NEXT, NOW, THEN – LOOKING BACK AND THINKING AHEAD
German Design Graduates @ Dutch Design Week
October 18–26, 2025, Eindhoven
Daily from 11 AM to 6 PM
Area 51, Ketelhuisplein 18, 5617 AE Eindhoven
PRESS AND NETWORK EVENT
Sunday, October 19, 9:30–11 AM
Keuken Confessies
Registration link: https://www.formdesk.com/cgdus/Form_follows_Friendship2025
Time is the unseen fourth dimension. It passes, progresses and shapes, while we shape it. Next,
Now, Then presents selected graduation projects from design schools across Germany. They show
how design today moves within contradictions: It serves society and economy, yet struggles between
consumption and responsibility. Some projects draw from natural knowledge or traditional craft to
create resources for the present. Others respond to urgent conditions of daily life, with new ideas for mobility, safety and care. Looking ahead, the exhibits address the legacy of plastic, the treatment of animals, and the silence around conflict, while technological change reshapes what we call work, creativity, and identity. This exhibition wants to grant the future leaders of our design culture the necessary space-time continuum.
Christoph Brach & Daniera ter Haar from RAW COLOR design studio have selected 24 works and will
showcase them in a specifically conceived exhibition design at Area 51 (indoor skate park) in
Eindhoven.
Among others, the following projects are presented, which exemplify the variety of the works:
waiting for the bus (Luca Ortmann, Berlin University of the Arts) transforms temporary replacement
bus stops into an inviting and easy-to-assemble waiting environment with its own identity, using three
flexibly arranged steel tube elements.
Wake up, the war has started (Alexandra Heider, Schwäbischer Gmünd University of Design) shows
the fate of Ukrainian refugees in the form of documentaries of personal stories. The result is a visual statement for empathy and differentiation in the social discourse on flight.
PLASTIC HUMANS (Julian Stadlmeyer, DHBW Ravensburg) envisions a speculative future scenario
that makes the invisible burden of microplastics on our bodies visible.
