GD2D+PD3D, Fresh Air

The Austrian Embassy in Cyprus is now giving crowds something a little different to set their sights on as it organises a show featuring unusual contemporary graphic and product designs from a country more often associated with classical music, lakes and mountains.

With a rather odd name that sounds a bit like a science experiment or complex formula, Castelliotissa Hall in Nicosia will come to life this week with an event going by the name of GD2D+PD3D: Fresh Air by Austrian Pure Design. But it’s no airy fairy affair, representing more than 150 design creators, the travelling show functions as an independent platform aiming to stir the waters in each country that it visits. Simultaneously opening in Hong Kong and Cyprus this Wednesday evening, it’s bound to be a creative occasion that will get people talking.

GD2D+PD3D, fresh air by PureAustrianDesign reveals the essence of contemporary Austrian design and brings together contemporary graphic and product design. The great diversity and high quality of Austrian graphic design is presented on the basis of illustrations and work from the fields of corporate design, typography, publishing and promotion.

The selection of products, however, shows the clear profile of a single category: the chair as Austrian "supreme discipline". What started with the coffeehouse chairs by the Thonet Brothers about a hundred years ago, continues today with a variety of different chair designs that renew the high quality and innovative strength, causing a sensation on today's international design stages.

The combination of product and graphic design is based on the fact that these two disciplines often merge naturally. A breathtaking exhibition architecture toys with the dimensions where both design disciplines are expressed. The 2D of graphic design and the 3D of product design are pointed out in a novel way, at the same time the element air plays a major role.