KAMILA IżYKOWICZ

Design futurist, poetic artist and empathy researcher.

Royal College of Art graduate and Futures Designer for John Lewis and Partners.

Currently working on design investigations into bio-parallels, creating a sensual dialogue between species.

Showcased at Tate Modern: Staged on Screen, London Design Festival, London Design Biennale, Dutch Design Week, Łodz Design Festival, Vienna Design Week, New Horizons.

Award winner of Creative Conscience, Grand Challenge (RCA, CERN and Logitech) and the Art and Fashion Forum. 

Speaker at Royal College of Art, University at Buffalo, Tischner European University and Design INDABA conferences.

⏤ Iżykowicz designs by using her personal experiences to reach a balance between skill, knowledge and intuition. She bases her work on the effect of the senses and an individual understanding of time. With her multidisciplinary interests in writing and filmmaking, she’s a poetic designer with a unique sensibility towards function. [designindaba.com]


FULL BIO

EDUCATION

Royal College of Art MA Design Products and Futures, 2019 – 2021

School of Form Bachelor’s degree *cum laude, Domestic Design, 2012 – 2016

Universidad Complutense de Madrid History of Art & Design, 2009 – 2010

University of Wroclaw History of Art, 2005 – 2010

WORK EXPERIENCE & CREATIVE COLLABORATION

John Lewis and Partners Futures Designer an Analyst, 2021 ~ now

Royal College of Art Digital Creative – social media for Design Products programme, 2020 ~ now

Re-Fabricate research project at RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects, Creative Concept Designer, 2019-2020

Spacestor Digital Creative, 2018-2020

LPP S.A. Assistant Accessories Designer for RESERVED, Poland, 2017-2018

KROWARZYWA lamp designer, 2014-2017

MANIFIESTA film creative collaboration, 2012-2015

Dell Sole restaurant interior designer, creative collaboration 2009 ~ now

Atelier Starzak Strebicki photo-video project, 2015

Kristoff fine porcelaininternship, July 2013 – August 2013

Matadero Madrid Fundación Diseño Madrid (DIMAD), internship,
Madrid, July 2009 – October 2009

EXHIBITIONS and AWARDS

Dutch Design Week exhibition ‘The Symbiocene Forest’ at Bio Art Laboratories, Eindhoven, 2021

London Design Festival exhibition ‘New Contracts’, London 2021

Royal College of Art RCA21 exhibition, London, 2021

Stillpoint Literary Journal written work and video art, London,  2020 

WIP Show 2020 Royal College of Art, the Grand Challenge final projects exhibition, London, 2020

Tate Modern Staged on Screen invitee, video and performance art, London, 2019

Design INDABA conference, graduation project presentation, Cape Town, 2017

Vienna Design Week exhibition ‘It feels’, Polish Institute Vienna Vienna, 2017

Graduation Projects.eu exhibition International Design Review,
Zamek Cieszyn, 2017

See & Say portfolio selection: Product, Fashion Design and Video categories,
KTR, Warsaw, 2016

Dutch Design Week ‘Stand by! Polish design education on display’Instytut Adama Mickiewicza, Eindhoven, 2016

Lodz Design Festival finalist of international contest for young designers:
Make me! Lodz, 2016

Fashion Jewellery Art & Fashion Forum 5 Senses 2015 by Grazyna Kulczyk
winning design, Old Brewery, Poznan, 2015kiel

Home. Housing. Dwelling exhibition at festivals:
Gdynia Design Days and Lodz Design Festival: Consequences, 2015
and Institute of Design Kielce, 2016

Talents Archive Project exhibition of art and design sketchbooks,
by Double Decker, London and The Onassis Cultural Centre Athens, Grece, 2015

Fantasy on Prokofiev’s Violin Sonate Op.80’ Katarzyna Borek & Vojto Monteur
music video release by Warner Classics, 2014 *nominations:

T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival – Section Magnify

Festival of Polish Music Video Yach Film 2014 – Space Design category

RUSZAfestiwal ‘dancerkA’ video-art screening, ASP, Wroclaw, 2014

33.PPA national final contest – nurt off category with PR:O:BA spectacle Capitol Theatre, Wrocław, 2012

16:9 video-art screening-exhibition, BrowArt gallery, Old Brewery, Wrocław, 2012
and during Scena OtwartaFestiwal Teatrów Tańca w Tarnowie, 2012

Poetry Award at the International Crime Fiction Festival, Wroclaw, 2011

‘UU’ art-book installation at BWA studio, Wroclaw, 2010

COURSES and WORKSHOPS

Organic form in jewellery short course Central Saint Martins, tutor: Paul Welles, London, 2016

Fashion Jewellery workshop with Anna ORSKA, Art and Fashion Forum 2015 by Grazyna Kulczyk Old Brewery, Poznan, 2015

Recycle Reuse – Odzyskaj Korzystaj workshop
Waste Management System for the City of Poznan, at Concordia Design, Poznan, 2015

Parking Day workshop, space design, SARP and Malta Festival, Poznan, 2015

Medynia – from here, ceramic and anthropological workshop, Medynia Glogowska, 2014

Skoda Amazing Parts industrial project, team leader: group Dynamic Seat |
Speaker: “Car for sitting? ergonomics in the car”, Skoda and School of Form, 2013

Interior Design and Graphic Design
2 years course at Promotion post-secondary vocational study, 2003-2005


FULL BIO DESCRIPTION

Poetic designer, empathy researcher and future thinker currently working on design investigations into bio-parallels, creating a sensual dialogue between species. MA in Design Products and Futures and PhD candidate at the School of Design at the Royal College of Art. Tate Modern: Staged on Screen invitee; exhibited at Dutch Design Week, London Design Biennale, Łódz Design Festival, and Vienna Design Week.

Her most recent work ‘AuraForest’, ‘PARALLELUM’ and ‘#BIO-PARALLELS: The Story of Rebuilding Empathy Between Human and Non-Human’ [distinction awarded dissertation] are practice driven academic explorations on the human perception of belonging and reconnection with nature in the current atmosphere of climate emergency, detailing the impact of storytelling on environmental discussion.

She is proud to be a 2019 Tate Modern: Staged on Screen invitee with her video art. Creative Conscience 2020 award winner.

Kamila was a Special Prize winner for originality and the philosophical approach to her project ‘BODY FLUID’, which tackled the question of ‘enhancing the human’ in the far future for Grand Challenge 2020, organised by Royal College of Art with CERN and Logitech. Her written work and video art was published in Stillpoint Literary Magazine.

In 2020 Kamila was working with RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) on projects based on the circular economy, sustainability and biodesign, most notably on RE-FABRICATE: Collaborative, a research project calling for architects and designers to craft new uses and materials from waste produce.

Winner of the Art and Fashion Forum by Grazyna Kulczyk 2015 [Poland] in the Fashion Jewellery category and awarded a summer course at Central Saint Martins, Kamila’s recent academic project ‘SIGNS MANUAL: Respect Edition’ was a speculative edition of Transport for London’s handbook, created to comment on the communication of special needs in society, and was selected for RCA exhibition during Salone del Mobile in Milan.

Kamila’s BA Graduation project ‘RITU’ was recently cited in the Polish Academy of Sciences journal in the article ‘Tender Matter’ by Dr. Monika Rosinska. She was also invited as a speaker at the Design INDABA conference in Cape Town in March 2017. The project qualified for Make me!, the final of the international contest for young designers at Łódz Design Festival [Poland] and was widely exhibited at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven [Netherlands]; at Graduation Projects.eu International Design Review in Zamek Cieszyn [Poland] with publication in 2+3D magazine, and at Vienna Design Week [Austria].