“Kölner Klopfer“ to Builders Club

On November 15, 2018, the London-based design studio Builders Club has been awarded the “Kölner Klopfer“, the annual prize of KISD – Köln International School of Design for excellent national and international designers. Builders Club is focused on the creation of motion-based media from music videos and TV commercials to interactive experiences and combine filmed content with animation.

“Builders Club are producing excellent pieces of work in the realm of motion, animation, and film. What characterizes them is that they deal with time, substances, and physics through slow-motion shots and photorealistic animation. The studio succeeds in generating hybrid realities which manage to balance the unnatural with the real world. Their pieces do not only utilize a visually unique language, but also create inimitable atmospheres,“ as the KISD student jury stressed in their decision.

The design studio Builders Club was founded by Julien Simshäuser and Jona Hegi and is located in the East End of London. Through experimenting with modern technologies, the studio tries to spot new artistic possibilities and tell unique stories. Among their clients are Vice, I-D, MTV and various fashion brands such as Burberry, Gucci, Hermès, and Yves Saint Laurent.

The “Kölner Klopfer”:

Since 1996, students of KISD – Köln International School of Design honor outstanding and distinguished domestic and international designers through the “Kölner Klopfer” prize for their efforts and works in the realm of design. In a plenary meeting and subsequent election, candidates are chosen, elected by secret ballot with the winner finally awarded with the “Kölner Klopfer.”
Awardees of the “Kölner Klopfer“ have been so far:
Erik Spiekermann (1996), Axel Kufus (1997), Droog Design (1998), Anna Castelli Ferrieri (1999), Motoko Ishii (2000), John Maeda (2001), James Auger (2002), Heinz Bähr (2005), Stefan Sagmeister, Ingo Maurer (2009), Dieter Rams (2010), Erik Kessels (2011), R. & E. Bouroullec (2012), Eike König (2013), Jerszy Seymour (2014), Sarah Illenberger (2015), Mike Meiré (2016), and Henrik Vibskov (2017).