over the world. As the first event of its kind to have happened in Malaysia, the festival had been very well received by the local as well as the international design community. The festival had gained a great coverage in the media nationally, regionally as well as internationally, including from the United States, Belgium, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and many more.
KLDW 2009 had served as a perfect networking place for the design community. The conferences, forums and masterclasses provide an opportunity for the professionals and also students a chance to get to know those in the same boat as them, as well as getting to know the inside scoop of what’s happening in within the design community. Participants of the various design components had a chance to showcase their creative works of art, attracting visitors and potential employees and/or investors.
KLDW 2009 Festival had also achieved in striking an amicable partnership with Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur and the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Fuad Bin Ismail. This year, the Mayor has consent us to be an official patron of KLDW 2010. According to Datuk Seri Ahmad Fuad Bin Ismail, “We are now embarking on a new quest to position Kuala Lumpur as one of the creative hubs of the world, to be in parallel with the mega cities of London, Milan, Los Angeles, Tokyo and even our next-door neighbors Bangkok and Singapore. As we enter the creative economy spotlight, we can show ourselves as not only emerging as the new creative hub in within the region but even more importantly, helps to sustain the economic growth and development of the city”.
This year will be the second time for our beloved city of Kuala Lumpur to participate in the world culture of hosting design festivals and dabble into the new economy, creative-wise. Packed with exhibitions, forums, talks and installations, KLDW 2010 will be taking place in 10 locations all over the Kuala Lumpur city. From the 1st to 16th May, 2010, KL will see a colourful 16-days festival of mixed design disciplines from Architecture & Interior Design, Multimedia & Animation, Art & Graphics, Creative Crafts, Music & Soundscape, and Character & Product Design.
For 2010, KLDW is set on a new direction. We’ve refreshed the old logo with a new one, reinstating the full Kuala Lumpur name rather than abbreviated KL, for international recognition. Tweaking with the concept of historical digital revolution, bitmap as the first historical steps into print revolution and invention of which this digital evolution has contributed enormously into the development of our creative work and our way of life. The new KLDW 2010 logo represents the maze of the creative spirit, traversing the design courses all around Kuala Lumpur. Just like any design development, we start somewhere and we explore, experience and research all possibilities before arriving to the conclusion or solution.
Playing with the year 2010 (Twenty Ten) as a theme, this year’s KLDW will present 20 showcases in 10 different locations all over Kuala Lumpur, with 20 international speakers side by side with 10 Malaysian Masters, 20 Design Films from 10 Countries, 20 Malaysian designers will be taking space at 10 F&B outlets showcasing their creative talent at grassroot level and 20 Performers and 10 Musical Groups to end this event in a very glorious way. All that and more this coming May!
The three main locations this year would be National Art Gallery, which will host all the international designers’ exhibition, the movie screenings for the Design Film Festival, as well as Design Dialogues, Forums, Workshops and MasterClasses. CapSquare KL is set to host all Business of Design exhibitions and events, School Showcase, and the Food & Beverages + Design Fest. Meanwhile, the Typographic Conference, Creative Magazine Symposium and SuperAnimotion Conference will be taking place at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Other locations include Grand Opening Launch at Dataran Merdeka, 7 Bintang Awards in ASWARA, Business Lunch Design at LeMeridien Hotel, Annexe Gallery Central Market, Creative GIGs at Putrajaya International Convention Centre, and one other reserved spot which is now open for bidding.
KLDW 2010 is taking in a new approach of direction, upgrading and repackaging last year’s components with a fresh new concept. With the hope of elevating the Malaysian Creative Economy, KLDW has come up with the Business of Design Showcase (BOD). BOD was developed with the intention of sparking the independent creative economy, by focusing on cultivating the potentials of our young design entrepreneurs. Components under BOD include Exhibitions from Young Malaysian Designers, Individual and Creative Business Showcases, Design Trader Market, Creative Soundstage, Creative & Innovative Business Awards and the Business Forum/Dialogue, which will discuss about problems, issues and opportunities in Design Business, Law of Copyright and many more.
“We are targeting a surge in the Malaysian Creative Economy. If the world now is championing the creative economy, what better way to start at the grassroot level?” says KLDW President En Izuldin Hani. He adds, “If Creativity is the King of the NEW economy, then KLDW is the palace where Designers are its Dignitaries! It’s about time designers to get the recognition!”
This is the time KLites, be it students, yuppies, mummies and daddies to come and get a tad or give a tad toward KLDW 2010- KUALA LUMPUR DESIGN WEEK 2010. It is here, it is now, it is happening and we want you, we want that kapow! And we want that prodigal shining! KLDW 2010 is about NEW! NEW! NEW! Festival. Fill with full of NEW Concept! NEW Approach! NEW Lead! NEW Work! NEW Promise! NEW Agenda! NEW Dream and working hand in hand with additional NEW TEAM MEMBERS! The NEW Kuala Lumpur Design Week is officially ON!
Ends.
For more information please contact KLDW:
Suzanne Loh / Awin Hanni
suzanne@kldesignweek.com/ awin@kldesignweek.com
Tel: +6106 -2077671 / +6012-2075807
About Kuala Lumpur Design Week
Kuala Lumpur Design Week (KLDW) is the first and the largest annual event of Malaysia’s creative industry. The festival is a vital tool for the creative development of the nation, in enlightening the community about the significance of the Creative Economy and encouraging the education of design in various aspects of cultural development in within the region.
Divided into two components of Academics and Playground, KLDW promises an exciting line-up of programmes that will help in educating, inspiring, and entertaining the Malaysian public through the medium of design.
The Academics component will bring conferences, forums, lectures. International designers have been specially invited to share their expertise and experiences with Malaysia, and as such the festival will also highlight Malaysia’s very own home-grown design hotshots. The Playground component promises a line-up of international and local exhibitions, installations, art bazaar, as well as parties and celebrations. For more info please visit http://www.kldesignweek.com.