Sri Lanka Design Festival (LED15COL04)

The organising committee of SLDF 2015 has invited the Netherlands embassy in Colombo to be the Dutch Cultural Partner of SLDF 2015. Part of this partnership would be:

• Sponsoring a Dutch interior design expert to deliver a talk and engage with a panel discussion at the SLDF 2015 Interior Design Forum (Studio Daan Roosegaarde).
• Sponsoring a Dutch packaging designer to deliver a talk and engage with a panel discussion at the SLDF 2015 Interior Design Forum (Studio Kluif).
• Dutch-Ceylon post-card competition hosted by AOD in partnership with the Netherlands embassy to promote awareness on Dutch-Sri Lanka history and relationship.

Here, an open competition will be held to design a post card using original illustrations, typography, photography and/or any other artistic media depicting Dutch-Ceylon elements of architecture, clothing, place names, words or utensils. The winners and semi-finalists will be selected by a judging panel mutually agreed upon by AOD/the Netherlands embassy in September 2015. The winning postcard will be produced and owned by the Netherlands embassy as a promotional item at the embassy and the Dutch Burgher Union (DBU). The winning postcard and semi-finalists will be exhibited at the DBU-Colombo as an open exhibition, parallel to the SLDF 2015 dates. The exhibition will be held as a fringe-event of SLDF 2015 and the exhibition printing and set-up costs are to be borne by the Netherlands embassy while AOD will contribute by curating and art-directing upon the budget set by the embassy.

This project was implemented within the framework of the L4ED programme (Local Economic Development/Leads for Economic Diplomacy) and initiated by the Netherlands representation.

The project aimed to contribute to (the enabling environment for) local private sector development, as well as economic diplomacy. It concerns a small intervention that serves as a catalyser for further developments.