Coordination & Organisation

Birgit Effinger

In the course of her activities as a mentor, project manager and teacher, Birgit Effinger has developed a broad repertoire of methods and proven her skills as an addressee-oriented mediator of professional competencies with the empowerment of numerous designers and artists. For many years she has supported designers, artists and filmmakers with coaching, workshops and teaching at various European art colleges. She was involved with the Goldrausch Artists Project, a one-year independent postgraduate program for female visual artists, from 2002 - 2018. Since 2017, she co-directed the interdisciplinary program see up - Center for Graduates at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee with Sophia Pompéry.
Her aim is to open up new perspectives for the DesignFarmBerlin scholarship holders by providing them with the right knowledge and skills, so that they can develop and expand their prototypes and professional experience as sovereign agents.

effinger[at]kh-berlin.de

Hanna Wiesener

Hanna is a Product Designer and is currently active as a consultant for the Cluster of Excellence „Matters of Activity“ (HU Berlin). She has several years of experience in the start-up sector, including her work as a coordinator of scholarship programs in design (Berlin Startup Stipendium, Exist) at the University of Arts Berlin.
At DesignFarm Hanna is consulting ventures, in particular with focus on product development.

wiesener[at]kh-berlin.de

Andra Vaida

Andra is responsible for the project administration and management of coachings for the founders. As a cultural manager, she is interested in cultural, artistic and creative practices that deal with social and ecological challenges. Recently, in cooperation with organisations such as Komm & Sieh gGmbH of the Berliner Stadtmission, she gained insights into the reuse of old textiles and sustainable consumption. Her previous experience includes cooperation with MitOst e.V. in the framework of the exchange program Tandem as well as organization of various cultural projects and events.

andra.vaida[at]designfarmberlin.de

Mentors

Prof. Carola Zwick

Carola is a Professor of Product Design, an initiator of DesignFarmBerlin and a passionate entrepreneur. In her work Carola especially focuses on Interaction Design and User Experience Design.
Through her career, she has been coaching alumni in three different universities (alumni now working with Apple, BCG, Audi, Frog, Spotify, Yahoo, Here, MyKita, SAP, Walmart). She is a co-founder of an internationally acting design agency Studio 7.5 Berlin. Apart from that, Carola is also a Principal Investigator in the Excellency Cluster „Matters of Activity“ at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

Prof. Dr. Olaf Bach

Olaf is a visiting Professor of Business Economics at the weißensee school of art and design and an initiator of DesignFarmBerlin. His teaching and research focus on creative entrepreneurship, design thinking and business design as well as the strategies, institutions and socioeconomic processes in creative industries. Lecturing management and organization design at the University of St. Gallen and with a background as project manager of a leading global strategy consulting firm he gained an extensive experience in consulting and coaching start-up teams. Olaf is an initiator of the «Art Business Coaching» at the Academy Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.

Prof. Dr. Jörg Petruschat

Jörg is a Professor of Theory and History of Design with a focus on “practice-based research”.
Earlier, he acted as a Professor of Design in Dresden focusing on design-driven research and business collaborations as well as effective product design. In 2005 he initiated and managed the Institute for Innovation and Design at the Center of Applied Research and Technology (e.V.) with the aim to transfer design to small and medium businesses.

Prof. Christiane Sauer

Since 2013 Christiane Sauer has been a Professor of Textile and Surface Design with focus on Material and Concept. Earlier, she has been involved in education, research and consulting in the area of material development for architecture and design. Christiane is currently running her own agency in architecture Formade – Agency for Material and Architecture. Additionally, Christiane is a member of smart3 Consortium for Development of New Products with Smart Materials and a co-founder of the design marketing platform – Architonic.

Prof. Dr. Zane Berzina

Since 2008 Zane Bernina has been a Professor of Textile and Surface Design with a focus on the conceptual development of materials and surfaces. In the past, she was involved in various interdisciplinary research projects related to various aspects of design, technology, natural sciences and society. Zane also acted as a lecturer and researcher in the area of Soft Technologies and Smart Textiles. She is a co-founder of the research platforms: eLab – Laboratory for Interactive Technologies and greenlab – Laboratory for Sustainable Design Strategies. Apart from that, Zane is a member and a principle Investigator of the Research Consortium smart3 I materials, solutions, growth for the Development of New Products with Smart Materials.

Veronika Aumann

is a textile designer and researcher. She investigates conceptions of the digital and designs materials and material fictions from which new and unexpected interactions between humans, machines and materials emerge. Veronika Aumann is currently working on the practice-based research project “Digital Materials” as part of the excellence programme “DiGiTal” in the field of “Design and Experimental Materials Research” at the weißensee kunsthochschule berlin. Since January 2019 she is a Ph.D. candidate of the PhDArts Program at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) in Leiden and the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague, NL.