The iF Design Foundation on a grand stage
At the iF DESIGN AWARD NIGHT 2022, Christoph Boeninger explains the foundation's mission.
Photo Credit: iF Design, Hanover
Around 1,500 guests from 36 countries gathered at Berlin's Friedrichstadt-Palast on 16 May 2022 to celebrate the winners of the iF DESIGN AWARD 2022. On the historic theatre stage, Christoph Boeninger, chairman of the board of the iF Design Foundation, used the awards ceremony as an opportunity to present the goals, tasks and activities of the educational foundation:
"It is important to us that the public learns more about the social relevance of design."
"We are committed to the common good. To fulfil our mission, we focus on academic research and education in the context of design. We want to make a significant contribution to ensuring that design continues to develop for the common good. That is why we implement our own projects that encourage and promote concrete changes in design education. It is important to us that the public learns more about the social relevance of design. We publish our findings so that as many people as possible learn about them, and we thus contribute to the advancement of knowledge."
The Future of Design Education
As an important contribution to this, chairman Christoph Boeninger presented the fundamental work Designing Design Education. Whitebook on the Future of Design Education. Published in 2021, the book documents findings from five years of academic research.
"To what extent do design degree programs contribute to the common good?"
Christoph Boeninger also presented the study on public value: "To what extent do design degree programs contribute to the common good? The iF Design Foundation is investigating this question in Germany for the first time. All former and current students, staff and faculty of German design schools were invited to participate in the survey," says Christoph Boeninger. The results will be published in late summer 2022.
