The next edition of the World Elite Ice Hockey Championships will be held from 10 – 26. 05. 2024. The venue for the matches will be a hall in Prague and Ostrava. Among the best teams in the world are the national teams of: Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Norway, Switzerland. Group „B” will feature: France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and the USA. Each of the above teams has a chance to win a World Cup medals.
April fifth, with my own eyes – as the only journalist from Poland – I saw the process of creating the medals, and later had the pleasure of talking to the author of the winning design – Kateřina Handlova and Michal Vlček – owner of Kolektiv Ateliers a.s., where the medals were produced.
When was the decision made to involve you in designing medals for the World Elite Championships?
– Kolektiv Ateliers asked me if I would be interested in designing the medals when they were approached by IIHF to take part in the tender for medals. I said yes as I thought it was incredibly interesting work to do.
Are you interested in sports? – I’m specifically asking about ice hockey
– Yes, I have watched ice hockey since I was a kid. I was a big fan of the NHL, especially New Jersey Devils, where Patrik Elias played at the time. Of course I have watched the big tournaments and ice hockey world championships. I am not playing ice hockey myself, but I am active in other sports.
Will you be present in person at the Czech national team matches in Prague?
– I got myself tickets, so I will go to see a match together with my family. I can’t wait.
Did you work on the final version of the medals for a long time? What was the most difficult part of the process? Are you satisfied with the final result?
– The designing itself took around 4 weeks, I needed quite some time to come up with an idea and then I designed a couple of options which we submitted to tender. The process of making the medal samples itself took more than 5 months, because I constantly had some comments about it and I was not satisfied. So now I can say that I am happy about the results.
Was this the first project you worked on with IIHF?
– Yes it was my first project, I have never really thought I would have a chance to design the medals for such an event.
Among other things, you worked in Innsbruck, and for three years in Dubai. How have these international experiences influenced your work?
– Well I worked for big companies and good brands such as Swarovski or Lasvit, so I learnt to be very flexible, fast thinking, hard working and deliver quality performances and design in a short time as there was constant pressure from the side of the clients or companies. You have to keep the deadlines, be very professional and creative.
You are the author of several publications. Will the design of the medalsresult in a related publication?
– I am not an author myself, my work was part of a couple of publications, but according to the reviews of the medals, I believe that they have a chance to get published in some book.
The Czech Republic is famous for producing artistic glassware. Can you imagine living outside the Czech Republic?
– As you have mentioned before, I have lived more than 5 years outside of the Czech Republic. I came back because of my family at the time of Covid, but I did really enjoy this experience and I think if there was another interesting job opportunity/offer I would go for it.
Below Michal Vlček – CEO, Kolektiv Ateliers a.s.
How come it was your studio that was chosen for this purpose?
– Last summer we have been asked to attend a tender for the design and production of the medals by the organization team. We have asked Katerina as one of our cooperative designers to prepare some proposals, one of them has been chosen as best later on.
Nový Bor is a very small town, famous for the production of glass products. How did you come up with the idea to open a company in this very location?
– It was quite an easy choice, we were born here. Seriously – even thought we are able to arrange most of the processes inhouse we still need a lot of subcontractors and highly skilled workers and artisans for our production and building up a company like Kolektiv Ateliers anywhere else would be much much more complicated as far as these „resources“ are available only here, in Nový Bor.
How is the cooperation with IIHF working out?
– We are used to cooperate with the most challenging clients all over the world, clients that are concentrated on details and have strict view on the overall aesthetic and technical standards.
How many medals are you producing?
– We are producing 50pcs of each version of the medals (gold, silver, bronze) and some extra golden ones as these will be used also as an official gifts for partners and cooperating entities of the championship. Production took place from January 2024 and is finishing right now.
What are the biggest difficulties you are facing?
– The most difficult part we the technical design, because we had to come up with the design that would shown nice, minimalistic design, easy to assemble and also would be firm enough to survive rough handling.
Are you a company that supports athletes – especially those practicing ice hockey at a professional level?
– As a smaller company we support mainly local social and sport activities in our town.
