Zmatek

Zuzana Zmateková is a textile designer, design researcher and an independent textile artist currently based between Stockholm, Helsinki and Bratislava. Her work is inspired by environmental and societal issues such as consumer society, sustainability, and social inclusion using design. She often engages in cross-collaboration in order to achieve innovation while implementing new media, digital aesthetics and material innovation in the process. Zuzana has earned her Master’s degree at Aalto School of Art, Design, and Architecture in Finland, where she studied Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design. There, she has developed  her competencies in textile techniques such as surface design, digital and screen printing and weaving specialising in jacquard. Her design style has been further developed during an exchange program at the Lodz University of Technology and later in the Textile Design Innovation Studio at the Nottingham Trent University. Besides these study visits, she participated in a long-term internship in a Volkswagen Colour and Trim design studio in Wolfsburg, Germany and in the renowned fashion studio Alexander McQueen in London. During her studies at Aalto University, she has worked as a research assistant in a research group Sun-Powered textiles, for which she developed a collection of woven and printed textiles that are suitable for solar cells integration. Zuzana Zmateková has been experimenting and reaching beyond the boundaries of the conventional reception and understanding of textiles as well as the message it may convey via such a strong communication medium as design.