• Link to the YDMI portfolio show (video)

By Annette Bruns

On October 25-26 the first Young Designers Meet The Industry (YDMI) event took place in Berlin.

The event was organized by the German Design Council and the IDZ (International Design Center), who chose 41 young designers and design agencies from the numerous applications received to create a new recruiting and acquisition platform for emerging designers and design-oriented industrial enterprises.

Billed as a ”work in progress”, the initial program for YDMI changed fundamentally within two months of announcement. Two days of fair transformed into a dinner and a workshop day when it was realized that the industrial participants might not wish to discuss sensitive human resources issues publicly. This resulted in the idea of an informal dinner, where an exchange of experiences and a development of contacts and networks might still occur.

Evening of the YDMI portfolio-show © photo visual-research.com

Thus a carefully chosen number of young designers and representatives from industry were invited to sit down at a white table in an old warehouse. The seating arrangements were rigorously specified: one representative of the industry, press or university/academy was always placed between two designers. The seating was deliberate and everyone’s interests were carefully considered. A portfolio-show preceded the dinner. Five nominated young designers were requested without warning to present their portfolio Pecha Kucha style. After the first course of the dinner, the winner of the YDMI award was chosen from those five presenters. The jury, together with the participating representatives from industry, press and universities/academies, presented Susanne Philippson with the award - endowed with € 8000 - for “Guardian of Light“, a lamp collection with the key feature that the light is controlled via the lamp shade itself.

The portfolio-show © photo visual-research.com

In retrospect, the dinner became the core piece of the YDMI event. Directly following the design conference, it offered a crowning finale for the representatives of the industry. Many were still present then, while the number of participants was lower during the following workshop-day. The interest from the side of the young designers seemed to be much higher than that of the industry. This led to the designers being mostly among peers at the event’s finale the following day: the portfolio-show of all 41 emerging designers and design agencies - the only YDMI event that also allowed the public to join - was mainly witnessed by students and professors.

Get a glimpse of the portfolio-show © movie visual-research.com