The first winner of the International Tile Day is painter Jiří Lauterkranc

The winner of the competitive exhibition held at the Veletržní palác in Prague was announced on Thursday, May 21, on the occasion of the first International Tile Day declared by the company Archtiles. The financial reward of one thousand euros and the chance for his collection to be produced at the Spanish ceramics company INALCO was awarded to academic painter Jiří Lauterkranc.. The best original tile design was selected by an expert jury led by Eva Eisner.

In 2nd and 3rd place were the designs of painters Ira Svobodová and Pavel Tichoně, who won prizes of 500 and 250 euros, respectively. In addition to them, other artists participated in the competition under the guidance of sculptor Ondřej Oliva. “I was surprised by the win, as my strong competition was colleagues and artists whom I respect, and whose designs were really high quality and interesting,” Jiří Lauterkranc confided. “It is a great honor for me, especially because I am not a designer but mainly focus on painting and restoration. However, I am really glad that my tile can go into mass production and be sold throughout Europe,” Lauterkranc said regarding his win, although it is not his first encounter with interior design. Throughout his career, he has designed products for advertising campaigns and his own furniture for the interiors of private villas.

The name of Jiří Lauterkranc's tile SPQR refers to the insignia of the phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Senate and the Roman people), which appeared on coins and standards of Roman legions in various forms with a laurel wreath or the imperial eagle. “This symbolism appealed to me completely apolitically; my interest focused purely on its aesthetics, in relation to the techniques of mosaic and paving,” the winner Lauterkranc introduced his design. “My design is therefore conceived in two axially symmetric planes, which when assembled create the desired decor, which with the arrangement of tiles next to each other grows into an ornamental whole. The drawing technique used then refers to the classical methods of producing decorative elements in interior and exterior,” he added about his work.

All the artists and architects represented in the competition have a fair chance of having their work go into mass production in Italian, French, and Spanish ceramics companies, with which the Archtiles company collaborates.

In addition to the announcement of the competition, workshops on ceramic creation and its use in modern interiors were also held on May 21 at Café Jedna. “Ceramic shards have been beautiful and valuable to humans for several millennia. With the International Tile Day, we wanted to show that not everything has to necessarily follow today's trends and that long-standing tradition and quality can also reflect in design creation,” revealed the purpose of the entire event Petr Kunt from Archtiles, which is a leading Czech importer of tiles and has long been trying to support Czech architects and designers. Jiří Lauterkranc then also positively assessed the idea: “I think a competition like this can relieve some rigidity in design creation because the artistic range was really broad thanks to the participating personalities.