News

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.

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.

FAQ

To mark the occasion of the 70^th 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

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.

Mono 4T @ Vienna Design Week

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

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

The winners at a glance

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

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

254 theses from 23 different universities were submitted by the deadline of 30 May 2023 and are now online on the Graduates Platform.

Graduates Platform

In a multi-stage process, our nine-member GDG expert jury has selected around 45 exhibits for the GDG Exhibition at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, as well as the finalists for the GDG Awards. We are very much looking forward to announcing the exhibitors very soon.

More information on the jury & the selection process

With diverse perspectives and a wide range of expertise, this year’s high-calibre, nine-member GDG expert jury selects around 45 exhibits for the GDG Exhibition at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, as well as the four winners of the GDG Awards, in a multi-stage process that has the potential to shape change.

More information on the jury & the selection process

Graduates of the participating universities can submit their theses until 15.05. via our online form. More information on formalities and funding formats can be found in the GDG Call for Entries 2023. We are looking forward to your projects.

FAQ

Three graduates with exciting projects were selected in the public voting. This means they will win a workshop at the Design Campus Summer School of the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, curated this year by studio d-o-t-s, as well as visibility in the exhibition Plant Fever.

More information on the voting & the Design Campus

Congratulations to the winners and thank you very much for participating in the public voting.

Take your chance: choose your favourites and enable 3 graduates to participate in the summer school of the Design Campus of the Dresden State Art Collections, this year curated by studio d-o-t-s

In a multidisciplinary and transcultural discourse and research environment, the summer school questions the dichotomy of humanity and nature that is deeply rooted in Western thinking and invites shared critical and utopian thinking.

To the Voting

Thank you for visiting the Talents area, the GDG special areas, the Circular Materials for Future Dining special area by Haute Innovation and the German Design Award Newcomers stand.

All projects at a glance