creators

Filip (1974) is a graphic designer, typographer, educator and writer. He studied cultural studies at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Since the mid-1990s he has lectured on typography and led various workshops in the Czech Republic and abroad. He currently teaches at the Academy of Arts Architecture and Design Prague and at ARCHIP, a private university in Prague. In 2002 he founded the Designiq graphic studio, which specialises in the design of periodicals, books and corporate identity. He co-founded Typo magazine (2002-2012). Together with Pavel Kočička he wrote the textbook Praktická typografie Practical Typography, is the designer of the monograph Písmo v počítačové grafice Type in Computer Graphics, the publication Posters of the Velvet Revolution (2009), wrote an essay mapping events in Czech typography for the expert publication Typo 9010 (2015), and most recently published the textbook Typokniha – průvodce tvorbou tiskovin [Typebook – a guide to creating printed matter] (2020, 2022). He has contributed dozens of articles on typography and graphic design to magazines such as Deleatur, Typo, Étapes, Font, 2+3D, and tipoGráfica.

Linda (1977) is a design theorist. She is the author and editor of the international yearbooks 365typo & 52typo: Stories on type, typography and graphic design (Paris, 2014-2016). From 2002-2012 she was the editor-in-chief of Typo magazine, focusing on graphic design, typography, and visual communication. Since 2016 she has worked with the international type foundry TypeTogether. She is a regular contributor to a number of European design periodicals, is a juror in international design competitions, and is a longtime member of the board of the international typographic organisation ATypI.

Michal (1974) studied andragogy and personnel management at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Before graduating from SUPŠ in Prague’s Žižkov neighbourhood, he co-founded the Mowshe studio (1993), which focuses primarily on graphic design, creative concepts, and production for nonprofit organisations, public institutions, and businesses. He was one of the founders of the Decommunization association (2005), whose goal was to get the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia out of the Czech Parliament. He participated in campaigns such as Trikem proti komunismu [Shirts Against Communism], Přemluv bábu [Convince Your Grandma], Milada 70 – Zavražděna komunisty [Milada 70 – Murdered by Communists], Sbohem soudruzi – Banány už nebudou! [Farewell Comrades – No More Bananas] and most recently Putin od moci [Putin Out Of Power]. For some of his work with his colleagues, he has won awards from Strategie weekly, Louskáčka, Zlatá pecka, Lemur, the annual award of the Czech Event Association, and the ADC Awards. He plays saxophone in the bands The Breakers, Viseband, and Jackylovy slipy.

Petr (1984) is a screenwriter, author and dramaturg. He studied information science, new media, and pedagogy at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University – but he did not complete all of his studies, preferring practical work instead. At the time he was very involved in projects to improve information and media literacy, putting together the concept of Dům čtení [House of Reading], where he worked as the programme’s dramaturg, taught at a secondary school and put together tests for the Scio standardised testing company. He later started to work at Czech Television as a dramaturg, participating in a wide scale of projects from journalism to reality shows to dramas and events. After a few years, the need to try and learn new things led him to advertising; he was also the editor of a children’s magazine, and got involved in creating TV series for the NOVA and Prima channels, which is what he does to this day. For Czech Television he created multimedia projects such as Planeta je prga. He is currently working on two children’s books and is developing a story app for families.

Jakub is a television writer and director. He studied humanities at the Second Faculty of Medicine at Charles University and at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. But fate and the wild nineties meant that he did not get a diploma from either school. In parallel to his education, he devoted himself to his future profession, which he became familiar with through a series of assistant positions. He worked at the Febio production company as an assistant editor, in advertising as an assistant director, and at the then-newly-established Czech TV as an assistant camera operator. Since the mid-1990s he has worked on his own audiovisual projects: Puls, Kult-off, Horečka páteční noci, Paskvil. They are always multi-part series dealing with progressive music and art. He introduced Czech fans to groups such as Portishead, Morcheeba, Massive Attack and Ministry for the first time. At the same time, he paid attention to the visual qualities of the final work – always in the position of art supervisor. He is also the creator of several educational series – for the People in Need NGO or for the Antikomplex association. In recent years, his variety has expanded to include historical documentary explorations (Kosmopolis, Folklorika), lifestyle series (Ferdinandovy zahrady) and socio-cultural documentaries (Concerto Bohemia, UMPRUM 150). Recently he has focused more on historical documentary series (PopStory, Na programu televize).

David works at the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Prague, and has 20 years of experience in curating, producing exhibitions, publishing, and managing relationships between institutional and commercial entities and the expert community and general public. He has worked in the past as a curator and producer at the Rudolfinum Gallery, the Langhans Gallery, the Josef Sudek Atelier, and Galerie České pojišťovny. He has organised photography exhibitions for the PPF company and private collectors. He is currently working with architects on designs for new museums and exhibitions (the Ghetto Museum in Terezín, the Mehrin in Brno). He studied architecture at Czech Technical University in Prague and the Technical University of Liberec, and contemporary history at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague. He currently teaches the ‘Curating in Practice’ workshop at the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

Aleš (1962) studied letterforms and book design under Professor Jan Solpera at the Academy of Arts Architecture and Design in Prague (1982-1988). In the early 1990s he worked as the art director of Reflex magazine and as the editor in chief of the magazine Raut. In 1994 he founded Studio Najbrt, where he works with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Czech Philharmonic, and has created logos for the cities of Prague and Ostrava, the National Gallery, Czech Railways and many other entities. For his designs of film and theatre posters, books, and the Raut magazine project, Aleš Najbrt won the Grand Prix at the 17th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno 1996, a bronze medal from the Tokyo Type Directors Club, five Czech Lions and the Czech Grand Design award. He is a member of the equilibrist duo Thomas & Ruhller, the group Tros Sketos and the band M.T.O. Universal Praha.

Kateřina (1978) is a Czech director, screenwriter and dramaturg. She studied animated and multimedia production at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and at the Higher School of Journalism. She is currently completing her master’s degree in oral history – contemporary history, at the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University. She works as the chief dramaturg and producer of audiovisual works at the National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic. In the past, she has worked with the Writers’ Festival, the One World International Festival of Documentary Films on Human Rights, and has also been editor in chief of the monthly magazine Maskil. Her audiovisual work includes the documentary series Papua New Guinea: dva světy (2019), the documentary Krajina kamenných věží (2017), and the films Židovské muzeum v Praze (2015) and Meet Factory (2009). She is the creator of the radio programmes Úžasné životy (2021, 2022), Zrcadlo (2021) and Komunitní zahrada (2020).

Bára (1970) has 30 years of experience in producing television programmes and independent documentaries as an editor, director, dramaturg and producer, and also writes about film and other cultural topics for publications such as Respekt, Film a doba, Literární noviny, and Doc revue. She studied at the Department of Editing Composition at FAMU, which she led from 2002-2005, and where she has worked as an external lecturer since then. At FAMU International, she now mainly teaches script development, directing, and editing. Since 2017 she has worked as a permanent external dramaturg at Czech Television, and also serves as a dramaturg and screenwriter for independent producers. She is the creator of the documentary series Doktoři, Světský, Sestřičky, as well as documentaries on science and history presented at festivals such as the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, Finále Plzeň, Academia Film Olomouc, and Paris Science. She won the Envirofilm award for her trilogy of short films with an environmental theme. She has long been involved in popularising science in programmes for children and adults. Her film, DK, was nominated for a Czech Lion and won the Pavel Koutecký award for best documentary.

Tereza Saitzová, Vojtěch Vavřín, Olga Benešová, and Jiří Karásek of Studio Marvil are responsible for the graphic design of the Identita project. Studio Marvil has been on the graphic design scene, and specializes in corporate identity, editorial design, web design, book editing and exhibition design.

Recent projects include an identity for the People In Need nonprofit organization, graphics for permanent exhibitions at the Czech National Museum, the Design&Transformation exhibition in Brussels, and the publication TON +-160. The studio was awarded the Red Dot Design Award in 2018 for its implementation for the TON company, and was also part of the Beazley Design of the Year exhibition in London for its visual identity for Správa železnic, the Czech railways administration. The studio consists of a design team and a wider range of collaborators from related creative professions. Thanks to this, Studio Marvil is able to offer creative solutions that go beyond graphic design.

Nicholas, alias Nicho (1967) is an American with Czech roots who was born and raised in New York, where he is the third generation of a family of antiquarian book dealers. He is the president and chief auctioneer of Swann Galleries in New York, and is also the director of the auction house’s vintage posters department. Lowry, a graduate of Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in history, is a seasoned expert on the history of graphic design and posters. An internationally recognised authority on vintage posters, he also appears on the television series PBS Antiques Roadshow in the US. He is a consultant and the author of essays, articles, books and lectures on the subject. He lived in Prague from 1990 to 1994, contributed to the newspaper Prognosis and hosted a radio programme on Prague’s Radio 1. It was during this period that his lifelong passion for collecting historical Czech posters was born. Thanks to the combination of his profession, numerous personal collections and family history, he has curated a number of important international exhibitions on Czech posters in Europe and the USA. In 2001, he co-curated an exhibition at the Czech Centre in New York, Czech Posters Between the Wars, which was produced in cooperation with Petr Štembera and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. He is also featured in the 2019 Canadian feature documentary Knihkupci (The Booksellers). He is a member of the advisory board of the Poster House Museum and a member of the board of directors of the National Arts Club in New York.

Petr (1993) is a cinematographer originally from Brno. After studying at the Biskupský secondary school, he studied media studies, journalism, and sociology at Masaryk University in Brno. Feature-length documentaries: Vlci na hranicích! Wolves at the Border!, Ako som sa stala partyzánkou How I Became a Partisan, Kibera: Příběh slumu Kibera: Story of a Slum, Češi jsou výborní houbaři (2020) [Czechs are excellent mushroom pickers], Máme na víc We can do better. Short documentary: Anexe Západního břehu Annexation of the West Bank. Original festival jingle: Marienbad Film Festival 2019. Advertising direction: Six Czech and six English e-learning videos about Václav Havel for young people from 14 to 19 (2017); creation of a campaign for Hnutí Duha to support the protection of the Šumava National Park (2016); campaign, radio and TV ads for Roger a.s. (2018), longtime cooperation with SENS Foods; creative, campaign production and video content for web, TV, and social networks (2016-19). Other: Assistant director and location manager of the Czech Television reality show Zlatá mládež (2017), assistant cinematographer for the feature films Admin (2020) and Kdyby radeji horelo (2021).

‘Honza’ (1982) is a Czech cinematographer. He grew up in a family with a deep tradition in art and film. He studied at the Václav Hollar Secondary School of Art, where he learned numerous techniques, from printmaking and drawing to sculpture. In the end his interests took him elsewhere: to photography. From that point on it was easy to exchange still images for moving ones, and in 2003 he was accepted at FAMU, majoring in cinematography. After graduation, he started to devote himself fully to his chosen profession, which he finds truly fulfilling and enjoyable. As a cinematographer, he worked on the feature films Promlčeno (2022), Řekni to psem (2022), Marťanské lodě (2020/21), Jan Palach (2018), Ghoul (2015), Cesta do Říma (2015) and the TV series HPI (2022), Sever (2019), Zkáza Dejvického divadla (2018), and Život a doba soudce AK (2017).

Matěj (born 1988) is a director and producer, a graduate of the feature directing department of the Miroslav Ondříček Film Academy in Písek. He has done a number of projects, ranging from short films to dozens of commercials, to the feature film Daria. His Drive Film Factory production company is behind several TV shows and documentaries, such as several hundred episodes of the Drive series and the music talent competition Band Academy, as well as the Krypto svět series for CNN Prima. He directs and produces music videos for Czech and international pop and underground artists. He has also produced his own music events under the name Drive Tour.

Vítek (1986) is a motion designer, educator, and theorist. He studied digital media and communication studies at Masaryk University in Brno, and completed an internship in visual communication in Drammen, Norway. He started gaining experience in motion design in 2010 at Czech Television, where he worked on the graphic design of shows on its sports channel, as well as projects such as Musicblok and Velikáni filmu. After a few years, he moved to London’s Mainframe studio to work for multinational media clients such as Fox, MTV and Virgin Media. After returning to Prague, he started to work at the Oficina studio, with whom he won awards such as the PromaxBDA Global Excellence Awards Gold, Czech Grand Design and the Slovak National Design Award for his successful projects. Since 2015 he has co-organised the annual Mouvo motion design conference as a dramaturg and moderator, and works at the Scholastika private secondary school as a senior lecturer in motion design. He specialises in vector animation and kinetic typography. He made full use of his personal style for the opening sequences of the TEDx and TypeTalks conferences, for which he was nominated twice as a finalist in the prestigious European Design Awards.

Romana (1987) creates screenplays for films and documentaries, mainly from the Czech Television production (e.g. First of May, See through Film, etc.). She also writes popular science books about Czech pronunciation (Why You Needn’t Hear it and Why You Still Needn’t Hear It), records audiobooks, organises workshops for teachers of Czech as a foreign language and, generally speaking, teaches people to speak. She specialises in teaching pronunciation and helps non-native speakers to get rid of their foreign accents. In her free time, she translates books from Lithuanian, her beloved language, and, being a linguist-polyglot, she speaks a few more languages she can’t imagine her life without.

Filip (1974) studied music and drama at the State Conservatory in Prague and jazz violin at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory. He later worked as an editor at Czech Radio, as a scriptwriter for entertainment shows on TV PRIMA, and as an editor of the film section for the magazines Xantypa and Premiere. Since 2001 he has been a dramaturg at the Center for Journalism, Documentaries and Education at Czech Television. Series: Velký vůz (2002), Zavináč magazine (2000), Kosmopolis (2003), Náš venkov (2013–2018), Artóza with David Černý (2002), the series Q and Queer (2008–2021), as well as Krásný ztráty (2011) and Artzóna (2019–2022). Docusoaps and documentary series: Navždy svoji (2012), Domeček z karet (2012), Kdo neskáče není Čech (2013), Česká fotka (2014), Kmeny (2014), Češi na misi (2014), Zpráva o mladé generaci: Generation What (2015), Češi zachraňují (2016), Ferdinandovy zahrady (2016), Kiwiland (2018), and Svět na talíři (2021). Documentary films: Obec B (2002), Pirátské sítě (2014), Život podle Václava Havla (2014), UMPRUM 130 (2015), Jmenuji se Jiří David (2015), Girl Power (2016), Místa života (2019), Vytrvalí (2021).

Petr (born 1985) is a documentary filmmaker, editor, and director. He graduated from the Zlín Film School. For more than 17 years, he has edited original documentaries, television shows, and documentary series, including EXPO po česku, Popstory, Na programu televize, and Neobyčejné životy. The series Uzamčený svět, on which he worked as an editor, won the Česká radost Award at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2018. His directorial debut, the medium-length documentary Rok na dědině, won the main prize at the Acampadoc Panamá festival in 2020. His other works include První máj (2023) and Chasing the Wada Dream (2023). Petr is interested in stories both serious and cheerful, about enthusiasm and determination. Stories that are human, and above all, inspiring.