Eyes on the prize: The winners of the German Design Awards 2023

The results of the German Design Awards 2023 present a distillation of contemporary trends. With its broad, international scope, the GDA showcase the best in design from various different areas – from branding to packaging to digital products, from consumer goods to architecture. The awards, presented by the German Design Council, celebrate the designs that move us. In 2023, the overarching theme is represented by our confrontation with ecological and social issues. Additionally, the pandemic has also left a clear mark.

Lutz Dietzold, Managing Director of the German Design Council explains: ‘The German Design Awards make visible those companies, projects and products that move with and reflect the times, that drive sustainable solutions and provide innovative answers to an ever-changing world.’ The designed environment echoes current issues and problems – and the GDA honour achievements that respond to social and political changes with new perspectives and innovative answers.

A glance at the jury alone shows how multi-layered the awards are. It is made up of 36 personalities from various areas of the design scene. They include renowned designers such as Mark Braun, Alexander Fehre, Carole Baijings and Hanne Willmann, but also brand and strategy experts from companies such as Telekom, ProSieben and Microsoft Medical Devices. 4,200 entries from 57 countries competed across 68 categories, with the highest ‘Gold’ prize being awarded a total of 98 times this year (in addition to ‘Winner’ and ‘Special Mention’ prize categories). Backpacks, cutlery, lawnmowers, buildings, apps, toothbrushes, a power plant, as well as brand identity implementations were all among the winners. The list of Gold winners reveals a clear focus on topics that concern society as a whole and which have become particularly relevant in the last three years of pandemic.

Recent changes in the workplace have been striking. Long periods of home-office time have meant that many of us now see the office much more as a place of meeting and exchange. Instead of static walls and fixed desk spaces, employees increasingly demand flexible areas that adapt to our daily activities, changing teams and multi-layered projects. To this end, Palmberg's modular, electrified movable wall system Clamp creates customised and acoustically quiet spaces in open-plan offices whenever and wherever they are needed and, for this reason, was awarded ‘Gold’ in the ‘Product Design’ category by the GDA jury. How the use of indoor and outdoor spaces has changed is also demonstrated in the ‘Architecture’ category. Here, MVRDV's Rotterdam Rooftop Walk received the highest accolade. This temporary, 600-metre-long pedestrian bridge expands the open urban landscape without using up extra space by adding a second level to the existing urban fabric. Interior project Clinica Alejandria by Erre Arquitectura in Valencia was also awarded ‘Gold’ and is an example of how healthcare facilities can be turned into feel-good spaces. A sacred, sober and elegant space was created in the existing building, characterised by organic forms, clay mortar and a well-considered lighting design, thus conveying a sense of relaxation as opposed to one of sober hygiene.

Another current theme which found itself among the ranks of award winners was digital solutions for everyday activities and was particularly evident in projects from the ‘Communication Design’ category that were awarded gold. The Bionic Reading project, for example, seeks an innovative approach to digital reading habits by typographically highlighting the first letters of a word. As the brain completes the word, Bionic Reading thus promotes faster reading. The metaverse – the extension of our reality through virtual spaces – was also evident in the strategies of certain entries, such as in fashion retailer About You's online shop. With the label Hypewear, a virtual fashion space was created in cooperation with Dept. ‘This concept, which is still new but makes sense in view of the increasing use of social media, wants to encourage customers to reinvent themselves digitally. In times when reality has long since merged with the digital world, offering virtual fashion is only logical,’ was the jury's reasoning for awarding it the top prize.

Sustainability, of course, remains a central theme. Ecological, social and global challenges put topics such as circular economy, recycling and green energy balances at the centre of many designers' focus. Contemporary projects, such as nevi's Betula flooring made of rapidly renewable birch bark, demonstrate an environmentally motivated practice.

The portfolios of the five finalists for the German Design Awards Newcomer Prize also demonstrated how social and ecological issues also occupy the minds of younger designers. Katharina Düing, Paula Keilholz, Anna Koppmann, Tim Schütze and Tobias Trübenbacher are graduates of different disciplines at German design universities, but they share the same thematic universe: they deal with ecological, social and global challenges in their work. ‘I think, more than ever, it's about developing meaningful products,’ says product designer Tobias Trübenbacher, who has developed, among other things, a climate-neutral street lantern that reduces light pollution and generates all the energy it needs from a wind turbine.

Fashion designer Paula Keilholz, on the other hand, has tackled the subject of evening wear. ‘These garments are actually disposable because you only wear them once. I designed sustainable disposable items; garments that are starch-based and that you can only wear for one evening – but with a clear conscience.’

The winner of the Newcomer Awards have yet to be chosen. All brands, companies and products will be celebrated on 3 February 2023 during the Ambiente trade fair at the Awards Show in Frankfurt am Main, where the 'Personality of the Year', 'Public Choice Award' and the 'German Design Awards Newcomer' – with a prize of 15,000 euros – will also be announced. From 3 to 19 February, the award-winning projects can also be viewed at the Angewandte Kunst Museum, where there will also be talks and guided tours on relevant design topics. For those who cannot make it to Frankfurt, there is also a comprehensive online gallery in which all projects and award winners are documented with project descriptions as well as the reasoning behind the jury's decisions to award the respective prizes. 

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