Ignas Survila
Kick scooter: Pigeon
Created: 2014
Manufacturer: Citybirds Sarl
The orange kick scooter can be folded up with one press of the foot and carried on the shoulder. You can’t help but notice it in the streets, adults and children alike want one (it is almost a continuation of the Lithuanian fairy tale: happiness is a fox and an orange kick scooter). The President of Lithuania gave it to the NATO Secretary General as a gift. The story of the young designer Ignas Survila (born 1991) and his pigeons can confidently be called one of the success stories in Lithuanian design. It began from the wish to improve an imperfect kick scooter he had received as a gift to the goal of changing the world and helping people to feel better about daily routine. The first prototype was submitted in 2014 as a bachelor’s degree project at the Vilnius Academy of Arts (Šarūnas Šlektavičius was the academic supervisor): Ignas successfully defended his project and received the Young Designer supplementary prize. He then established his own business with the aim of launching the Lithuanian kick scooters into mass production. His student design idea received backing on Kickstarter and after almost three years the first shipment of scooters arrived from China in spring 2017. Ignas became one of the most famous faces in Lithuanian design and in the creative business. On the Lithuanian-Swiss products boasts probably the greatest number of international prizes of varying importance, including the A’Design Award, a silver award from the Geneva innovative design exhibition, the Red Dot award, and even two Core77 Design awards.
I. Survila graduated from the Department of Design at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and while studying there he also spent some time at the University of Lapland. While pursuing a Master’s programme he won the national Creative Business Cup, and represented Lithuania at the international Creative Business Cup event in Copenhagen. Later together with investors from Switzerland, he established Citybirds Sarl, a joint incorporated company, and is its president. The designer’s main interest is in ecological transportation issues and is continuing to develop the kick scooter family: the Kolibri for children, the stylish Raven, and the electric urban Eagle.