Designforum Steiermark

All Eyes on Us

The Green Panther award, presented by the Fachgruppe Werbung & Marktkommunikation (trade group for advertising and market communication), is the Award of the State of Styria for Creative Communication. It was awarded for the 32nd time in 2021.

The common goal of the various Designfor ums in Austria is to showcase design, to make it visible and tangible, and to highlight the potential and importance of design as an intelligent process for all areas of life.

The Designforum Steiermark provides regional and international designers and design institutions with a platform and exhibition location that makes the meaning of design accessible to a broader public. The premises of the Designforum Steiermark can also be used for presentations.

An exhibition showcasing all nominees was planned for 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It finally opened its doors to visitors on February 3, 2022. The exhibition included 66 works and showed a broad cross-section of Styrian advertising industry achievements. The finalists were selected by a top-class jury from the fields of advertising, communication, design, education and business in a total of 14 categories such as "Corporate Design", "Corporate Publishing", "Direct Marketing", "Event", "Campaign", "Motion Pictures", "Online Communication", "Outside the Box", "Out of Home", "Packaging", "Website", "Advertising Photography", "Young Creatives" and in the supreme discipline "Regional Campaign”.

Impulses & Projects

Austrian Brand Stories The Chairman

The exhibition “Austrian Brand Stories” focused on the background stories of Austrian cult brands. These brands have become an integral part of the everyday aesthetics we perceive. With their appearance, their positions and values, brands create bonds and affiliations, shaping the cultural and national identity long-term as a result. The exhibition told the brand stories of Aida, Alma, Almdudler, Anker, Atomic, Bad Ischler, Felix, Jolly, KTM, MAM, Manner, Maresi, Mautner Markhof, Niemetz, ÖBB, Pago, Piatnik, Red Bull, Riess, Rupp, SAX, Schlumberger, Silhouette, Smart (JTI), Vöslauer and Zumtobel.Niemetz, ÖBB, Pago, Piatnik, Red Bull, Riess, Rupp, SAX, Schlumberger, Silhouette, Smart (JTI), Vöslauer and Zumtobel.

The chair is regarded as the supreme discipline in furniture design, or even across the board in product design. Designer and architect Martin Mostböck showed how he approaches the challenge of designing a chair in his exhibition “The Chairman. Geschichten von gemeinsamen Objekten und regionalen Zusammenhängen” (The Chairman. Stories of Shared Objects and Regional Connections). The exhibition featured a selection of his works from the last two decades. His creative intention is to make invisible connections and their influence on design processes visible. The exhibition therefore featured chairs and furniture that are situated at the interface of art and serial production. Among other things, award-winning museum pieces were on display alongside small series and one-of-a-kind objects.

Impulses & Projects

Taste the Ortwein

Industrial Design Show

Taste the Ortwein focused on the creative process and its challenges in 2022 –hence the apt exhibition subtitle "The Art of Creation”. Once again, the exhibition at Designforum Steiermark by graduates of HTBLVA Graz Ortweinschule for Design and Structural Engineering gave young, creative protégés space to present their skills to a wider audience. The graduation class from the art and design department showcased their final projects, created with heart, brain and skillful hands.

The eight different specializations of the art and design department are a testament to a young and creative spirit and their works were exhibited in the varied categories: Sculpture – Object Design – Restoration, Film and Multimedia Art, Photography and Multimedia Art, Graphic and Communication Design, Interior Architecture – Room and Object Design, Ceramic Art Craft, Product Design –Presentation, and Jewelry – Metal Design.

The Industrial Design Show of the FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Science Graz shows the broad range of training provided in the bachelor's and master's degree programs Industrial Design –from the first design exercises to the final theses. Many of the designs on display were created in cooperation with international companies such as Andy Wolf, Atomic, MINI, Ströck, Swarovski Optik and Weitzer Woodsolutions.

Additionally, the exhibition RAW also showcased the final theses of students in the 5th semester of the bachelor's degree program Information Design at FH JOANNEUM. All the projects on display attempted to answer a specific question: Are we even still used to something being raw? Unprocessed, unpackaged, unembellished, no filters, no frills.

Impulses & Projects

The Next Poster

The exhibition “Kunst der Verführung” (The Art of Seduction) deals with the last 100 years of graphic design in the field of tension between art and advertising. As one of eight participating institutions, the Institute for Design and Communication at the FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Science Graz is presenting an exhibition on the future of the poster. It deals with the historical and technological changes and expan- sions of the medium poster, which has always played an important role as a medium that is of interest in both artistic and commercial design education. The medium was presented in its most varied forms in 24 projects: the acoustic poster, the mixed reality poster, the virtual poster, the kinetic poster, the scenographic poster, the animated poster, the interactive poster, the intelligent poster and the individualized poster.