As a long-standing supporter of outstanding design, RIMOWA is pleased to continue its commitment to emerging talent with the fourth edition of the RIMOWA Design Prize. The annual competition for students, which is supported by leading German design universities and a top-class jury, concluded with an awards ceremony in the renowned Berlin Cultural Forum, moderated by Valerie Präkelt. In addition to the jury members, personalities such as Peri Baumeister, Noah Becker, Luisa Gaffron, Paula Hartmann, Ting Ting Lai, Heike Makatsch, Sven Marquardt, Louis Philippson, Thilo Reich, Justus Riesner, Anna Rommel, Gina Stiebitz, Lina Larissa Strahl, Max Strohe and Langston Uibel were present. The finalists’ projects are open to the public until May 13th.
After careful deliberations by the jury, supported by Beatrice Monguidi, Chief Executive Officer of RIMOWA, and Alexandre Arnault, Chairman of RIMOWA, seven finalists were awarded a number of prizes.
The first prize went to Samuel Nagel and Paul Feiler (Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Design), supervised by Tim Richter. They presented NURA, an elegant bracelet that translates sign language into spoken language and converts spoken into written text to enable seamless communication between deaf and hearing people.
Niklas Henning (Magdeburg-Stendal University), accompanied by Stefan Daniel, received a special award for the Paludi Harvester project. The coordinated harvesting system is designed to restore peatlands while maintaining agricultural productivity and protecting fragile ecosystems through efficient reed harvesting and processing under extreme environmental conditions.
The finalists’ five other projects also received awards:
- Tim Kipper and John Roller (Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Design), supervised by Clemens Poloczek.
- Tobias Kremer and Yannick Stilgenbauer (Saar University of Fine Arts), supervised by Konstantin Grcic.
- Nicolas Nielsen (Bauhaus University Weimar), supervised by Matylda Krzykowski.
- Valerio Sampognaro (HFBK Hamburg), coached by Farah Ebrahimi.
- Jakob Schlenker (Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Design), supervised by Hanne Willmann.
All seven finalist projects received prize money. The winning project was awarded 20,000 euros, the special award was worth 10,000 euros, and the projects in third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh place each received 5,000 euros.
