News

The German Design Graduates committee was newly elected in February 2026 and brings together professors from leading German design universities as well as international experts from the fields of design and research.

The Advisory Board advises the initiative on matters relating to design education, support for graduates and the international positioning of German design schools. The aim is to ensure that the programme’s content is closely aligned with current challenges in the field of design.

Members include Prof. Ineke Hans (Universität der Künste Berlin), Prof. Hermann Weizenegger (Fachhochschule Potsdam), Prof. Mark Braun (Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar), Prof. Lucienne Roberts (Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart), Prof. Markus Frenzl (Hochschule München), Prof. Christian Zöllner (BURG Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle) and Prof. Zane Berzina (Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee).

The current debate makes it clear that design education today extends far beyond creative practice. It equips students with the skills to deal with complexity, structure information and contextualise social developments. “Design practice can provide design students and graduates with important guidance in a complex, media-driven world,” says Hermann Weizenegger. “Through the design process, they learn to filter information, understand interrelationships and tackle problems in a structured way.”

Mark Braun also emphasises the role of design as a unifying discipline: “Design is both a profession and an interdisciplinary field, offering guidance to students in an increasingly complex world.” Design methods make it possible to quickly familiarise oneself with new contexts and develop solutions in collaboration with other disciplines.

At the same time, Braun sees analogue design as a deliberate counterpoint to the dynamics of the digital world. It focuses on slower processes and durability, thereby creating a different kind of stability within the design process. Networking remains a key factor in this regard. According to Braun, programmes such as German Design Graduates provide important guidance and enable graduates to establish themselves as they make the transition into professional practice.

Design can generate knowledge. The GDG Design Research Training programme takes this mission seriously and brings together graduates, researchers and practitioners who are working precisely on this.

In Berlin, the Fraunhofer IAO’s Transformation Lab – developed by the Centre for Responsible Research and Innovation (CeRRI) – provides the framework for this. Here, interdisciplinary teams work on issues shaping the future. Design serves as a tool for analysing problems and developing potential solutions.

To kick things off, Marie Heidingsfelder, a research assistant at CeRRI, provided an insight into the work of the Transformation Lab. The graduates then presented their projects. The presentations ranged from methodological experiments to applied research.

Stephan Ott, co-initiator of the initiative and Director of Design Research & Appliance at the German Design Council, presented the findings of the study Design Research in Germany. These findings reveal a growing interest in the field, despite its weak institutional foundations.

During the working sessions, participants further developed their projects, explored potential collaborations and identified key challenges. The focus was on formulating meaningful questions. Carola Zwick, a designer and professor at the Berlin Weissensee Academy of Art and founder of Studio 7.5, spoke about her work at the intersection of design and analysis, presenting examples from both teaching and practice. The event concluded with a presentation by Lynn Harles, a designer, researcher and co-initiator of the Design Promoviert network. She introduced the network and spoke about doctoral research in design. The central question was how design research can be firmly established in universities and research institutions in the long term.

It became clear that design research thrives on a variety of methods and perspectives. Its strength lies in combining these approaches.

The graduates included: Louis Bindernagel (UdK Berlin, MA in Product & Process Design); Carolin Marie Roth (DHBW Ravensburg, Media Design); Carl Bahra (Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, MA in Product Design); Mareen Baumeister (Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, MA in Product Design); Lucas Torres Eisenmann (Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, BA); Lukas Klein (HfG Karlsruhe, Diploma in Product Design); Dominik Bärenz (Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, MA in Communication Design); Lilli-Sophie Schröder (Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, BA in Visual Communication); Malte Fial (HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd, BA in Interaction Design); Thies Warnke (HFBK Hamburg, MA in Experimental Design).

Design schools are places where visions of the future are born: here, students develop visionary solutions to the pressing issues of our time – free from economic and technological constraints. With their designs, they provide new impetus and challenge established manufacturers.

Together with MAGAZIN, we celebrate this free, unconventional approach to design and create an international stage for graduates in product and industrial design.

💭 GUTE IDEE. MAGAZIN x GERMAN DESIGN GRADUATES”
🗓 19–28 February 2026
📍 MAGAZIN, Cologne

On display are 13 works by 15 graduates of German design colleges. From innovative materials to furniture and lighting concepts to well-thought-out everyday aids.

What connects them? The courage to rethink things and make a big difference with small solutions. Come and see for yourself!

HOW TO STAY COOL (Zixuan Zhou), YOU MAY ALSO LIKE (Paula Holzhauser), NEUE FORM: RINDE (Julian Linden und Linus Enzmann), BROKEN=GOOD (Michael Schneider und Luca Schreiber), GLIM – TAKE YOUR TIME (Zeinab Abdou), LILA (Nadja Schulze), COMPANION (Philipp Weyer), SMAL (Anton Oberländer), SQUEEZE and #1470 (Eva Ausmann), FOLDED SHEETS (John Weber), RUGGED TERRAIN (Manuel Kugler), HIP (Libi Gurdus)

CALL TO ACTION
Closing date:  January 25th 2026
Are you involved in or looking for a German-Dutch design collaboration? Then we are looking for you!

Where can ideas be submitted?
Please tell us about your project / idea by filling out the form via the Matchmaking tool of the Design Networking Hub (app. 5min). By submitting your idea, you agree to its publication on the Design Networking Hub website, giving you the opportunity to find project partners. The Matchmaking Tool is generously provided by the German Design Museum Foundation.

Who can apply?
You can apply as a single person, an existing studio team or an collaboration. Under Dutch-German design collaboration we understand every kind of cross-border collaboration since 2022 with another designer or studio, company, material producer, or you name it. Important is that one of you works from the Netherlands and the other one from Germany. This call is open to every form of design.

Find out more

This year, we received around 400 submissions in the fields of product and industrial design, communication and digital design, and fashion and textile design from 25 participating universities.

Sixty-nine final projects were presented in two exhibitions. ‘Dare to Design – Spaces of Care’ at the Museum of Applied Arts in Cologne attracted around 8,000 visitors. At Dutch Design Week, we reached around 5,000 guests over 10 days with the exhibition ‘Next, Now, Then’, curated and designed by the design studio Raw Colour. We welcomed 110 participants to our networking breakfast ‘Form Follows Friendship’ in cooperation with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Consulates General in Düsseldorf and Munich.

Together with our partners Indeed Innovation + VEPA, Innoit, MAGAZIN and IfDRA + Fraunhofer Cerri, we welcomed around 40 graduates to our training courses in four German cities on the topics of circular design, personal branding, design implementation and design research.

On Sunday, 19 October 2025, a networking breakfast in Eindhoven will bring together emerging graduates and professionals from Germany and the Netherlands. Under the title “Form follows Friendship”, the encounter highlights collaboration as a driving force in contemporary practice.

The Form follows Friendship event is organized for the third time by German Design Graduates hosted by German Design Council together with the Consulate-General in Düsseldorf & Munich and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Berlin.

Words of Welcome by 

– Dewi van de Weert (Ambassador for international cultural cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands)

– Lutz Dietzold (Chief executive officer German Design Council)

– Katrin Krupka, (Director German Desing Graduates)

– Wisse Ankersmit (Programme/ community manager Dutch Design Foundation)

The Welcome speeches are followed by a conversation with Daniera ter Haar and Chris Brach from Design studio RAW COLOR, moderated by Angelique Spaninks (Director/Curator MU Hybrid Art House). The conversation is about how design-specific methods enable multidisciplinary collaboration and how the experiences and perceptions of others make us create something new.

Location and Registration

Sunday, 19.10.2025, 9 – 11am 
Keuken Confessies
Strijp-S
Klokgebouw 127
5617AB Eindhoven

Seats are limited – Please enroll here: 

https://www.formdesk.com/cgdus/Form_follows_Friendship2025

more information about the exhibition Next, Now, Then

The German Design Graduates initiative is showcasing final projects from German design colleges at Dutch Design Week 2025. The exhibition ‘Next, Now, Then’, curated and designed by Raw Color, asks how young talents interpret the past, perceive the present and design the future. Time is understood not only as a sequence of events, but as a material with which design works.

more information about the exhibition Next, Now, Then

September 3, 2025, 7 p.m.
Overstolzen Hall, Museum of Applied Arts Cologne (MAKK)

We cordially invite you to the opening of Dare to Design – Spaces of Care at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln. Together we will ask the question: What role can design play in times of democratic erosion and ecological crises? The exhibition focuses on design as an act of care and collective practice.

Dr. Petra Hesse, director of the MAKK, and Lutz Dietzold, managing director of the German Design Council, will open the evening with a festive ceremony. Lutz Dietzold will talk to Tobias Groß, founder and managing director of the Cologne-based Studio für Gestaltung, about the exhibition design. An interdisciplinary panel discussion with Julia Kostial, director of the German Design Museum Foundation, and mentors from academia and practice will invite guests to consider a change of perspective. We welcome Johannes Voelchert (On AG), Marte Hentschel (VORN Hub and Berlin Business and Law School), and Viktoria Lea Heinrich (design historian and doctoral candidate at Humboldt University in Berlin under Claudia Mareis) as speakers. The exhibition will then be officially opened – join the exhibitors in discovering 45 innovative projects from the fields of product and industrial design, textile and fashion design, and communication and digital design.

more information about the exhibition

Over 370 inspiring design theses from 25 universities across Germany are now available to explore on our platform. Since German Design Graduates was launched in 2018, our online archive has grown to include over 1,500 projects.

Graduates Platform

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.

Call for Entries
FAQ

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.

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.

Overview of the 2024 formats