“Kölner Design Preis”: First and Third Place for KISD Graduates

Two Other KISD Graduate Projects Receive “Jury’s Distinguished Recognition”

KISD graduate Max Pietro Hoffman has won the Kölner Design Preis 2016. The annual award honors the best and most innovative final theses of graduates of Cologne-based design and art schools. Hoffmann’s BA thesis “Means of Digital Images” was selected best among 27 overall nominated graduates’ thesis and was ranked “first place” at the award ceremony (November 3, MAKK, Museum for Applied Arts Cologne). Two other success stories for KISD – Köln International School of Design, an institute of TH Köln: KISD graduates Ilja Burzev and Evgenii Krivoruchko were ranked “third place” for their joint thesis “A Study in Interactive Mechanics for Virtual Reality”. Two “Jury’s Distinguished Recognition”-awards for KISD graduates Dorothee Clasen for “Cirquids” and Marcel Oelschläger for “ethi.cal” contributed to the excellent KISD result.

At Kölner Design Preis, KISD – Köln International School of Design was represented by 14 nominated works. Ranked second best by the jury was Christian Zipf from ifs international filmschule köln for his thesis “Der einsame Hof”. Another three of overall five jury’s distinguished recognitions went to Arkadij Khaet (“Durch den Vorhang, Hochschule Macromedia), Lukas Stevens (“In guten wie in schlechten Tagen”, Rheinische Fachhochschule Cologne), and Laura Quarz (“quarz.sand”, ecosign).

KISD director Wolfgang Laubersheimer said: “We are very pleased by the excellent result of KISD and very much appreciate the efforts and final theses of our nominated students here in the context of this annual award – this is a great honor for us as an institution. All in all, there were 27 wonderful and intriguing theses the jury had to assess and it soon could find a unanimous overall evaluation. This year, as a matter of fact, we could succeed, and in cooperation with the other institutions involved, in successfully carrying forward the Kölner Design Preis.”

Kölner Design Preis:
The Kölner Design Preis as an annual award honors the best and most innovative final theses of graduates of Cologne-based design and art schools and successfully contributes to further strengthening the city’s reputation as a domestically and internationally renowned hot spot in the arts. It also actively promotes the support of young talents in art and design and fosters their unique and innovative project ideas.

In 2016, it is a joint project by KISD, ecosign Academy, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Rheinische Fachhochschule Cologne, and ifs internationale filmschule köln.

In 2016, the jury consists of Dr. Petra Hesse (director of MAKK Museum Cologne), Nils Holger Moormann (Managing Director, Nils Holger Moormann Ltd.), Claudia Neumann (Managing Director, Neumann-Communication), Stephan Ott (Editor-in-Chief of “form”-magazine), Ulrich Soénius (Managing Director IHK Cologne, for Design Prize International), and Prof. Ralph Sommer (Professor for Concept Design, University of Fine Arts of Hamburg). This year, 27 project works/final theses were approved for final selection. All 27 nominated works will be exhibited at MAKK from November 4 to November 27.

Award-winning KISD final theses:
First place: Max Pietro Hoffmann: “Means of Digital Images”
Hoffmanns’s BA thesis is an analysis of the medium of photography and the repercussions of its digitization. Hoffmann thereby deals with selected digital processes and techniques and their correlations to production and handling of digital images, their availability, transformability and the changing character of users’ behavior.

Third place: Ilja Burzev und Evgenii Krivoruchko: “A Study in Interactive Mechanics for Virtual Reality“

In recent times, “Virtual Reality”-tools are more and more capturing the market and the attention of users and society. However, the overall impact of those Virtual Reality tools on our globalized and digitized society, is still unclear. Burzev’s and Krivoruchko’s thesis copes with past and current developments and trends and provides a speculative view on the future of technology and innovation, chances and risks, action and interaction of Virtual Reality.

Jury’s Distinguished Recognition:
Dorothee Clasen: “Cirquids”: an analysis of the newly developed printing technique of “Cirquids”, printing of electronic devices on flexible surfaces

Marcel Oelschläger: “ethi.cal”: an information system for ethical consumption; a decision-making tool for consumers

Kölner Design Preis (Cologne Design Award)
2016 Award Ceremony
taken place on November 3, 2016, in Museum of Applied Arts Cologne (Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln, MAKK), An der Rechtschule, 50667 Cologne
Exhibition of All Nominated Theses/Projects: November 4 – November 27, for detailed opening hours see and more information: www.koelnerdesignpreis.de