Vignelli Center Lecture: Marion Digel and Celina Kroder

"Dialogues and Design Embassies" - Examples of international and intercultural exchange in design education.

A Vignelli Center for Design Studies lecture by:

Professor Marion Digel from Folkwang University of the Arts
Celina Kroder, Folkwang graduate (MA)

5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, in University Gallery

In their lecture, Professor Marion Digel and Celina Kroder introduce two concepts and platforms for international and intercultural collaboration in design education. With "The Vignelli Dialogue" and "The Future Design Embassies," Digel initiated platforms for intercultural dialogue between students, teachers and experts. 

In a world in which western, democratic societies are threatened by nationalistic ideas and in which even European and North American societies seem to be experiencing alienation from each other’s ideas of living, exchange in design education is more relevant than ever.

The Covid pandemic was one of the causes for establishing the first "Vignelli Dialogue" between Folkwang University of the Arts and the Vignelli Center for Design Studies at RIT while "The Future Design Embassies" was formed to qualify a new generation of designers to actively create the future societies of the world. Design students experience and monitor international design workshops which enables them to act responsibly in international and intercultural discourses. They are being equipped with fundamental mediation skills for activities in an international context. 

Come learn about the students' experiences, the design developments of the workshops and discuss with us the question: "Backtracking Modern Times. Are the ideas of Modernism sufficient to solve 21st Century problems?"

About Marion Digel

Marion Digel is an industrial designer and professor for Design Foundations and Form and Context at Folkwang University of the Arts. She was Dean of the Faculty of Design from 2012-2019. Her module FORM AND CONTEXT empowers students to transform their topics of interest into everyday products. They learn to facilitate solid design concepts, attention to detail and industrial prototypes. Her design studies reflect if and how 20th century modernistic values enable designers to encounter the challenges of the 21st century. 

She is the initiator of the Project FUTURE DESIGN PERSPECTIVES - INTERNATIONAL AMBASSADORS in which she collaborates with the Vignelli Center for Design Studies of RIT.

About Celina Kroder (MA industrial design)

Celina Kroder studied industrial design at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and designs various everyday objects. She intensively deals with light in her work and examines the influence light can have on the environment and people.

Her personal goal in design is to create a lasting emotional connection through interacting with the object. Her work was awarded 1st prize for sustainability by the consumer advice center NRW in 2017, nominated for the Bolia Design Award in 2021, and nominated for the German Design Award 2022, 2023 and 2024.

She worked as a research assistant for Prof. Marion Digel at Folkwang University of the Arts.