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The theme for the competition has been \u201cmobility\u201d every year<\/a> since 2023 but as one of the prize-giving\u2019s hosts pointed out, \u201cIt\u2019s also about designing for a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n The contest has been getting bigger every year, Rimowa\u2019s chief marketing officer Mathieu Plenier told between 300 and 400 guests attending the prize-giving at Berlin\u2019s minimalist Kulturforum building on Monday evening.<\/p>\n In 2023, only 15 schools sent in entries, he said. This year, there were 40.<\/p>\n Besides camera crews, design students in carefully chosen outfits, and guests flown in from around the world by Rimowa, the audience also featured a who\u2019s who of German design stars, including the seven locals who had mentored the students.<\/p>\n Each of the mentors had chosen one project out of all the entries to support over several months, before the students presented the final prototypes to the public and the judges.<\/p>\n Mentors included product designer Konstantin Grcic; Stefan Daniel, vice president of photo and design at Leica, and Farah Ebrahimi, art director at Frankfurt-based furniture studio e15, previously design director at BCBG Max Azria and DKNY in New York.<\/p>\n Also making an appearance in Berlin was Beatrice Monguidi<\/a>, who will take on Rimowa\u2019s chief executive officer role from June 1.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting to take my first footsteps into the brand in this very meaningful and inspiring context,\u201d she said onstage. \u201cIt also even made me a little emotional. You reminded me of when I was a student here in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n Monguidi said she had been impressed by all the diverse, impactful, socially conscious and \u201cingenious\u201d design projects.<\/p>\n The winner was the Nura project designed by Samuel Nagel and Paul Feiler of the Hochschule f\u00fcr Gestaltung Schw\u00e4bisch Gm\u00fcnd. They had come up with a bracelet that translates sign language into spoken language, by measuring muscle activity in the forearms of the person doing the signing. As first-prize winners, the pair will receive 20,000 euros. They were mentored by Tim Richter, head of industrial design at German industrial giant Siemens\u2019s health branch Healthineers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been insane and amazing,\u201d Feiler said onstage, beaming.<\/p>\n The second prize of 10,000 euros went to Niklas Henning from the Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal, for his peat harvester. The Paludi harvester \u201cenables sustainable reed farming while protecting delicate ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n And although the student who put together the Aerodomestics project didn\u2019t win the biggest prize \u2014 Valerio Sampognaro will get 5,000 euros along with all the other finalists \u2014 he did get the biggest \u201coohs\u201d and even laughs of the night when his introductory video showed him flying his good-looking, minimalist and lightweight shelving like a kite.<\/p>\n Best of WWD<\/p>\n Sign up for WWD’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The finalists in this year\u2019s annual Rimowa Design Prize are definitely out to save the world. The seven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,42731,42733,30177,190,42732,42629,42734],"class_list":{"0":"post-80182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-design-competition","10":"tag-environmentally-friendly-furniture","11":"tag-fashion-design","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-lvmh-moet-hennessy-louis-vuitton","14":"tag-rimowa","15":"tag-valerio-sampognaro"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116559289083171666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e71e68a5b283678da6968608b94995dd.jpeg\"\/)
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