This is a guest post by Behance Curator Oscar Ramos who recently visited Holon, Israel to attend the iconic Design Week. Here’s what Oscar had to say about his experience and some of the great artists he met along the way:

Holon is 6 miles south of Tel Aviv with over 200,000 inhabitants and its mayor, Moti Sasson, was recognized as one of the top ten mayors in the world by Monocle Magazine. In the last few years, Sasson has introduced five new museums into Holon, including the Israeli Center of Digital Art, the Israeli Cartoon Museum, and the Design Museum Holon. Designed by Ron Arad, the facade of the Design Museum is formed with bands of Corten steel at different states of oxidation, creating a gradient of oranges that curve voluptuously to become the iconic building that hosted this year’s Design Week Holon.

The initiative, which focused on Israeli design, brought more than fifteen design week directors from all over the world to see the work of local creative professionals through exhibitions and one-on-one meetings. Designers Plus Ten, curated by Galit Gaon, presented 42 Israeli designers, each represented by one piece from the beginning of their career ten years ago and one from this past year.  One of the participants in the exhibition was Adital Ela  who teaches sustainable design in neighboring Holon Institute of Technology. Adital’s mentor, Daphna Yalon, have developed a compression process for earth and straw, based on ancient techniques and new study of materials. Adital introduced the Terra Stools, which are made in this manner.

Terra stools by Adital Ela.

Yael Friedman  makes wearable rings of dry vegetables or converts them into toys, in the form of  engineered puzzles.

Another creative introduced to the design week directors was textile designer Gali Cnaani. In her last exhibition she presented a series of textiles printed with photographs of her home’s reorganized bookcase. The second part of the exhibition consisted of small woven pieces delicately built from old parts of garments rewoven into the loom’s warp threads.

Leno, 2012. Gali Cnaani. Photo by Roni Cnaani.

Epaulets, 2011. Gali Cnaani. Photo by Roni Cnaani.

Among many other events, five galleries in Holon hosted various design exhibitions; the Beit Meirov Art Center exhibited a selection of works of Dan Reisinger, a kind of Israeli Paul Rand, responsible for many of the better known logos in Israel and a reference for typographic treatment in Hebrew.

Logotypes in Hebrew by Dan Reisinger.

For the rest of the year the museum not only offers international design exhibitions, lectures and conferences, but also houses a materials library that provides architects and designers with hundreds of material samples and links to suppliers. The strong investment in design in Israel is producing high quality professionals with a common obsession in constantly questioning the role of design in the human experience.