Mikser launches Design Link, a new project designed for emerging designers and creatives from Serbia and the Western Balkans who want to strengthen how they present their work digitally and gain practical skills, tools, and connections for a professional step onto the international stage.
The project is implemented in partnership with Arts Thread, one of the leading international digital platforms for emerging designers, and with the support of the British Council, through the WB–UK Creative Economy Fund. Design Link brings together local experience and regional creative energy with global platforms, knowledge, and professional opportunities.
Why Design Link?
Many young designers today graduate with strong and original work, but without enough tools to clearly present, contextualize, and position that work—especially in digital and international environments. Questions such as how to build a strong portfolio, how to talk about one’s work, where to apply, and how to gain visibility and relevant contacts often remain unanswered.
Design Link was created in response to this gap. It is conceived as an open, practical, and contemporary project that helps young designers understand how their creative practice functions beyond university and local contexts—and how it can grow within a professional and international framework.
Focus groups as a starting point
Rather than relying on predefined training models, Design Link begins by listening. The first phase of the project is built around a series of focus groups with young designers, students, and emerging creatives from different environments, ensuring that the program is shaped by their real needs, experiences, and questions.
During these focus groups, participants discuss how they currently present their work, which digital tools they use, where they encounter obstacles, how they access information about open calls and international opportunities, and which skills or forms of support they feel are missing.
The first focus group was held last weekend in Novi Pazar, a city with one of the youngest populations in Serbia and a strong creative dynamic. Further sessions are planned in Belgrade and Kragujevac, along with one regional online session, in order to reflect diverse educational and professional contexts. Insights gathered during this phase will directly inform the content, format, and mentoring approach of the next project stages.
What does Design Link offer?
Based on the findings from the focus groups, Design Link will develop a hybrid upskilling program (online + in-person) for emerging designers working in design, architecture, applied arts, and related creative fields.
Participants will have the opportunity to improve their digital portfolios, develop clearer and more professional ways of communicating their work, receive concrete feedback from mentors and experts from Serbia, the region, and the UK, and connect with international platforms and programs for young designers.
In total, 45 young designers will be directly involved in the educational part of the project—15 through an intensive in-person residency in Serbia, and 30 through an online format open to participants from across the Western Balkans. Knowledge and tools developed throughout the project will be compiled into a Design Link digital guide, available free of charge in both Serbian and English.
Visibility as a key outcome
Design Link views education not as an end in itself, but as a pathway to greater professional visibility. Project participants will have the opportunity to present their work as part of Mikser Festival 2026, within a dedicated Western Balkans section on the Arts Thread platform, and through inclusion in the Global Creative Graduate Showcase 2026.
Who is Design Link for—and what’s next?
Design Link is aimed at final-year students, recent graduates, and designers at the beginning of their professional careers—anyone looking to improve how they present their work and to engage more actively with the international creative scene.
In the coming months, Mikser will announce an open call for participation, along with details about mentors, program topics, and activities within Mikser Festival. All updates will be published on mikser.rs and Mikser’s communication channels.
Design Link is just getting started. If you’re interested in making your work more visible, clearer, and more relevant – follow the next steps and get involved.