DMY International Design Festival Berlin 2011

The DMY International Design Festival Berlin will anew take place in the impressive architecture of historic city airport Berlin Tempelhof. The central exhibition showcases pioneering and foresighted works by over 500 professional designers, brands and new talents. Reflecting on design as a full circle system, the central exhibition is accompanied by a vast program of satellite exhibitons and events such as Designer Talks, Lectures, Open Design and Material Workshops, an Award Show and numerous networking events.

While a great amount of tools has been invented to make our lives easier and more efficient, we rarely have the time to take a moment and reflect upon our daily practices: our life with things. Most of the things that surround us are a result of a design process. They are not simply given, but represent continuous development processes and thus are subject to change. Instead of just mirroring the status quo, the DMY International Design Festival highlights forward-thinking products and research-driven projects reflecting upon the social impact of contemporary product design.

Central Exhibition

Over the course of five days, over 500 international designers, brands and new talents will launch innovative products and future-oriented design projects in the impressive historic city airport Berlin Tempelhof. The spacious and light-flooded aviation hangars and the sheer endless open space will again provide an impressive backdrop for the festival’s events and exhibitions. This year, the Central Exhibition will occupy over 14.000 square meters of space and shed light upon the ideas and thinking processes that led to the final designs on show.

Design Symposium: Copy Cultures and new economies

Especially in this year’s Design Symposium, we’d like to re-open and reflect upon these processes with a thematic focus on copying and sharing cultures. In lectures and discussions with international designers, curators and scientists, the Design Symposium will raise questions about the roots and implications of the current value system built around the original and discuss its relevance in regard to the rise of new economies and a knowledge-sharing society.

DMY Maker Lab

Dedicated to open source concepts and understanding sharing as the nature of creation, the DMY Maker Lab offers hands-on approaches to the discussion: it invites visitors and designers to get involved, share knowledge and create their ‚own‘ design pieces by providing a landscape of workshops, open design presentations and tools such as laser-cutters, milling machines and 3-D printers.

Innovation Workshops

Additionally, new business-oriented Innovation Workshops will introduce designers and firms to new material developments and emerging technologies. Industry experts will offer insights to a limited number of participants and jointly develop new applications and scenarios linked to social changes and current design trends.

Finnish Design Focus

Complementing this year’s theme, the festival will present a Finnish Design Focus in close cooperation with World Design Capital Helsinki 2012, the City of Helsinki, the Finnish Institute in Germany, the Finnish Embassy in Berlin and Goethe-Institut Finnland. The Finnish focus will give a preview of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 program and will show selected works of the country’s design habitat. The works represent an admirable way of multidisciplinary thinking and co-working whilst linking tradition with the contemporary as well as closeness to nature with high-tech.

DMY Awards

To highlight the most exceptional and forward-thinking products among all exhibits, the festival jury will again assign the DMY Awards in cooperation with Bauhaus Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung. Acclaimed designers Jerszy Seymour, Jurgen Bey, Werner Aisslinger as well as Ilkka Suppanen and Catherine Geel have nominated the ten best projects and will announce the winners at the evening Award Ceremony during the festival.

Satellite exhibitions

Beyond the numerous events and showcases at the central venue, the festival will spread throughout the whole city: various galleries, museums, design studios and institutions will invite visitors to satellite exhibitions and lead them to the hidden treasures and diverse places where design is happening in Berlin.

See you in June!
 

About DMY Berlin

DMY Berlin is an international design network for contemporary product design. At the yearly DMY International Design Festival Berlin both renowned and young, experimental designers launch new products, prototypes and foresighted projects. The exhibition is accompanied by a wide program of symposia, designer-talks and workshops, able to reflect current topics of contemporary design and to reveal necessary future trends of design and its related disciplines.

Furthermore DMY yearly assigns the DMY Awards for excellent projects. With international exhibitions and activities in Europe, Asia and South America, DMY gives visibility to unconventional and innovative projects and products that go beyond the mainstream.