- The winners of the German Design Award 2023 will be honored on 03rd of February
- From February 04th to the 09.02th, the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt will showcase an array of award-winning products and concepts.
- Complementary Penal Talks are intended to promote the discourse on forward-looking design and enable knowledge transfer
The German Design Council has been presenting the German Design Award since 2012 to honor pioneering products and innovative projects in 68 categories in the three subject areas Excellent Product Design, Excellent Communications Design and Excellent Architecture. This year, the interdisciplinary and independent expert jury evaluated 4.200 submissions from German and international companies from 57 countries. A total of 98 times gold was awarded - the highest distinction of the award. Incidentally, the countries to watch that have been able to position themselves at the forefront of innovation are Germany, China, Austria and Italy.
"The German Design Award highlights those companies, projects and products that keep up with the transformations of our time, drive sustainable solutions and provide innovative answers to a constantly changing world," says Lutz Dietzold, CEO of the German Design Council. The wide range of winners clearly shows that more and more companies and designers are dealing with the political, social and ecological challenges of our time. That they question changes and develop new perspectives in order to change the status quo instead of manifesting it.
German Design Award 2023: Center for future-oriented design and changemaker
As part of an award show on February 03rd, 2023, precisely these changemakers will be honored at Ambiente. These include industry giants such as About You and Duravit, as well as agencies and startups. And the winners of the Personality of the Year, German Design Award Newcomer and Public Choice Award awards will also be announced during the award ceremony. As every year, we anticipate the Newcomer Awards with particular excitement, as emerging talent has the potential to proactively steer the future of our planet in a positive direction through design. Therefore, a small overview of this year's finalists:
Katharina Düing, Tim Schütze, Paula Keilholz, Anna Koppmann & Tobias Trübenbacher / Source & Copyright by the German Design Council (German Design Award)
- Katharina Düing: Illustrator and graphic designer who translates social issues such as discrimination, diversity, feminism, social justice and mental health into graphic novels and other formats.
- Paula Keilholz: Transformational designer exploring the interaction between material and functional properties of fashion and their value creation processes to promote an ecological and socially sustainable fashion industry.
- Anna Koppmann: Product designer who examines the sociocultural context to find answers to the problems of our time.
- Tim Schütze: Impact product designer who promotes sustainability, equality and diversity through gender-sensitive design.
- Tobias Trübenbacher: Social designer who designs products to contribute to a change in production and consumption habits and thus to a more sustainable and viable future.
*End Note: In the end, Tobias Trübenbacher won the Newcomer of the Year Award.
The exhibition and panel discussions make the German Design Award 2023 a stage for discourse and knowledge transfer
Since the award-winning projects stand for economic and cultural change and represent contemporary perspectives and design directions, they will be open to the public after the award show. From February 04th to 19th, the German Design Award exhibition will provide an overview of the awarded projects in the Museum Angewandte Kunst. It also includes guided tours of the Museum of Applied Arts and three penal talks, which are intended to advance the discourse on current design topics. The topic is therefore, for example, "New materials - is the industry ready for the young people's goals of Gen Z?" or "Think smart, build modular! About prefabricated components, modular timber construction and innovation potential in architecture".
What's next?
While it remains exciting, who will win the three additional prizes on February 03.02rd. One thing is certain: design has the potential to promote sustainability. And more and more designers are recognizing their responsibility to develop new production methods and design approaches. It is therefore all the more important that the German Design Council offers both established and up-and-coming designers and companies an international platform. A platform that gives innovative ideas scope, enables exchange and provides important impetus for the global economy.
You can find an overview of all award winners here.
