Kölner Design Preis (Cologne Design Prize)

Expected November 20st to 29th 2025

The Cologne Design Prize is one of the most coveted  awards for young graduates of design courses at Cologne universities. It honors the most innovative and outstanding graduation projects - the design of the future. 

This award is a significant contribution both to supporting young design talent and to promoting Cologne’s profile as a design centre of international importance. The Cologne Design Prize was founded in 2008 by Prof. Dr Richard G. Winkler and Prof. Dr Michael Erlhoff, Dean of the Department of Design at Cologne University of Applied Sciences (now the Köln International School of Design – KIS). Thanks to the generous funding from the Winkler Foundation, the prize is now the most highly endowed of its kind in Europe.

The “Cologne Design Prize 2024” was awarded on November 21, 2024 at the Museum of Applied Arts Cologne (MAKK) as part of a festive award ceremony and exhibition opening. The prize was awarded to the best graduation projects from design courses at Cologne's universities - the design of the future. With prize money of €38,000, the “Cologne Design Award” is the most coveted and most highly endowed award for design graduates in Europe.

We would like to thank the Prof. Dr.-Ing. R.G. Winkler Foundation for the generous prize money. In addition, a prize of 6,000 euros will be awarded by KölnBusiness.

A total of 43 theses from the following Cologne universities were nominated for the award this year:
ecosign - Academy of Design, Macromedia University, KHM - Academy of Media Arts, KISD - Cologne International School of Design at TH Köln, Rheinische Hochschule (RH).

The exhibition of all nominated final projects will take place at the Museum of Applied Arts Cologne (MAKK) until December 1, 2024, admission is free.

The winners of the Cologne Design Award 2024 are

1st prize (12,000 €)
Cows make trouble (Theresa Tropschuh, KISD)
Alongside CO2 pollution of the atmosphere, inorganic nutrient pollution of water bodies as a result of factory farming is one of the greatest environmental burdens. In a transdisciplinary research process, Theresa Tropschuh has developed and realized a photobioreactor in which excess nitrates and phosphorus are converted into energy-rich, organic biomass with the help of microalgae and bacteria. As CO2 is also transformed into oxygen in the process, the work “Cows make trouble” contributes to significantly reducing the emissions generated in agriculture. In the jury's opinion, the work is outstanding in terms of relevance, concept and execution.

2nd prize (9,000 €)
Pain in the system (Serin Gatzweiler, KISD)
Gender equality is not only a question of language and how we treat each other, but also an urgent task for product development. There, the male standard body has always been the measure of all things. In her thesis “Pain in the system”, Serin Gatzweiler draws attention to the resulting, life-threatening undesirable developments in the field of pharmaceutical research and production, both in terms of content and form. With the help of oversized packaging and package inserts, the magnitude of the problem becomes clearly visible. Shocking, reflective and cleverly implemented, as the jury emphasized in its statement.

3rd prize (6.000 €)
The Hands Problem (Kristina Lenz, Alex Simon Klug, KHM)
Until recently, AI-generated images of people could be recognized by their deformed hands, which often had six fingers. With “The Hands Problem”, Kristina Lenz and Alex Simon capture this bug as a historical moment. In several steps, they transform the AI-generated images into three-dimensional cast concrete slabs. In this way, artifacts reminiscent of ancient body fossils are created. According to the jury, the archaeological imprints of this AI development stage are not only aesthetically convincing, but also subtly remind us of our inimitable uniqueness, even if the hand problem seems to have been solved in the meantime. 

3rd prize (6.000 €)
Memories from Above (Jannik Bussmann, KISD)
Our perception and evaluation of world events is often based on a regional mono-perspective, which is also due to the fact that views from other regions of the world are not so easily accessible to us. In his thesis “Memories from Above”, Jannik Bussmann uses various analytical methods and technologies such as remote sensing, geographic imaging and ChatGPT to gain new insights from publicly accessible data available worldwide. The result is 60 memory landscapes that provide us with an unusual spatial dimension of events reported in various news programs. At the same time, this enables a new critical classification of media reporting.

Special Mentions (2 x 2,500 €)
Libraries inspire (Maxime Ridzewski, KISD)
In times like ours, when democracy is under particular strain, the so-called third places are of particular importance: places of encounter that are safe and need to be secured. With her project “Inspiring libraries”, Maxime Ridzewski directs our attention to so-called area libraries, i.e. libraries in rural areas. An analog toolkit developed in cooperation with librarians is intended to enable them to identify individual needs and develop future perspectives. A digital platform enables libraries to network with each other. In the jury's opinion, raising awareness of these third places deserves an award.

Univercity (Anke Kirchhoff, ecosign Academy of Design)
The construction, operation and demolition of buildings currently account for around 40 percent of CO2 emissions throughout the world. The urgently needed decarbonization will therefore not succeed without the involvement of the construction industry, including architecture. It is therefore all the more surprising that sustainability is only slowly finding its way into the curriculum of architecture courses. With “Univercity”, Anke Kirchhoff has developed an analogue toolkit and an app that promotes international exchange and sensitizes prospective architects to climate-resilient and resource-conserving construction. An important, long overdue project.

Cologne Business Prize (€ 6,000)
Artist's cabin (Rike Hoppse, KHM)
Setting the stage for disciplines. Rike Hoppse has created a mobile, public space for various events in the form of the “Künstler*innenkabine” - a former flower sales trolley. Whether as a podium, workshop or exhibition space, the “Künstler*innenkabine” can be used flexibly. This creates a temporary framework for unconventional encounters. The low-threshold use of the cabin and the interactive and participatory approach immediately appealed to the jury.

On October 25, 2024, an independent jury selected the winning projects from all 43 nominated final projects. The 2024 jury members are:
Katja Becker (Professor of Media and Interface Design at the Westfälische Hochschule), Tanja Godlewsky (Freelance Creative Director; Professor of Media Design at the International University of Applied Sciences Essen), Karen Hartwig (Editor-in-Chief AW Architektur & Wohnen), Dustin Jessen (Designer), Stephan Ott (Director Institute for Design Research and Appliance / IfDRA).

The award ceremony, the exhibition and the digital presence (www.koelnerdesignpreis.de) of the “Kölner Design Preis” will be designed by students of the KISD - Köln International School of Design at TH Köln.