Professor Dr. Peter Zec

For over 20 years, Peter Zec has been working as a design consultant with numerous companies in foreign countries. He has gained worldwide recognition with lectures in more than 30 countries.

In October 2006, the leading German business magazine, the ‘Wirtschaftswoche’, elected Prof. Dr. Peter Zec one of the “20 creative unconventional thinkers worldwide changing the appearance of their companies and creating completely new markets”. As an expert on the German as well as the international design scene he is the publisher of the „red dot design yearbook” and the “red dot communication design yearbook”. Peter Zec lives in Essen and Berlin.

List of publications

Peter Zec is the author of numerous international publications: Informationsdesign(1988), Design goes virtual! (1996), German Design Standards (1997; 2005), Designing Success (1999), Good Design (2000), Orientierung im Raum (2002), Hall of Fame. Companies Searching for Excellence in Design (2003; 2007), Return on Ideas – Better by Design (2006), Who’s Who in Design (2003; 2007), Design Value - A Strategy for Business Success(2010).

Short biography

Professor Dr. Peter Zec, born in 1956, studied Media Science, Psychology and Art Science. Since May 2001, Peter Zec is president of the red dot GmbH & Co. KG. Since 1991, he has been president of the internationally renowned Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. In 1993, he accepted the professorship of Business Communication at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin. From 1986 to 1988 he was head of the specialist field “image” and as such was highly involved in the planning of the Centre of Arts and Media Technologies (ZKM), which had been established in Karlsruhe. Before he started working for the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, Peter Zec was president of the Federation of German Graphic Designers (BDG) and the Association of German Industrial Designers(VDID).

From September 2005 to October 2007, Zec was president of the international umbrella organisation of design ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) and from October 2006 to October 2007 chairman of the International Design Alliance IDA, thus holding the highest official posts in the design world. As a former Icsid president, he now holds the rank of “Icsid Senator” and is consulted on all important issues concerning the association.

“Design Value”

How design increases a company’s value and what we can learn from the best design teams and global market leaders is the subject of Prof. Dr. Peter Zec’s lecture, “Design Value”. Using different companies as examples, he highlights the value of design as a strategic business tool for economic growth and added value.

Based on a red dot methodology, Prof. Dr. Peter Zec demonstrates in his talk how it is possible to compare the design values of different companies. Through this lens, design value quickly becomes a management tool for design-minded companies.

He explains why design creates value in the long-term and is one of the key factors for commercial success particularly during a crisis. The continuous monitoring of companies and designers carried out by the ‘red dot institute for advanced design studies’ shows, according to Zec, that in a direct comparison quality always prevails. Using the examples of selected companies that belong to the “best of the best” in the red dot design award and are leading in their respective market and product segment, Zec explains that design-oriented companies not only survive in a crisis but can even develop better than the relevant market or the industry average.

“This observation applies to all companies which are the real leaders in design, which regularly enter design competitions and win awards. In contrast to their competitors they are characterised by high design strength and high design continuity. Thanks to their excellent products they create value for consumers as well as for the company itself,” explains Zec.

In his new book, “Design Value – A strategy for business success", recently published by red dot edition, the design and business expert also deals with this topic. Together with author Burkhard Jacob he examines and comments on different industries and lists the design values of companies such as Apple, Artemide, BMW, Flos, Loewe, and Porsche as examples.

This calculation of design values goes hand in hand with the long term observations by the red dot institute, which has pooled the listed companies, the design teams of which have received the honorary title “red dot: design team of the year” in recent years, in a virtual stock basket and has constantly compared their performance with other indices since January 2003. This stock basket includes Adidas, Apple, Audi, BMW, Daimler, LG Electronics, Nokia, Philips, Siemens, Sony and Tupperware.

Their performances are combined in the red dot design team index, the market trend of which clearly shows that the index of the companies that have won the title “red dot: design team of the year” has performed markedly better than the “Euro-Stoxx-50” benchmark, for instance. With the calculation of the design value, the red dot team index and the red dot design ranking, the red dot institute for advanced design studies proves the thesis that “Good Design is Good Business”.

Nathalie Fallaha

Nathalie Fallaha is the founder and catalyst behind vit-e design studio (www.vit-e.com) and alephya (www.alephya.com). She studied graphic design at the American University of Beirut; after receiving my bachelor of Graphic Design in 1997, I moved to Central Saint Martins in the UK to pursue my Masters in Communication Design.

From 2000-2009, she taught Graphic Design and Typography at the Lebanese American University, while keeping the buzz going at vit-e design studio. She was awarded the Lebanese Design Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008 by the British Council. She is a member of the advisory board of the Khatt Foundation (www.khtt.net), and the Icograda Education Network. Her work has been published in several international books, magazines, and publications.

Passionate about bilingual typography (Arabic - Latin), most of her personal work is driven by the urge to explore the expressive power of the letterforms on different substrates.

Founded in 2000, vit-e is a multi-disciplinary design studio working in many facets of branding, visual identity, art direction, packaging, print and interactive design. We have the experience and knowledge of a big creative agency combined with the personal touch of a boutique studio. At the heart of this studio is communication. Visual communication. We create, elevate and reinvigorate brands. Although we are based in Beirut, we have reached out to serve clients in 19 countries to date including Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Japan, Sierra Leone, China, France, Germany, London and Greece. We collaborate with like-minded individual talents, each with his or her forte, to handle a variety of projects. They all love what they do, and we do too.

In 2011, she founded alephya, a design enterprise focusing on proposing an aesthetic concept onto different substrates. alephya undertakes to transform and liberate the Arabic letterform from its basic calligraphic form and creating a world of possibilities and patterns. The differentiated construction of the Arabic letterforms opens up endless visual realms to draft unique patterns out of the many modules, through an exploration of line quality and line density, all forming an infinite universe of imprints.

Her work has been exhibited at the National Art Gallery of Malaysia in april 2009; at Art Lounge within Khatt: typographic matchbook in december 2007, at the Salon International du Meuble et du Design of Paris in January 2005 under the Switch on Lebanese Design pavilion; at the Dutch Poster Museum in April 2005; at the typo.graphic.beirut 05 international exhibition in April 2005 to name but a few.

She attends various design and typography conferences worldwide, and is a frequent guest speaker in several universities and graphic design seminars across the world.

Mohamed Fares

Known for his versatile style and natural flair, Mohamed Fares has invaded the Egyptian Design Scene with his contemporary designs ranging from residential to commercial and corporate. In 2003, this creative chameleon met with fellow designer and founder of Alchemy Design Studio, Karim Mekhtigian, to start a turning point in his career with his future business partner. As one of Alchemy’s chief designers, Fares gained international exposure working on different projects in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, not to forget an exceptional residence in Switzerland.

Mohamed Fares has been selected as the national finalist to represent Egypt in the International Young Design Entrepreneur (IYDE) Award 2008 in London, during which he received a special commendation for his culturally sensitive creative judgment. The designer is currently working on launching an exclusive sunglasses collection under the brand name “mfares” with the tagline “Life Through My Eyes”. While the eyewear line is the first project for the brand, it paves the way for future interesting ventures for the designer and his new brand in both design and fashion.

Michal Kowalski

Michal Kowalski, 32, for a decade leaded a fashion company and was responsible for production, sales and event management. In 2010 he launched Good Design Foundation which organized two innovative exhibitions – “FashionDRAW – Polish Fashion Illustration” and “Fashion in Motion – Short Polish Fashion Movies” in the same year. He was a curator and producer of both of them. To promote polish design abroad he created a blog about polish design in English – www.DesignedInPoland.org .

Michal Kowalski cooperates with Culture Council in City Hall of Warsaw (the capital city of Poland) as creative industry consultant and coordinator of a project “Creativity” financed by Ministry of Culture, National Centre of Culture and City Hall. Finishing his economic studies these days he writes a diploma survey researching the potential of constructed by himself Creative Industry Index in The Warsaw Stock Exchange.

As a freelance specialist he is an agent of Anna Halarewicz, one of the most important and talented fashion illustrators in Poland. He produces art exhibitions and provides consultancy on fashion business for designers. He also provides creative consultancy for new press titles and book publishers assuring new, unique concepts in design and content.

TSAI

Tsai Design Studio is a young and dynamic creative design studio that is based in Cape Town, South Africa. The studio uses multi-disciplinary approach to generate creative solutions in the field of graphic, product design, furniture, interior design, architecture and urban planning.

Established in 2005, the principle of the practice Y. Tsai uses his architectural training, as well as his eastern upbringing, mixed with inspirations from the diverse South African culture to build a body of work that has already earn the studio a number of accolades and awards, including the prestigious international Red Dot Award, and the South African _nalist of the ‘International Young Design Entrepreneur Award sponsored by the British Council. His design - Nested Bunk Beds was voted by the SA public as the "Most Beautiful Object in South Africa'.

The studio strives to produce provocative designs that are unconventional, yet instilled with a strong sense of cultural and social relevance, particularly in South Africa. This is evident in projects such as the award winning multifunctional Nested Bunk Bed system; the successful Earthchild brand and shop interior that are expanding globally; the prestigious Isiko Cape Town museum’s new San Rock Art exhibition space; as well as several high end private residences.

More of his work can be found here:http://www.tsaidesignstudio.com/

Other Conferences & Workshop Series
// International Designer Conference
// WIRAKANTA Photography Masterclass