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Jure Miklavc, industrial designer
OPENING UP THE HORIZON
Barbara Predan, [ 2+3D grafika plus produkt ], Volume 31, II-2009,
translated by [ U.T.A. ]

Špela Šubic, Secretary General of the Biennial of Industrial Design, led several distinguished guests through an international exhibition of top design at the opening of the Biennial’s 21st instalment. The guests included the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Danilo Türk, and the Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković. Strolling through the exhibition space, they bumped into Jure Miklavc, who designed the exhibition’s layout. Šubic turned to face her eminent company and said, “I’m pleased to introduce to you Jure Miklavc, whom I consider the best designer of the young and middle generations in Slovenia.”

In Slovenia we have been following talented designers since WWII, a time when architects such as Edvard Ravnikar saw to it that professional standards were implemented on solid modernist foundations. The first higher education institution that specialised in design came relatively late, in 1984. As a result, the first graduates appeared right at the time of social change which culminated in the disintegration of the socialist Yugoslavia and forced the economy to fight for survival. In 1991, Slovenia embarked on a solo journey, and it is only graduates from the mid-90s who were finally able to take a breath together with the recovering economy. One of them is the industrial designer Jure Miklavc.


Jure Miklavc / photo: Žiga Culiberg

Miklavc’s career began in 1995. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (AFAD) in Ljubljana, he decided to go free-lance. In an interview in the mid-90s, he described the situation of design in Slovenia as wild, but six years later, he said it was bad. Today, he first takes a peek through his glasses. “I can talk about the great privilege and luck of having found each other and that we co-operate well. This industry belongs to a minority that acknowledges design and invests in it for one reason or another. In this respect, it’s a totally fair attitude to design. But on the other hand – and that’s what my criticism was aimed at – there is no broad awareness of design whatsoever. And this goes for both the economy and government. In Slovenia, design is seen as having an exclusively commercial value, as a tool that boosts your sales in a relatively short period of time. It’s a phase, and every company must go through it, so that they can eventually begin to appreciate design and adopt it as part of their strategic planning. One of the long-term effects of this approach is a design professional acquiring a place on the company’s management board. Hence the term ‘design management’; a position the Slovene industry is not familiar with enough to take advantage of it. By changing its attitude, a company shifts from the initial original design to strategic design. Slovenia’s economy is mainly preoccupied with takeovers and the like, instead of thinking about substance in the sense of defining strategies and setting out management orientations. Until companies tackle substance, there will be no room for design.”

Jure Miklavc’s work reflects his personality. A thoughtful designer, he seeks out a story in every object he tackles, critically contemplating and improving it in his mind as he explores it. Designer Bojan Klančar once called him an inquisitive explorer who, had he lived in Galileo’s time, would have made an even better telescope. He regularly collaborates with the Alpina shoe company, for which he designed – not a telescope – but currently the best cross-country ski boot in the world; a fact attested in 2008 by a 21-member international jury which awarded him the prestigious Red Dot design award.


Cross-country XC Elite Ski Boot / produced by Alpina / 2007 / photo: Dragan Arrigler
Red Dot product design award 2008

As he likes to put it, the secret behind the high quality of Alpina’s cross-country ski boot is that “it is basically an honest product. Given the volume of sports equipment produced, the market offers many products that primarily emphasise the brand, then the visual appeal, and only then the idea of a functional product. Whereas, in designing the boot, we went in the opposite direction, first considering the foot, its function, and the needs of a competitor or proficient cross-country skier. That’s why I maintain that the product is honest.” Incidentally, this is the word to describe Miklavc himself. Analytical in his approach, he seeks out weaknesses, and looks for potential improvements, but in his quest for the perfect form, never loses sight of the ultimate goal – functionality. In his words: “Everyone in the Slovene industry thinks only of the product, which is a big mistake. Today, we need to be looking for solutions to problems. This opens up the horizon.”

The question is, if he is thus not opposing the current business mindset in the world. To put it bluntly, the main objective of every business is to generate profit. This is the goal that everything else is dominated by, and opening up horizons is often risky and expensive. Designers tend to refer to limitations as a challenge, but it is probably this very logic that causes so many compromises. Miklavc believes that the difference lies “in the choice between the short-term and the long-term. Makeshift solutions suffice if the goal is to achieve some immediate effects in the market, but for long-term development and product and brand recognition, the key is just what we discussed earlier. From this perspective, design has to do with substance. Discipline and clear thinking are also important here. You need to know what you’re trying to achieve. Only then do we arrive at what we perceive on the outside – how products are made, how they look, and so on.”

Miklavc’s rejection of compromise is reflected in his latest development project for Alpina – a shoe which, unlike any other footwear, does not require that the foot moulds to the shoemaker’s last, but instead, the shoe adapts to the foot. Binom is the brand synonymous with the shoe which considers the most critical part of the human foot – the metatarsus, between the instep and the toes, which provides the most important information about foot width, and the height of the instep. With Miklavc, Alpina’s R&D team have succeeded in creating a shoe that fits anyone and everyone – hardly something that the average shoe can accomplish. Another unique feature of the Binom shoe is that it is made entirely from natural and recycled materials.


Binom casual and treking shoes / produced by Alpina / 2008 / photo: Dragan Arrigler
Red Dot product design award 2009

Binom has effectively opened the door for Slovene design to mass-customisation, which focuses on the individual rather than a group. This brings to mind the view of Dieter Rams, the doyen of industrial design, who warns against over-customisation at the expense of community. One thing he maintains is that products should be suitable for as wide a population as possible, for as long as possible. Miklavc has found a resolution of the conflict between modernist and post-modernist approaches to “the acceptability of a concept which varies in relation to an individual product or industry. Consider, for example, ergonomics, which necessitates adaptability. Given the development of industry and user culture, or non-culture, mass customisation is a concept that returns us to the beginnings of the industrial age. This means that you can have a completely customised product that has rolled off a mass production assembly line. As I see it, we haven’t entered a real age of mass customisation yet, but I’m sure that this is probably how things will develop. The Binom shoe is a good example. On the other hand, I agree that some products can be designed with a global appeal where they can compete in all markets and be suitable for any age. The key factor here is the designer’s input and the effort one invests in the concept behind a product. Last year, at AFAD, where I work as an assistant to Professor Janez Smerdelj teaching industrial design, we organised a project that focused on seniors. Research has shown that products intended for the elderly are actually suitable for all generations – some kind of ‘design for all’.”

In 2008, together with Barbara Šušteršič, Miklavc established Studio Jure Miklavc. Its activities include product and visual communication design, and consulting, with the hope of eventually directing some of these into the experimental field. “In addition to topics which surface in connection with concrete problems and are regularly addressed in the studio, I want our experiments to yield answers to public and social issues. There are certain things that are not directly linked to the commissions we get, which nevertheless stimulate the brain and can serve as an inspiration for concrete products,” says Miklavc. No doubt products that will carry the name of Slovene design to Europe and beyond.