VISITING/DEPUTY PROFESSORSHIP IN PRODUCT DESIGN, CONCEPT AND DESIGN AT THE ACADEMY OF DESIGN SCHWÄBISCH GMÜND FOR ANDREAS HESS

Since 2003 he has worked at the Academy of Design as a lecturer in the principles of design technology, a project supervisor for product design, concept and design and as a supervisor for various bachelor theses. In 2003 he founded the design and development agency whiteID with his business partner Sebastian Schnabel and for 14 years was head of design and development for the Concord brand. Their agency, whiteID, which has a team of about 10 people, works for international companies in the furniture, children’s products, capital goods and consumer electronics sectors. Companies including Audi, Wilkhahn, Nubert, Schleich, WMF, Packline, Beurer, Moll, BeSafe, Concord, Jane, Hamax showcase the breadth of the agency’s design and development spectrum. Numerous design awards including the German Design Award Gold 2011 for the Concord Transformer XT child car seat and the German Design Award Gold 2019 for the Metrik conference chair for the company Wilkhahn are testament to the design quality and technical expertise.

BASIC VALUES FOR DAILY WORK AND FOR UNIVERSITY TEACHING

Products should be relevant to users and to society, something which can be interpreted very differently from product to product and from sector to sector. However, overarching values do exist and which are of fundamental importance both for teaching and for customer-facing work – simplicity, the best possible material-benefit ratio and a logical and emotional access to the product. Ultimately users and the community should benefit from a new product. For example, a child car seat designed with 40% less volume has a huge impact on the transport chain and on daily ease of use. The same applies to a baby carrier that enables children to be carried in the correct ergonomic manner for a long period which makes parents’ daily lives so much easier, strengthens the bond between parent and child and promotes the correct development of the child’s body. Design can achieve so much in these areas. It is therefore important in both work and teaching to examine questions such as how to design a product to be so self-evident that it will simplify and enrich users’ daily lives and which also finds a logical place in its environment. “Values and content such as these in combination with clear project planning, motivating framework conditions, clear work guidelines and practical application form the basis of my teaching activity.”