Viera Kleinová
In the beginning was the embroidery. Or rather, inconspicuous and invisible hands of the Slovak women embroiderers. They got the main role in the thesis of the young Slovak graphic designer Tomáš Kompaník. His original book AHA – master’s thesis, which was established in the Department of Graphic Design at the University of Tomáš Baťa in Zlín, is just and only about Slovak embroidery. AHA is an extremely appreciated project in several competitions. AHA is a hand-bound book, which represents a diverse world of the Slovak embroidery in 8 regions. It has no ambition to be an ethnographic encyclopedia, it is primarily a personal version with visually imaginative, unbiased and liberal look on the remarkable part of our cultural history. It is an emotional paraphrase to convey an experience and stories, which are encoded in embroidery, to the viewer. Particular chapters begin with a brief textual characteristics of the region and a typical folk song. Each region has its own colour, material and motives solution, uses different fonts and graphic elements. The book creation was preceded by a thorough study of resources. Thomas studied forms of the Slovak embroidery in galleries, museums and libraries throughout the year. Then he redrew them and edited on the computer. He does not have the distance from the subject in his understanding of the topic, however, it was essential for him to seize traditional patterns and ornaments through persuasive and understandable language for the present.