We’ve got no shortage of interesting topics to help you fight the November blues! Sadly, the exhibition on the Baden-Württemberg International Design Award FOCUS OPEN 2021 has come to an end – but the good news is that you can explore it virtually from now on! The current 30 Years of the Baden-Württemberg International Design Award exhibition is still open to the public in the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart. Our Design Story about family-run company WIHA is impressive proof of just how vibrant technical innovation can be. And last but not least, we’ve got some more book tips from our Design Library for you.

Happy reading!
The Design Center team
 

The exhibition on this year’s Baden-Württemberg International Design Award Focus Open 2021 at the museum in Ludwigsburg was a complete success and drew a great many visitors despite the special conditions it had to be held under.

For all those of you who didn’t manage to experience this year’s award-winning products in person or simply can’t get enough when it comes to outstanding design, we’re delighted to offer you another attractive option: As of now, you can experience the entire exhibition virtually via the Design Center Baden-Württemberg’s website in the form of a digital 3D tour. Have fun exploring!

Click here for the tour.

All the award-winning products are also presented in the comprehensive Focus Open 2021 yearbook (in both German and English). Top-quality images and detailed product descriptions are supplemented by vivid commentary and assessments from the jury.

Published by Design Center Baden-Württemberg
Verlag avedition, Stuttgart
ISBN 978-3-89986-354-3

Find out more about this year’s award winners here.
 

Wiha develops and produces hand tools for the international market. The family-run company in Schonach cultivates close ties with its target group – which it surprises time and time again with user-friendly innovations. No wonder Wiha products are a regular feature in the Focus Open awards!

Find out more here.
 

 

Our retrospective exhibition 30 Years of the Baden-Württemberg International Design Award is open to the public until 28 January 2022.
We’ve put together a selection of award-winning products from 1991 to 2021. With nearly 90 exhibits from three decades, the exhibition at the Haus der Wirtschaft in Stuttgart will take you on a journey back in time through the design award’s history.

Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 11.00 – 18.00
Please note that your visit is subject to the state of Baden-Württemberg’s current corona regulations.

Find out more here.
 

Despite the current corona situation, visitors are still welcome at our Design Library!

From 30 November 2021, the library will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Please notify us of your visit in advance.

Click here for details of how to make an appointment.
 

BRAND NEW BRAND
Restarting Your Business in a Time of Crisis and Transformation
Authors / Eds. Robert Klanten, Andrea Servert
Berlin, gestalten 2021

How can small businesses make huge impacts? If a picture is worth a thousand words, then branding is the visual tool that commands attention and asks to be noticed. Brand New Brand presents the most successful business branding in recent years. Collecting the best in class examples, it illustrates how well-curated, holistic branding can take a butcher’s, bookstore, bakery, or even a physiotherapist from the bottom of the pile to the top of the range. No matter if you’re launching a new venture or giving your business a makeover, creativity is intrinsic to success and Brand New Brand is the handbook that shows how to stand out and be noticed. Rifle through an expertly curated selection of case studies from those built on a small budget, others focusing on sustainable approaches, and many which blaze a trail.


Im Zeichen des Bauhauses 1919-2019
Kunst und Technik im Digital Turn  (in German)
Authors / Eds. Siegfried Gronert and Thilo Schwer
Stuttgart, avedition Verlag 2020

The motto Walter Gropius chose for the first Bauhaus exhibition in the Haus Am Horn in Weimar in 1923 was “Art and technology – a new unity”. However, at the Weimar Bauhaus of the 1920s, the integration of the two fields did not only meet with enthusiastic support but with passionate opposition too – a controversy that continues to this day. The collection of essays reflects on basic questions of the Weimar period, as well as on developments that have emerged from it since the 1950s – at Ulm School of Design (HfG Ulm) for instance – and uses the discourses to shed light on the challenges of the digital age. With contributions by Katia Baudin, Michael Braun, Meret Ernst, Annette Geiger, Siegfried Gronert, Franziska Lampe, Julia Meer, Robin Rehm, Theres Rohde and René Spitz.
About the editors: Prof. Dr. Siegfried Gronert is chairman of the GfDg (German Design History Society) and an honorary professor at universities in China. From 1993 to 2011 he taught design history and theory at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Dr. Thilo Schwer is a product designer and design scientist. He has been teaching design theory, design methodology and the theory of product language since 2011.


Italic
What gives Typography its emphasis
Author / Ed. Hendrik Weber
Salenstein, niggli Verlag 2021

The use of italic letters as means of accentuation has become common practice in the digital age. They convey movement and dynamics, address the emotional experience of reading and remind of handwriting. However, this lively characteristic, which once resulted from the movement of the hand, is noticeably lost when words are simply tilted by a mouse click. To impart knowledge about this typographic feature and to find a general definition as writing style, the author has compiled style patterns to examine the tangible forms, characteristics and functions of “italic nature”. Furthermore, he deals intensively with the historical development of italics from handwriting to digital typesetting. This monograph is the first detailed treatise on this topic, and is aimed at all those who deal with letters professionally or privately.