NEXT, NOW, THEN
LOOKING BACK AND THINKING AHEAD
Luca Ortmann and Paul Krüger are one of the 24 graduates selected for the annual festival presentation of German Design Graduates.
The initiative German Design Graduates presents outstanding graduation projects from design schools across Germany. The exhibition “Next, Now, Then“ explores how emerging talents reinterpret the past, question the present, and imagine futures. It reveals time as a medium for creative practice.
Projection of the Past & Facility of the Present
What if superstition shaped our choices? What if nature were our teacher? Several projects draw on cultural memory and reinterpret forgotten practices as tools for the present day. Others address the immediate conditions of daily life: How can public transport be improved? How can we feel safe? Together, they show how design can translate the wisdom of the past, connect it with the urgency of the present, and turn it into tangible interventions.
Memory of the Future & Transition of the Now
Did we use so much plastic? Did we really treat animals that way? Were there wars that we ignored? Projects require us to view the present through the eyes of tomorrow, where today’s choices will be remembered as responsibility or neglect. Alongside this speculative lens, other works investigate the threshold we currently cross: Can we optimise ourselves, can artificial intelligence reshape our work? Emerging practices explore digital tools, hybrid workflows and new forms of making that blur the line between humans and machines. Combined, these perspectives reveal how design anticipates consequences, navigates transition and opens paths for societies yet to come.
Form Follows Friendship
The exhibition also extends into dialogue. On Sunday, 19 October 2025, a networking breakfast in Eindhoven will bring together emerging graduates and professionals from Germany and the Netherlands. Under the title “Form follows Friendship”, the encounter highlights collaboration as a driving force in contemporary practice.
The Form Follows Friendship event is being organised for the third time by German Design Graduates and hosted by the German Design Graduates organisiert und vom German Design Council in collaboration with the Dutch Consulate General in Düsseldorf and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Berlin.
German design graduates @ Dutch Design Week
Aera 51, 18–26 October 2025, Eindhoven
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Luca Ortmann (BA 2025) – insta
Paul Krüger (BA 2025) – insta
