Two of the four awards for emerging designers—presented in early December as part of the 2019 Rhineland-Palatinate Design Award ceremony for outstanding product design—went to Mainz University of Applied Sciences.
The award went to the “FÄN” lighting series—consisting of pendant, table, and floor lamps—designed by Sonia Hilpert and Tobias Böminghaus as part of their bachelor’s program in interior design. The lamps’ simple, minimalist design, their visual impact in a room, and their construction using an intriguing material—a flexible wood-based panel—impressed the jury. The project was created as part of the “Material as a Design Impulse” series in collaboration with partner Vollmer/Dukta and was supervised by Prof. Bernd Benninghoff.
Carolin Müller won another award for her original project “Saul—Transformation of a Stage Set into Unique Pieces of Furniture,” which explores the transformation from temporary to permanent art, from a theatrical production to an everyday object. Unique pieces of furniture related to the play are created from set pieces used in staged theater productions, which are typically discarded. The master’s thesis, titled “When the Final Curtain Falls,” was completed as part of the master’s program in Spatial Communication and was supervised by Prof. Bernd Benninghoff and Prof. Antje Krauter.
At the event, which took place at the Sayner Hütte in Bendorf with 120 invited guests, a total of seven design awards were presented in the categories “Professionals” (three awards) and “Talent” (four awards), as well as four “Honorable Mentions.”
The Rhineland-Palatinate Product Design Competition, which has been held since 1994, honors outstanding and exemplary products from the skilled trades and industry. For 25 years, the award has been presented by the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, represented by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Economic Affairs, and organized in cooperation with the Koblenz Chamber of Crafts and DESCOM – Design Forum Rhineland-Palatinate.
Saul – Transformation of a stage set into one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture; Photo: Carolin Müller
