Form & Function

Berlin, 1 October 2024 - Creativity is an essential basis for innovation. This has also been demonstrated by the stakeholders in Berlin’s design industry. As part of the “Berlin Design Innovation Challenge” they were honoured for their approaches and formats in the areas of “Community Building” and “International”. In the eight episodes of the new Berlin Partner podcast “Form & Function” you can get to know all the stakeholders and their understanding of design better and delve deeper into their concepts. The podcast appears weekly and has been available on the well-known streaming platforms Spotify, Deezer and Apple as well as on Podigee since 17 September 2024.

Designers should not only be seen as suppliers of “beauty”, but also as macroeconomic drivers for cross-cluster innovation processes. If the impulses are taken up by the economy, it enables mutual learning. New products, applications and services, but also companies as a whole, must now meet comprehensive requirements in order to be successful: Products should not only fulfil the expected functions, but also constantly offer new ones, be intuitive to use and meet increased ecological requirements.

A methodically oriented service offered by the creative industries is User Experience Design (UX). This is about shaping a person’s experience and perception of a product, service or online offer. To achieve this, proven scientific methods are required to analyse the processes, products and behaviour of users in order to provide advisory support based on this. Especially in times of progressive and comprehensive digitalisation, new opportunities arise to make digital content easy to understand, intuitive and accessible. This also includes shaping the customer experience around a product or service by embedding it in a well-rounded, interesting story, e.g. through digital storytelling. Berlin Partner has therefore integrated UX/UI as a separate field of innovation in the media and creative industries cluster in order to support Berlin SMEs from all industries in making their digital applications as personalised, transparent and inclusive as possible.

Unlike in Frankfurt or Munich, the new design concept for Berlin is therefore a heterogeneous one, which is also reflected in the award-winning concepts of the “Berlin Design Innovation Challenge”, which are presented in the new podcast “Form & Function”: There are events that deal more specifically with a design discipline such as UX/UI or Service Design, or those that take a more comprehensive approach and deal with circular design and the interfaces between design, business and science.

The Berlin Design Innovation Challenge is a competition organised by the Senate Department for Economic Affairs, which has awarded seven design events with prizes of up to 370,000 Euro. The competition was held for the first time and is intended to support Berlin’s diverse design scene in professionalising its formats. The awards were given to concepts that have not yet taken place as well as to existing formats.

The awards were presented in two categories:

• “International attention”: these concepts should have the potential to develop a lighthouse character and attract international guests to the city
• “Community building and knowledge transfer”: aims to give Berlin’s diverse design scene, which is largely organised in meet-ups, the opportunity to professionalise and consolidate its activities

These are the award winners

International Attention Category

Hatch Conference 2024 - endowed with 100,000 Euro; 4-6 September 2024
The Hatch Conference is the international conference for experts in the field of UX and product design. More than 500 participants exchange ideas in workshops and master classes. The conference is a think tank and hub for European product design and positions Berlin as a globally relevant location for the design industry. It is being held for the third time.

HOLITOPIA 24 – endowed with 100,000 Euro; 11-22 September 2024

HOLITOPIA 24 is a festival for Future Design that addresses questions of future design and the redefinition of the concept of design at the interface of science, technology and art. Topics such as climate, resources, migration and technological change are dealt with in an interdisciplinary and comprehensive manner in symposia, exhibitions and lectures.

Loops – endowed with 20,000 Euro, series of events from April-July 2024

Loops is a series of events at TU Berlin in which the social, critical and transformative potential of design is discussed in panels. The format serves to identify technological developments such as Generative AI and Extended Reality and their social, economic and ecological challenges and potential at an early stage. 

Community building and knowledge transfer

iF Design Trend Conference 2024-endowed with 50,000 Euro; 30 April 2024 (has already taken place at the time of recording)

The iF Design Trend Conference is the event for designers and industry experts to find out about global and interdisciplinary design trends and their significance for the future. The conference is being held under the motto “How can design help drive the transformation towards a future worth living?” to mark the publication of the iF Trend Report and the presentation of the iF Design Awards in Berlin. The iF Award is the world’s most important prize for product design and is presented in Berlin.

iF Design GmbH is based in Hanover due to its historical connection with the Hannover Messe, but deliberately organises its events in Berlin, as it believes that Berlin is the only city that has the potential to attract international guests to Germany. iF is primarily an internationally relevant brand with various offices in Asia.

Project Service Design Berlin - endowed with 50,000 Euro 

The Project Service Design Berlin is an amalgamation of existing Berlin service design initiatives. Service Design is the design of services in both the private and public sectors. At events and in other formats, the exchange on Service Design methods is to be promoted in order to increase the influence on society, business and government. The aim is also to strengthen Berlin’s position as a Service Design metropolis and to network and expand the Service Design community in the city. 

Several Berlin Service Design initiatives are united under the “Project Service Design”, including:

·         Service Design Drinks: monthly meet-up on a specific topic

·         Service Design Jam: every two years, a two-day workshop festival on the topic of Service Design 

• Service Design Day: One-day event on Service Design planned for June

Berlin Design Circles - endowed with 25,000 Euro; series of events
The Berlin Design Circles are an exchange and networking format of the berlin design network e.V. They are intended to increase the visibility of the Berlin design scene, promote innovation, cooperation and sustainability and create a joint platform for design expertise that goes beyond traditional organisational boundaries. The Design Circles involve stakeholders from business, science and administration. 

Future-proof through sustainable design – Ecodesign in theory & practice - endowed with 25,000 Euro, closing event expected between 20-24 September

A series of events organised by the Internationalen Design Zentrum Berlin e.V. (IDZ), which prepares the implications of the Ecodesign Directive and the right to reparability, as well as circular design methods, for companies and agencies in a target group-orientated manner. Participants are taught circular economy methods in workshops. The final event presents best practices from the fields of product, service and communication design. 

The IDZ has been organising the Federal Ecodesign Award together with the Federal Ministry for the Environment for several years now.