MELBA brings six international design voices to Sofia
The symposium takes place at Toplocentrala on 14 November 2026, with registration from 10:30.
MELBA Design Festival returns to Sofia this November,
with the MELBA International Design Symposium once again at the heart of the programme. Exhibitions, workshops, discussions, installations and meet-ups will take place across Sofia. Organised by Studio Komplekt and the MELBA Foundation for Design and Visual Culture, the festival’s main event brings six international guests to Toplocentrala on 14 November. They’ll share their work, their process and the questions that drive their practice. Six very different approaches, each opening up another way of thinking about contemporary design. Here’s who’s coming.
Johan Moorman, the Netherlands
Based in Eindhoven, Johan began as a graffiti artist in the 1990s. His work moves freely between art and design, drawing on arcade games, M.C. Escher, Lego, De Stijl, pop art and the Memphis Group. His compositions build vivid spatial worlds where architecture, objects, forms and visual references find a shared language.
Javier Jaén, Spain
Barcelona-based Javier Jaén works across editorial illustration, book covers and cultural communication. His distinctive visual language brings together symbols, humour and everyday objects
to turn complex ideas into images that hit home.
His clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Time, National Geographic, UNESCO, Greenpeace and Louis Vuitton.
Joanna Jaskowska, Poland/France
Joanna Jaskowska works across design, technology and digital culture. Her experiments with augmented reality and social media filters brought her international recognition, and she was among the early creators invited into Instagram’s Spark AR beta programme. Technology is more than a tool in her practice. It’s a medium for developing new visual languages and new ways of interacting with images.
David Joyce, Ireland
Dublin-based designer and educator David Joyce is director of Language and founder of the independent research platform The Outside Press. His practice spans graphic design, teaching, publishing and communication campaigns.
Language has a long history of working with public and cultural organisations
and has created the visual communication for Irish campaigns including Yes Equality and Together for Yes.
Anni Seligmann, Italy
Anni Seligmann is a graphic designer and creative director at Bolzano-based Studio MUT. After studying communication design in Germany, she worked in New York on projects for OMA, Lincoln Center Theater and Brooklyn Public Library,
before joining Studio MUT in 2019.
Her notable projects include work for Museion, Phaidon Press and Louis Vuitton. Seligmann also teaches visual communication at the University of Bolzano.
Thélonious Goupil, France
Paris-based industrial designer Thélonious Goupil focuses on sustainable, intuitive objects. A graduate of ENSCI–Les Ateliers in Paris, he worked at the studios of Ransmeier and Jasper Morrison
before setting up his own studio in 2018.
His work explores materials, manufacturing processes and the ways design can challenge established habits and conventions.
The symposium takes place at Toplocentrala on 14 November 2026, with registration from 10:30. The talks are in English. See the festival calendar for exhibition dates and the full programme.
What’s happening in the city? Follow GoGuide on Instagram to hear about it first.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for a closer look at the city, and a wider view.
