Recent Turkish Design Innovations: A Quest for Identity

Tevfik Balcıoğlu is Vice Rector and Professor of Design at Yaşar University, İzmir. Studied at Middle East Technical University, attended the Royal College of Art, taught at Goldsmiths' College and Kent Institute of Art & Design, UK (1992–2002). He is the founder of the Design History Society, Turkey (4T) and former (founding) Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts & Design at Izmir University of Economics (2004–2011). He has organized international conferences and edited several books, including The Role of Product Design in Post-Industrial Society, and a special issue of Design Journal, “A Glance at Design Discourse in Turkey.”

Bahar Emgin is an industrial designer by education, receiving her Master's in 2008 with a thesis that inquired into discursive and formal strategies in construction of Turkish design identity. She is currently a lecturer at Yaşar University, Department of Visual Communication Design and a PhD candidate at Bilkent University, Department of Graphic Design. Her major research areas include construction of modern gender identities through visual/material culture and ideology and culture of design in Turkey.