At their annual meeting the member organisations of BEDA (Bureau of European Designers' Associations) have officially endorsed the Hungarian Design Council's association with the Bureau. The member's meeting took place in the Norwegian Architectural and Design Center recently opened in Oslo .
BEDA was established in 1969 as the European association of professional designers. It is for a couple of years only that organisations in the field of education and promotion may also become members. In our region one relevant organisation each of Slovenia , the Czech Republic and Poland has BEDA membership.
BEDA provides platform for its members to share their knowledge and experience. It exists to ensure permanent liaison between the professional societies of designers, the educational, research and promotional organisations of the European countries, and also, between them and the official authorities of the European Union. BEDA's objective is to emphasise the value of design to economy and to convince the Union 's executives of the necessity of support for design.
In the past few years, under the leadership of President Stephan Hitchins, a number of BEDA projects have been launched. A collection of essays, entitled, "Design Issues in Europe Today" (White Book) has been compiled, the abridged Hungarian translation of which is now under way. The original English language text is published on BEDA's homepage.
The "Communication Series" is aimed at informing the decision- making EU officials, while the "BEDA Dossiers" project collects facts and figures from the European countries regarding design education, design as a profession, and intellectual property protection.
The member's meeting was, at the same time, an election of officials as well. Italian graphic designer Massimo Pitis has been elected as new president of BEDA, British design manager Michael Thompson has become vice- president. The 9 members of the Board are the following:
Bo Englund Swiss Design Association
Severin Filek Design Austria
Tom Gloesener Design Luxemburg
Dag Holmgren Swedish Industrial Design Studio
Peter Kersten Association of Dutch Designers
Isabel Roig Barcelona Design Center
Jan R. Stavik Norwegian Design Council
Ilona Törmikoski The Finnish Association of Designers - Ornamo
Zbynek Vokrouhlicky Czech Design Center.