Embracing nature as an ally in sustainable innovation
Author: 9ve8c
Birgit Lohmann
Bridging design, research, and curatorial innovation, Birgit continues to shape contemporary design discourse.
Foreseeing the impact of digital media, in 1999 she co-founded designboom, the world’s first online magazine, illustrating information on art, architecture, and technology.
Beyond her editorial work, Birgit has contributed as a design historian for international auction houses and justice departments, while continuously engaging with the design community through lectures and exhibitions, leveraging her extensive experience in design and product development.
As of now, Lohmann is involved with various initiatives, including her new project called “NOT COMPROMISED,” which debuted at Milan Design Week 2024. The exhibition challenged perspectives on sustainability, featuring works like Boonserm Premthada’s outdoor collection made from elephant dung. Advocating for non-anthropocentric coexistence, for a world where human presence protects rather than harms, while fostering education and public dialogue in contemporary art.
David Jablonski
David is an activist, designer and co-founder of the climate visualisation collective Klimadashboard.org. He believes that the crises of our time need radical paradigm shifts across politics, economics and the way we look at the world and our role in it.
Aimed at making these transformations tangible, David’s work tells stories about our future on screen and on stage, merging technology with arts and data with emotion. He studied in Graz, Berlin and London, is one of Austria’s youth delegates at COP28 and COP29 and is running his own design practice in Vienna.
“I see design as deeply connected to society, politics, and the environment. It shapes the way we live and must evolve to meet the urgent challenges of our time.“
Amanda Pinatih
Amanda is an art historian, PhD candidate and Curator of Design and Contemporay Art at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. She revisits the museum’s collection from new perspectives, exploring the intersections between design, art, social, political, decolonial, environmental and economic issues.
Recently, she has co-curated the exhibitions Unravel: the Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, When Things are Beings and Formafantasma – Oltre Terra.
Meanwhile, as part of her PhD at VU Amsterdam, Pinatih is studying Indonesian objects related to issues of memory and belonging in diasporas, analysing their activation by contemporary artists to commemorate or reinterpret their hybrid identity. She is also co-founder of the Design Museum Dharavi in Mumbai (IN), the first museum of its kind, that was based in the homegrown neighbourhood of Dharavi.
Zoran Jedrejcic
Zoran Jedrejcic has designed for many international brands, such as 3M, Artisan, Molteni&C, Dada Cucine, Fratelli Guzzini, Gir, Nambe’, Segis, Superfos, Volumen, Woak, and Zavar, among others.
He is an Industrial Designer and Art Director from Split, Croatia, with an Italian background. After seven years of fruitful cooperation with Ettore Sottsass, he established his own design studios in Milan and, more recently, in Belgrade.
He has won many awards, including Red Dot – Best of the Best, IF Design Award, Design Plus, German Design Award, Dezeen Award, and BIG SEE Award, and his works have been exhibited in prestigious museums such as MAK Wien, MART Rovereto, ICA Boston, MoMA NY, and Ozone Centre Tokyo among others. Recently, he has been awarded as BIG SEE Visionary for the year 2021.
Simultaneously with his career in design, he has been engaged as a visiting professor at ISIA-Florence, NABA-Milano, IAAD-Torino, and the Academy of Fine Arts-Belgrade.
Laura Clèries
With 25 years of international experience, Laura combines expertise in materials science, cultural anthropology, and design futures.
She has worked across academia (NYU, UToronto, IED, Elisava), industry, and think tanks (PantoneView, WGSN), holding roles as a professor, researcher, and design leader.
Laura has curated exhibitions, conferences, and publications, contributing successfully to innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries. She holds a PhD in Materials Science, is fluent in English, French, Catalan, and Spanish, and has received numerous awards for her work. Her research focuses on content curation, innovation strategies, and color, material, and finish (CMF) design.
How to create design oriented brand?
Next Gen Design Open Call Now Live: Redesign Tomorrow, Today
The Next Gen Design Competition invites young European designers (18–35) to propose bold, sustainable solutions under the theme “Redesign Tomorrow, Today.” This initiative brings together five leading European design festivals—Mikser Festival, What Design Can Do, designaustria, Barcelona Design Week, and Skopje Design Week—to empower the next generation of circular designers.
Under the theme “Redesign Tomorrow, Today,” the competition encourages designers to propose ideas tackling pressing challenges like circular product design, urban farming, and sustainable textiles. Selected projects will feature in the Next Gen Design Traveling Exhibition, touring Europe’s leading design festivals, and winners will join the Next Gen Design Residency Program, gaining hands-on experience and collaboration opportunities.
For submission guidelines, themes, and prizes, visit nextgendesign.eu/open-call. The deadline to apply is March 30.
Next Gen Design has evolved from the Young Balkan Designers initiative and is supported by the European Commission through the Creative Europe Programme.