VTDK Design Days – an annual event at the Faculty of Design in the spring (last week of March), attended by students, lecturers and invited guests. It includes exhibitions of creative works, workshops, practical conferences on various aspects of design. DD is timed to coincide with the College’s International Week, where guests have the opportunity to take part in the Days’ events. The branding for this event is designed each year by students from the Department of Graphic Design.
The aim of the VTDK Design Days is to:

• Encourage students’ creative activity through unusual creative tasks.
• To publicise the creative potential of the Faculty of Design of the VTDK and to show the diversity of its departments’ activities.
• To establish the Faculty of Design Palace as a significant place on the cultural map of Vilnius, to show the possibilities of its use for art events.

2014 – 2015 study year

7th Design Days

As every spring, students and lecturers of the Faculty of Design of our College started preparing for the Design Days at the beginning of March, which took place for the seventh time this year. Unlike previous years, the event took place much later, in the second week of May, and became part of Vilnius Design Week. For the first time, lecturers from the Technical University of Białystok took part in the Design Days, presenting two creative projects.

The main theme of the event is “Urban Gardens” and the motto is “A place where creative ideas flourish”. 22 design proposals, developed by students from the Interior Design and Graphic Design Departments, using plants, recycled materials and recycled materials, were designed to harmonise the urban environment. The original compositions were designed not only to decorate unexpected places in the city (terraces, fences, balconies), but also to provide practical benefits to the citizens by producing flowers and fruit. An herbal tea pavilion was open.

Students of the Multimedia Department prepared interactive installations under the guidance of PhD Christopher Hales (England), and screened student films, coursework and theses in the college cinema. Students and lecturers of the Photographic Technology programme organised workshops combining photography and drawing, and exhibited macro photography works on the theme of nature and ecology. The leisure area was transformed into an exhibition of creative works by students and graduates. Guests were interested in the exhibition of clay painting and clay painting works.

On Thursday 7 May, the conference “City Codes” took place, where practicing designers, directors, lecturers and students talked about their creative projects.

2013 – 2014 study year
Design Days has returned to the palace on Olandų Street. This time the focus was on type and calligraphy. The student teams realised six original projects by third year students, as well as the projects “Shadows and Letters” and “Graphics in Space” prepared by the teachers, and a calligraphy workshop by guest specialist G. Pranckūnaitė for Erasmus students. A special exhibition of interactive technologies and equipment was organised by students of the Multimedia Department.
The practical conference “D is for Design” focused on the development of creative initiatives. Presentations were given by invited specialists from Lithuanian commercial companies and advertising agencies.
The evening part of the programme consisted of a show of coursework by the students of the Costume Design Department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts and Design and a concert by the student ensemble of the Faculty of Performing Arts of Vilnius College.

2012 – 2013 study year

This year’s Design Days took place at Antakalnis Palace. A new form of the workshop was chosen: third year students formulated 3 project ideas and, after forming teams of lower year students, realised them. Specialised workshops on “Books and Light” and “Graphics in Space” were organised by the faculty’s lecturers. The workshop “Love for Graphic Art” was offered especially for students.
For the first time, workshops were also organised by foreign lecturers: the illustration workshop was organised by lecturers M. Deseijn and P. Samyn from the Saint-Lucas School of Fine Arts (Belgium), and the interactive video installations were presented by lecturer Ch. Hales from England.
At the practical conference “Design – The New Communication”, faculty lecturers and invited guests explored various aspects of graphic communication.

2011 – 2012 study year

Following the interior reconstruction of the Olandų Street building, the Design Days were moved to the Antakalnio Street building. Due to lack of space, the scope of the workshops had to be limited.

The main workshop, entitled “Niam niam light”, focused on the use of unusual (food) materials for lighting and light installations. A joint project between Graphic and Interactive Design students, “Cinema Footprint”, was also implemented, focusing on the use of cinematic motifs in graphic communication. In the evening part of the programme, students from Vilnius College presented new clothing and hairstyle collections.

The practical conference “Design and Ecology” was attended by students presenting their coursework, lecturers and Erasmus participants.

2010 – 2011 study year

The organisers and participants of the 3rd Design Days managed to make full use of the abandoned premises of the Olandų Street Palace. It was there that the EcoBOX workshop was organised, with students from all departments of the Faculty of Design, as well as guests from other colleges, participating in teams. The participants prepared 12 concepts for a low-rise living space, which they then realised in a 1:1 scale using conditional materials. Interior design students organised an outdoor furniture competition, which was also realised. One of the projects, called “13 chairs”, was featured in the press, exhibited at the national exhibition “Furniture” and at the Vilnius Design Week exposition. Several special projects on ecological themes were also realised (“Eko Bar”, “Hen”, “Auto Cow”, “U-238”, etc.).

During the practical conference “Diversities of Design”, graduates of the faculty told students and lecturers about how they managed to establish themselves in the field of professional activity by developing creative experience and practical skills.

2009 – 2010 study year

The second VTDK Design Days took place at the DF and TF Palace, 16 Olandų Street. The event consisted of the same 3 main parts, but the programme was significantly different. For the first time, a student workshop was organised with the participation of representatives of 4 educational institutions (Vilnius College of Technologies and Design, Vilnius College of Design, Vilnius College and Kaunas College). The chosen object of the work (a shirt) and the theme of the work – “The Other Side of Design” – allowed the creativity of the students of interior, clothing, hairstyle and graphic design to be expressed. Students from three schools in the capital and the Vilnius Vocational Training Centre for Technology and Business also participated as guests. .

This time, Interior Design students organised a special exhibition called “Re-Trash”: in abandoned classrooms, over several days, the young people created a stylish exhibition showing the possibilities of reusing objects and materials. A similar theme was explored in the practical conference “Ecodesign Today and Tomorrow”, where students from Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland, studying at the College under the Erasmus programme, took part together with the teachers and students from the VTDK.

The highlight of the evening was a fashion show by the guests of the event – students of the Faculty of Design and Technology of Vilnius College of Design and Technology.

2008 – 2009 study year

The first VTDK Design Days took place at the DF and TF Palace (Olandų str. 16) on 26-27 March 2009. The format, scope and programme of the event were tested. The event consisted of 3 main parts: exhibitions of creative works (posters by students of the Department of Graphic Design, an exhibition of creative works by students of the Department of Photography), workshops and a practical conference “Design for tomorrow: new challenges”. A special exposition “Salon of the Outcasts” was organised by the students of the Interior Design Department. There was also an entertainment part – a video disco featuring the work of students from the Multimedia Department.
Speakers from other Lithuanian schools and abroad took part in the conference, and a live online presentation was organised from the ESAD School of Fine Arts (Porto, Protugal). The posters were later exhibited in a thematic exhibition in Palermo (Italy).