Design trends - Design Topics

Jakub Szczęsny: “Dream of Warsaw” (Photo: dmy-berlin.com)

Fresh and Imaginative – Polish Design at the DMY Festival 2013

The biggest exhibition of work by young Polish designers abroad was presented at the DMY International Design Festival in Berlin. With its modern designs, it is quite clear that Poland has found its place in the international design scene.More ...

Fish-Scale Eyeglass Frames and Rechargeable Batteries Made from Algae – A Conversation with Sascha Peters

A conversation with Dr. Sascha Peters, who, together with his Berlin agency Haute Innovation, is researching at the interface of materials, technology and applications.More ...

The Germans’ favourite Toy – The History of Automotive Design

Bernd Polster, designer and publicist, answers some questions on the history of automotive design, fleet design and classic carsMore ...

How do Germans live? A current study provides great insight into their private sphere

Open floor plans, large eat-in kitchens or a combination of home and office? A current study of the ways Germans live has shown that what lifestyle magazines point out as a trend has, in fact, very little to do with reality.More ...

Screenshot from Europa-Atlas (map view), with friendly permission of SZ.de

Mapping the information jungle – data visualisation and infographics

How can design be used to enhance the people’s understanding of an entire country, the European Union or the respective legislation? Different projects are working on the visualisation of huge amounts of information and complex matters.More ...

Monuments of German design

The Kölln rolled-oat package, the Nivea tin, Tempo paper tissues – many of these products have been part of everyday life in Germany for decades.More ...

Breakfast Board with Rail Connections - New Toys with an Old Legacy

From the Steiff company’s teddy bears to Eichhorn’s wooden toy train and finally to the dinosaurs of the Schleich firm – Germany has a long-standing tradition where toys are concerned. Family-owned and run firms and next-generation designers and artists have set themselves the goal of gently revitalising it.More ...

Portrait of Gerwin Schmidt next to posters designed by himself © Gerwin Schmidt

“Poster Design Is Like Creativity Training”

Of all the media that graphic designers shape, the poster is the most visible and public. What role does it play today? A conversation with Gerwin Schmidt, 45, one of Germany’s most celebrated poster designers.More ...

Olympia Grounds Munich, 1972, Photo: Otl Aicher, Copyright © Florian Aicher, Rotis

“You are what you show and you show what you are” – Otl Aicher’s attempt to create a major design project for Germany

The design of the 1972 Olympic Games resembles in many ways the notion of what we call today corporate design. It was indeed corporate design. The company was the Federal Republic of Germany.More ...

Design from Germany Design – the new practicality

Borders are becoming blurred, national stereotypes and design languages are disappearing – and yet qualities exist that indeed characterise a country. In Germany, it is the consistent practicality that is reappearing in design, and thanks to individual love of experimentation, is resulting in new design solutions.More ...

Buchladen „Motto“ in Berlin-Kreuzberg, der ausschließlich Bücher und Magazine von Self-Publishing-Projekten und Independent-Verlagen vertreibt

The Features of the Analog Medium – Book Design

The shaky book market continues to break up into increasingly distinct segments. Niche markets like self-publishing are expanding, and the trend towards e-books both shocks and boosts the industry. How are graphic designers reacting to these trends? An overview of current trends in book design.More ...

“Calvert & Charlotte”, Ferdinand Kramer, e15

The architect as designer

Practically every architect has designed an object at some stage in order to express his or her understanding of form on a smaller scale.More ...

ECO|Design

The Goethe-Institut Taipei, together with the International Design Center Berlin (IDZ), is showing examples of sustainable design in an exhibition entitled "German Shades of Green | Sustainable Design from Germany."More ...

Furniture made out of cardboard © UOCU GbR

Functional, non-toxic and yet beautiful – new children’s furniture Made in Germany

Ambitious design for children’s furniture is currently treading a fine line between form, function and environmental awareness. Three German designers have taken up the challenge this balancing act presents.More ...

Portrait Joana Breidenbach | Photo: private

German Objects – Design Culture and Feeling for Life

What do Thonet chairs, Braun appliances or new designer fashions from Berlin reveal about Germans’ view of the world? Is there a specifically German type of design, and if so, what distinguishes it? Joana Breidenbach, an ethnologist and cultural studies expert, in an interview with Goethe.de.More ...

“Biedermeyer Chair”, copied and modernized by Hannes Simon | © Photo: Hannes Simon

“Copy-Culture” – Copying Desired, for a Change!

For a university project, Berlin design students were permitted to toss all basic principles overboard.More ...

Moving Away from Authored Design – towards Sustainable Concepts

Whether it is a question of conventional forms and techniques being combined in new ways or advanced production technologies and intelligent materials being used – there are lots of new things to discover in the world of German product design. Close scrutiny is required, however, as this is a long-drawn-out process which is taking place quietly. A review of the year 2011 so far.More ...

© Günter Höhne / www.industrieform-ddr.de

“A glass is not, after all, socialist per se”

Products in East Germany, the GDR, were designed to be functionally aesthetic – and durable. In an interview with Günter Höhne, Iris Braun discovers whether such a thing as “socialist design” ever in fact existed.More ...

German Design Icons

Not everyone in Germany has these items in their home, yet virtually everyone is familiar with them – these milestones of German design.More ...

Exhibition “Einfach realitätsnäher! Leipziger Studenten zeigen Schrift.” Copyright: Günter Karl Bose, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig

Typography Today: Current Trends in Type Design

An estimated 100,000 Western font types are currently in use – with new ones added everyday. Today’s graphic designers are exploring applied typography past and present, with playful and serious intent, to put the message across.More ...

Product design, “Holzweg”, by Arndt Menke-Zumbrägel, photo: Andreas Velten, copyright: BerliNordik

Green Design: Designing with the “Ecological Brake” in your Head

Green, i.e. sustainable, energy-efficient and non-polluting design stands an increasing chance of reaching large proportions of the population. Even if today, it is mostly high-earners that follow the LOHAS (“lifestyle of health and sustainability”), perception and appreciation of ecological design will improve in years to come. More ...

formgold: Marc Schindler, Ulrich Thomas Schneider, Wolfgang Kreser, Marc Nelson; Architektur-Innenarchitektur-Licht-Design www.formgold.de, Copyright: Designhaus Halle

At Uni Is After Uni – Universities Support Up-and-coming Designers As They Start Their Careers

The transition from a degree course to their first independent work as a designer is the focus of projects at universities such as the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin and Giebichenstein Castle in Halle.More ...

“Papier” bag collection; Copyright: Saskia Diez

Product Design in Germany – Prospects For A New Decade In The Second Century Of Design

A look at the winners of the Design Prize for the Federal Republic of Germany 2010 shows which themes will be occupying entrepreneurs and designers in the decade ahead. More ...

Berlin Haushoch Nr. 1 „Marzahn“; Copyright: Haushoch GbR

“Like Tourists In Their Own City” – the Design Magazine “Berlin Haushoch”

Three woman designers move to a district of Berlin for a year complete with their office, they work there, and afterwards they bring out a glossy magazine dealing with themes relating to this district.More ...

Christian Montenegro: 'Pride' 50 x 50 cm, 2009, Copyright: Illustrative e. V.

Autumn of Design: the Illustrative in Berlin and the Designers’ Open in Leipzig

Two festivals mark the start of Germany’s autumn of design – both trendsetting and trend-seeking in their different ways. At the Illustrative, illustration leaves its comfort zone behind, while in Leipzig the Designers’ Open seeks to show how young talent is continuing the old artisan traditions of this central-German region.More ...

'CH04 Houdini' chair by Stefan Diez, Copyright: E15

Overcoming Invisibility – German Furniture Design

Furniture design from Germany? The question still puts expressions of great perplexity on the faces of the international design community. German cars – of course, technically superior design of consumer goods and machinery – goes without saying, but furniture design?More ...

Neons Past: The Lettering Museum in Berlin

For sheer love of typography, the Berlin “Museum of Letters, Characters and Typefaces” association collects the letters from old neon signs, marquees and the like. Parts of the collection are now on display in its showroom, but plans to expand are in the pipeline.More ...

The A 660: With his Loop Chair James Irvine has combined traditional designs with lightness and comfort – and added functional tables to the programme. Design: James Irvine, Copyright: Gebrüder Thonet GmbH

Thonet – A Modern Design Institution

The name Thonet has become synonymous with design classics of lasting value. 150 years ago Michael Thonet’s innovative production methods revolutionised the furniture craft.More ...

Silvia Knüppel, Drückeberger, 2007, Photo: Silvia Knüppel

New German Design: a view from abroad

An Interview with Max Borka, Curator of the Avant-Garde Showcase Exhibition, Nullpunkt. Nieuwe German Gestaltung in Herford’s MARTa Museum.More ...

Intelligent Resource Use and Recycling Design: Used and Unused Objects Make a Striking Comeback

“Recycling Design” and “Sustainable Design” are the Buzz in the Design Industry these Days.More ...

From the Iconic Product to the Designer Brand – Automotive Design in Germany

The last fifteen years have seen a step change in the quality of automotive design in Germany.More ...

'ESPRIT' Collection, Cop: 2006 A.S. Création

Ready to Roll – Wallpaper Celebrates a Comeback in the Land of Woodchip

Ornamentation is on its Way from House Façades to Reconquering Interiors.More ...

Rosenthal’s EGO campaign; © Rosenthal AG

A Manufacturing Renaissance – German Porcelain Blazes New Trails

Some manufacturers have plucked up the courage to translate their idiosyncratic characteristics into a contemporary context. And even avant-garde design is discovering the charm of a traditional world of objects.More ...

Various wall switches with extra large and tactile symbols, © Cop: picture-alliance/ dpa

Universal Design: Products for the New Avant-Garde

Many products that incorporate special requirements for senior citizens have become established on the market as “Universal Design” or “Design for all”.More ...

Ten Litres of Pure Design – the Mobile Burgdesign Shop

Halle (Saale) has a long history of good designers equipped with both business sense and flair – as students from Burg Giebichenstein have recently demonstrated to the inhabitants of their own city, and the rest of Germany.More ...

Design-Reaktor Berlin

Berlin's craftsmen come up against the “criminal energies” of students.More ...

Jungle, Terry with chenille border, © Ernst Feiler GmbH

At the Sign of the Caterpillar

The textiles specialist Feiler, based in the Upper Franconian town of Hohenberg, has been manufacturing high-quality terry products and chenille fabric since the thirties.More ...

New York 07, Ausstellung 'Koffer aus Berlin', Mietze von der Band Mia mit Koffer, Copyright: Create Berlin/Foto: Frank Roesner

Create Berlin - The Design Club

The internationally geared network promotes and presents design and designers from Berlin.More ...

Zora Palova, glass artist from the Slovak Republic, from the special exhibition Meister der Moderne 2007, Bavarian State Award-winner 2007. Copyright: Chamber of Skilled Craftsmen, Munich

Craft and Design

The Dawn of a New Professional Profile and a New Economic Sector.More ...

From the Meissen Collection at Kuball & Kempe 'FORBIDDEN CITY', Copyright: Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meißen GmbH

Kuball&Kempe and the Renaissance of the Manufactories

Hamburg’s Peter Kempe and Thomas Kuball are not designers but dealers in very special wares. Their love for the creative arts of almost-forgotten German manufactories has brought about a small revolution.More ...

TAC tea service, Walter Gropius, Rosenthal, 1967, Cop: Rosenthall AG

Functional, Clear and Unobtrusive: Design from Germany

When asked the question what things is our country, Germany, best known for, most people would never hit upon the idea of design. Although German design enjoys an excellent reputation world-wide, it is more those forces working behind the scenes that are responsible for this reputation. German design functions well, it is technically sophisticated and there is a particularly aesthetic feel to its quality. More ...

Design Topics in Germany