published 03/03/2025
Frequently Asked Questions

This year’s Call for Entries for German Design Graduates 2025 starts on 14.04.2025. We are particularly pleased about this – for the first time, graduation projects from related design disciplines can also take part. We have compiled the most frequently asked questions and answers so that you can prepare yourself optimally.

published 03/03/2025
Extended categories and new opportunities
The German Design Council – German Design Council is simplifying the application process for the renowned ‘German Design Award – Newcomer’ and linking it to the German Design Graduates. In future, the five finalists for this award will be selected from the participants of the German Design Graduates. The four finalists of the ‘German Design Award Newcomer’ will each receive €2,500 in prize money, while the winner will be honoured with €15,000. The award ceremony will take place on 6 February 2026 as part of the German Design Award.
Expansion of the design disciplines
At the same time, we are expanding our content focus: In addition to product and industrial design, work from the fields of textile and fashion design, communication and digital design can also be submitted from 2025. The aim is to do justice to the growing interdisciplinary design practice and to enable an even broader promotion of young talent.
published 01/15/2025
GDG SUPPORTED BY

Foto: Chiara Bellamoli for MAGAZIN
Our partner formats are individual support programmes and are realised with our cooperation partners from industry and culture. The GDG partner formats offer the opportunity to make exclusive contacts, expand skills and share knowledge on design and specific topics. This year, we were able to realise exciting formats such as an exhibition in the MAGAZIN shop in Stuttgart, workshops for schoolchildren at the Museum Angewandte Kunst and various professionalisation workshops.

published 01/14/2024
GDG WRAPPED
Before we start the next round, we look back on an exciting GDG year 2024. A total of 245 submissions were received from 22 participating universities. 76 works were presented in two exhibitions. ‘Dare to Design’ at the Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt attracted around 18,000 visitors. We reached around 30,000 guests over 10 days at the Dutch Design Week. We welcomed 130 participants to our networking breakfast.11 projects were nominated for the 4 awards. Together with our partners, we were able to award a total of 38 Supports. We gained 24% more followers on our Instagram account.
published 10/22/2024
Gute idee.

MAGAZIN appreciates the free and unconventional view of things and is therefore a partner of the German Design Graduates – an initiative of the German Design Council Foundation with the aim of promoting graduates from product and industrial design and giving them an international stage. Part of this stage is the exhibition ‘GUTE IDEE. MAGAZINE x GERMAN DESIGN GRADUATES’. From 21-28 November 2024, 11 graduation projects will be on display in the MAGAZIN shop in Stuttgart.
From around 220 exciting submissions, this year’s expert jury has selected around 40 works for the exhibition, including the finalists for the four awards, which will be presented at the exhibition opening. The projects of the four winners reflect the innovative power that design can have in social and economic change processes in a particularly impressive way.
published 09/01/2024
The Magic Touch: Designing Togetherness

The exhibition “The Magic Touch” at Dutch Design Week 2024 presents works by graduates who, through interaction and tactile experiences, establish new relationships with designed objects, the world, and our shared environment.

published 08/12/2024
Meet The FInalists
From around 220 exciting submissions, this year’s expert jury has selected around 40 works for the exhibition, including the finalists for the four awards, which will be presented at the exhibition opening.
published 07/29/2024
Annual exhibition 2024 – Dare to Design

Projects and concepts that radically rethink the economy and society: over 50 young designers present innovative positions, ideas and visions from product and industrial design.
This exhibition is funded by the Hessian Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport, Housing and Rural Areas as part of the Hesse Innovation Promotion Programme under the measure ‘Promotion of cultural and creative industry facilities’.

More information about the exhibition at the Museum Angewandte Kunst

published 05/29/2024
Meet The Jury
Our thirteen-member GDG expert jury, which will select around 40 exhibits for the GDG Museum Exhibition and Awards in a multi-stage process, has been finalised.
published 04/14/2024
Call for Entries – Apply Now

Graduates from participating universities can submit their theses via our online form by 15 May. You can find more information on formalities and funding formats in the GDG Call for Entries 2024. We look forward to receiving your work.
We have compiled the most frequently asked questions and answers.

published 04/03/2024
get Ready – Call For Entries Starts Soon
This year’s application phase for German Design Graduates 2024 starts on 15.04.2024. We have compiled the most frequently asked questions so that you can prepare yourself optimally.
published 12/03/2024
GDG Award winner Juliane Kühr guest on the DDCast

Award winner in the focus topic inclusion, Juliane Kühr, talks to Georg-Christof Bertsch on DDCAST about her project Vruit, a sextoy set for self-insemination. Juliane explains her inclusive approach to design and gives an outlook on the future of Vruit.
The podcast is in German.
About DDCAST
DDCAST, the podcast of the Deutscher Designer Club (DDC), is one of the leading design podcasts in Europe. The programme policy is characterised by a consistent opening of the “design bubble” towards adjacent disciplines. The guest list is strictly gendered and divided into three groups, up to around 30, up to the mid-40s, from the mid-40s onwards, geared towards the equality of generational perspectives.
The most important dates and deadlines of our partner schools at a glance:
HTW Dresden
Application deadline SS: 15.01.2024
Application deadline WS: 15.07.2024
HS Magdeburg-Stendal
Application deadline WS: 31.05.2024
Application deadline SS 2025: 30.11.2024
HfG Karlsruhe
Application deadline WS: 01.03. – 30.04.2024
Open day: 04.02.2024
HS Darmstadt
Application WS: 01.03 – 01.06.2024
HS Pforzheim (TBA)
HS Düsseldorf
Application SS: 01.11.23 – 15.01.2024
Application WS: 15.05 – 15.07.2024
OTH Regensburg
Application WS: 01.05 – 15.06.2024
HTW Berlin
Homework: 26.02.2024
Application deadline WS: 20.03.2034
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Application deadline WS: 31.03.2024
“Winterwerkschau”: 02.-04.02.2024
Information Day: 01.06.2024
HAWK
Application deadline SS: 15.01.2024
Application deadline WS: 15.07.2024
Kunsthochschule Weissensee Berlin
Application deadline: 11.12.2023
FH Potsdam
Info Day & Portfolio Consultation: 22.01.2024
Application: 01.01 – 01.04.2024
UDK Berlin
Application BA: 15.03 – 15.04.2024
Application MA: 01.03 – 01.04.2024
HBK Saar
Application deadline WS: 31.03.2024
Tour / Open Days: 09.02 – 11.02.2024
Info Day: 10.02.2024
KH Kassel
Application deadline WS: 30.04.2024
HFBK Hamburg
Info Day: 10.02.24
Application deadline WS: 01.02 – 05.03.2024
ABK Stuttgart
Application deadline WS: 15.04 – 30.04.2024
HfG Offenbach
Info Day: 09.02.2023
Application WS: 15.05 – 01.06.2024
HS Hannover
Application deadline WS: 30.04.2024
Folkwang Universität Essen
Application WS: 15.01 – 15.03.2024
Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle
Application: 01.12.2023 – 11.03.2024
Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel
Info day: 14-15.02.2024
Application WS: 01-15.05.2024
GERMAN DESIGN GRADUATES Interconnected @ DUTCH DESIGN WEEK

To mark the occasion of the 70th anniversary of their sponsor, the German Design Council, the GDG 2023 has initiated an additional exhibition format to present the graduates of German universities in a broader European context.
Under the title Making Noise: Making Noise: Suggestions for a Complex World – Graduates attitudes and attempts towards the transformation of the world, German Design Graduates is showing 25 exciting works at the Dutch Design Week from 21.10 – 29.10.2023 in Eindhoven. The exhibition was curated by Jana Scholze and Amelie Klein.
More information about the exhibition and the selected projects
Programme
GD… Get Together
Saturday, 21. Oktober 2023, 4:30 pm
Klokgebouw, Hall 2, Plot 2.01
RSVP GD…GET TOGETHER
An open exchange with interested guests from culture and industry about the exhibited theses. Snacks and drinks will be provided.
Form follows Friendship
A networking breakfast for design graduates
Sunday, 22.10.2023, 9.30am – 11am
Design Perron, Fuutlaan 12, 5613AB Eindhoven
Please enroll here
Join us for a Sunday Morning networking breakfast with young design talents! Start your DDW day with a chance to meet and mingle with design graduates form Germany and the Netherlands, introducing their novel projects addressing the ecological, social and political responsibility of design.
As forespeakers and ambassadors for design graduates, artistic director of DDW Miriam van der Lubbe shares thoughts about the power of graduates works shown at DDW before giving the word to the curators Amelie Klein and Jana Scholze. Both introduce briefly the exhibit Making Noise: Suggestions for a Complex World – Graduates attitudes and attempts towards the transformation of the world that they composed for DDW23 at Klokgebouw.
The talk is organized by German Design Graduates hosted by German Design Council together with the Dutch Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Berlin as well as the Dutch Consulate-General in Duesseldorf.

MOno 4T Goes VIenna Design Week
© Nadia Morozewicz
The first edition of the Mono Residency, which is organized together with German Design Graduates, an initiative that supports product design graduates, started at the beginning of 2023. Following a kick-off session in the Mono manufactory in Mettmann in Germany, the ten designers, all of whom graduated between 2018 and 2022, entered a product development phase that lasted several months. To mark the 40th anniversary of Mono Tee, they designed individual pieces inspired by the brand’s iconic teapot. The 4T EXHIBITION shows the results of this cooperation: ten art and design objects that pick up on the materiality and typology of the Mono teapot, while also having the originality and aesthetic power to make their own statement.
With works by: Claire Wildenhues, Justus Hilfenhaus, Elena Kayser, Marie Radke, Julian Ribler, Matthias Gschwendtner, Sascha Huth, Paula Mühlena, Silvio Rebholz as well as BNAG (Oliver-Selim Boualam and Lukas Marstaller)
On Sunday, 24 September, Mono invites you to a special talk at the festival headquarters from 2 to 3 pm. Under the title “Being a designer – yesterday, today and tomorrow”, three generations of designers (Mikaela Dörfel, Mark Braun, Marie Radke and Silvio Rebholz) will talk about their jobs. The talk will be moderated by journalist Valerie Präkelt.
In cooperation with the Freiraum im MK&G, the Hans Sauer Stiftung and German Design Graduates at the German Design Council, workshops with five outstanding graduates on a wide range of topics will take place from 6 to 8 October. The young designers from various disciplines will not only offer an insight into their practice, but will also give participants the opportunity to become active designers themselves using participatory methods and to enter into a discussion on topics and methods of design practice today and in the future.
The workshops will take place in the open meeting place of the museum and are free of charge. Binding registration via the forms below is required. Depending on the capacity of the workshops, participants can also be added spontaneously on site.
To the registration and further information on the workshops

AWARD WINNERS 2023
The nine-member jury of experts selected the exhibits and 12 projects as finalists for the GDG Awards from a wide range of perspectives and with a broad range of expertise in a multi-stage process. After a tour of the exhibition by the jury, 4 winners were chosen and announced on the evening of the opening. Congratulations to:
Toxic Legacies Leila Wallisser
(non-) local lab Beatriz Oria Lombardía
Bücheria Anna Unterstab
Vruit Juliane Kühr
DESIGN TALKS @ MK&G

The supporting program for the opening of the GDG Exhibition Dare to Design offers space for discourse – not only about design, but above all about research and future topics. Join in the discussion!
An overview of the exhibitors and information about the exhibition can be found here
GDG EXHIBITION 2023 @ MK&G Hamburg

The preparations for the exhibition at the Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe Hamburg are in full swing. This year, the jury has selected around 45 works in 4 categories for the exhibition, which have now been published.
An overview of the exhibitors and information about the exhibition can be found here