
70 Years German Design Council
Past - Present - Future
70 YEARS OF THE GERMAN DESIGN COUNCIL - 70 YEARS OF DESIGN CULTURE
»Creating Community« Third German Design Debate
For 70 years now, the Frankfurt-based German Design Council Foundation has been contributing to communication, knowledge transfer, networking and promotion in all areas of the design process. Countless initiatives, concepts and formats have been created worldwide that connect design with business, science, culture and politics.
The Third German Design Debate
»CREATING COMMUNITY«
The event will be attended by collectives and personalities who are bringing about social and economic change through their work. They will reflect on the core areas with which the German Design Council has been concerned since its foundation - economy, culture, science and education - and present their visions for a livable and fairer future. Cross-disciplinary work, the bundling of many competences and the constant growth of networks are examples of the paradigm shift that can be observed over the last few years: solutions, concepts and products that are created by collectives, in collaborations, in teams or through cooperations are experiencing an ever greater urgency, visibility and recognition.
With this debate, the German Design Council would like to focus on these developments and reveal the connecting and fundamental characteristics for change from the broad field of design.
Event programme
All citizens, designers, entrepreneurs, cultural and art professionals, students - all interested parties are cordially invited.
When: Thursday, 22 June 2023, 5 - 7.30 p.m., followed by reception
Venue: Paulskirche, Frankfurt am Main – This event is free of charge
> Admission from 4.30 p.m.
> Start of the event 5.00 p.m.
Greetings and opening by:
David Kusuma, President World Design Organization, Canada
Prof. Mike Richter, President of the German Design Council
Lutz Dietzold, Managing Director of the German Design Council
Young Designers Circle, represented by, among others, Kimia Amir-Moazami
> "Third German Design Debate – CREATING COMMUNITY"
> 19.30-19.45: End of the event
> Followed by a reception in the Rotunda of the Paulskirche
Speeches held in English will be translated in German by simultaneous interpreters.
Speeches held in German be translated in English by simultaneous interpreters.
What to expect
We are looking forward to some of the most inspiring personalities of our time who will address the role of design from very different angles:
Sunny Dolat will explore design as an identity-shaping task in Africa; John Maeda will delve into the unifying aspects of AI; Kate Crawford will critically examine ground-breaking new technologies; Hartmut Esslinger will advocate for a new design education based on his many years of experience as one of the best-known product designers worldwide; the Young Designers Circle of the World Design Organization (WDO), represented by Kimia Amir-Moazami, among others, will share their insights into the responsibilities that fall to the younger generation to create a future worth living. Additionally, we are excited to welcome David Kusuma, President of the WDO, of which The German Design Council is a founding member.

Professor Kate Crawford is a leading international scholar of the social implications of artificial intelligence. She is a Research Professor at USC Annenberg in Los Angeles, a Senior Principal Researcher at MSR in New York, an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney, and the inaugural Visiting Chair for AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Her latest book, Atlas of AI (Yale, 2021) won among other the Sally Hacker Prize from the Society for the History of Technology and was named one of the best books in 2021 by New Scientist and the Financial Times.
Over her twenty-year research career, she has also produced groundbreaking creative collaborations and visual investigations. Her project Anatomy of an AI System with Vladan Joler is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the V&A in London. Her collaboration with the artist Trevor Paglen, Excavating AI, won the Ayrton Prize from the British Society for the History of Science.
She has advised policy makers in the United Nations, the White House, and the European Parliament, and she currently leads the Knowing Machines Project, an international research collaboration that investigates the foundations of machine learning.

Sunny Dolat is an accomplished cultural producer, creative director, and fashion curator. As the co-founder of the Nest Collective, he actively promotes art and culture in Kenya. He challenges social and political issues and is particularly concerned in his work with Africa’s place in global and cultural debates and dialogues.
Dolat has worked in various capacities within the creative and cultural industries in Eastern Africa and is active in numerous advisory bodies. He was serving as a creative strategy manager at HEVA Fund – Africa’s first creative business fund of its kind – and he headed the Textile & Apparel sector in Kenya for the SheTrades in the Commonwealth program, with a focus on fashion and decorative home.
Dolat's most recent achievement was his participation in the curatorial team that put together the Africa Fashion exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. With the Nest Collective he presentend an installation at the documenta 15. He currently resides in Nairobi, Kenya.

Hartmut Esslinger is one of the most influential industrial designers worldwide, having founded the first global design agency, frog design, with his partner Patricia Roller in 1969. Today, it boasts well over 30 locations spread across multiple continents. He was the first designer to bring user-friendly and appealing high-touch-design into the world of digital communications and media technology.
After his initial successes with WEGA, he helped companies such as Louis Vuitton, Sony, and SAP to achieve global prominence with frog design and its hundreds of creative collaborators. His cooperation with Steve Jobs, beginning in 1982, set the course for Apple’s international success and signaled the beginning of an in-depth examination of design in the USA.
In 2017, he received the World Design Medal as the most influential designer over the course of the World Design Organization’s 60-year history. Esslinger also has a long history with the German Design Council: in 1969, he won the first-ever design award “Gute Form” (English: Good Form) from the Federal Republic of Germany.

WDO President-Elect David Kusuma is the former Senior Vice President of Product Management & Innovation at Oregon Tool. Prior to this, David served as the Vice President of Research & Innovation and Vice President of Product Development Worldwide at Tupperware Brands Corporation. During his tenure, he was tasked with subverting conventional boundaries of innovation by developing new technologies and materials to create game-changing product solutions.
The World Design Organization is an international non-governmental organization that promotes the profession of industrial design and its ability to generate better products, systems, services, and experiences; better business and industry; and ultimately a better environment and society.

John Maeda is a leading American technologist in the field of product experience for consumers and enterprises. He was an early catalyst for generative art and computational design for commercial applications across Web2 and Web3. Maeda was the first recipient of White House’s National Design Award for algorithmically-generated visualisations informed by data + AI.
He is currently serving as Vice President of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft, in addition to his further roles as book author, online influencer, and investor in diverse start-ups. Maeda has served previously as Chief Technology Officer at Everbridge; on the Sonos board of directors; on the Wieden+Kennedy board of directors; as a Partner at Kleiner Perkins; as Data Visualization Lead at the MIT Media Lab; as Head of Design + Inclusion at Automattic; as Executive Vice President and Chief Experience Officer at Publicis Sapient; and as the 16th President/CEO of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Maeda’s presence in the following media sources comes in the form of writings, interviews, and talks: the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TED, BBC, CNN, The Economist, Forbes, and USA Today. The honours that he has received include three honorary doctorate degrees, TIME Best Twitter 140, White House National Design Award, Fast Company Masters of Innovation, LinkedIn Top 10 US Influencer, Esquire 75 Most Influential of the 21st Century, and the Tribeca Film Festival Disruptor Award for launching the STEM to STEAM movement in the USA.

Rebecca Caroline Schmidt has been Managing Director of the Research Center “Normative Orders” at Goethe University since November 2012. In this capacity, she is responsible for the coordination of the scientific center and at the same time works at the interface between science, science management and knowledge transfer. In 2020, she also took over the administrative management of the newly founded research institute "Social Cohesion" and the administrative coordination of the cluster project "ConTrust – Trust with Conflict" of the State of Hesse.