Between June 13 and 16, 2019, the city of Camagüey will be co-host of the Second Havana Design Biennial. This year, the Office of the City Historian opts for the Design Management Award, which within the framework of the Biennial conferred by the National Office of Industrial Design (ONDI). The delivery of this award is scheduled for Sunday 16, during the closing of the event in the city.
The Office of the City Historian of Camagüey, since its creation in 1997, has given special attention to the management of design in its multiple forms of expression. The design of urban environments, in harmony with the inherited city and the one that evolves and is transformed every day, constitutes one of the most important challenges and one of its most concrete achievements. The impact on the transformation in benefit of the city is undeniable, taking into account plausible facts such as the conservation of the heritage architecture, the meticulous care of the interior design in the buildings intervened, the aesthetic and functional harmony of the rehabilitated public spaces, the image treatment both urban and domestic, among many others. All the aspects mentioned above need, for their success, a consistent management of the design; attending to the peculiarities of each case in particular.
Several restoration processes carried out by the institution have received important awards, granted by prestigious associations on the island, such as the building occupied by the House of Cultural Diversity of Camagüey, winner of the National Restoration Award and the Special Prize of the UNAICC in 2011; the intervention of Batey Jaronú, winner of the National Restoration Award in 2018 and the José Marín Varona Concert Hall, building that won the first Mention of the National Restoration Award in 2019; just to mention some examples. In each of these sites an adequate design management is evidenced: from the own elaboration of the project to the solutions and decisions made on the fly. Civil execution, interior design, refunctionalization, setting, among other variables; they entail an adequate projection and use of design and art.
Another design edge in which the Office has been employed in depth is graphic design. Since 2005, the OHCC has an Identity Manual, updated in its entirety in 2015. In this sense, the former OHCC Signals Workshop, sat whores in terms of urban information signage, billboards (both on the road and of city) and gigantographies. Since its creation in 2002, the Workshop has assumed a large part of the signage in the Historic Center of the city and other areas of interest; as well as almost all of the construction and placement of fences, microvalles and other types of outdoor posters.
The graphic design has also been carefully worked in the preparation of texts, magazines, promotional media (almanacs, hats, pullovers, postcards and others), means of transport, information media and content disclosure (Website, radio and television project Audiovisual Prince, Senderos Magazine and other texts, the Editorial Seal “El Lugareño”), campaigns and communication strategies (eg Campaign We Are Heritage and City Campaign that I live, city that I am). The conformation of its brand image has also been configured by the design management developed in the entity.
The stamp of the Office of the Camagüey City on design management, in its many forms of expression, is a benchmark for the city. The institution has generated a change of image at the urban level, by redesigning, refunctioning and intervening different environments with canons and criteria of professionally defined designs. At the same time, it has developed other spheres of visual communication, maintaining accurate lines of growth and integral management.
Translated into English by Yisel Torres Ruiz
