This year there will be a significant change in the AGD: on 31st October Lutz Hackenberg’s contract as General Manager of the AGD expires. How should management of the AGD be effected in future? To find answers to this question the Board and Regional Representatives met on 22nd January in Hanover for a one-day. [read more...]

Report of Working Group

As early as the middle of January we were privileged to welcome 100 new AGD members for this year. Welcome! We’re delighted to see you, we wish you all the best, and we have lots of good tips to get things moving. Anyone who isn’t a member can at least have a quick look. [learn more...]

Protection of copyright and EU aesthetic models does not depend on registering the work. But when there is a dispute it is often impossible to produce enough proof of when the designer did the creative work. PriortMart and DesignProtection offer solutions – with special conditions and additional information for AGD designers.  [read more...]

This Symposium on the State of the Design Profession was held on 26th October in Berlin. With 400 participants, every seat in the arena – the entrance hall of the Museums for Communication – was taken. Those who attended experienced a premiere league event with few losers, many winners and even more insights. [read...]

This is the third time VIDA Paper and the AGD have presented the VIDA Paper Design Award. With more submissions, higher quality and greater sustainability. And this year two wonderful winning designs by Barbara Wendt and Martina Wagner. [more...]

On 24th August 2009 the Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, and the finance spokeswoman of the SPD parliamentary party, Ute Berg, paid an informative visit to the agency run by two AGD members, designers Klaus-Dieter Nagel and Daniel Pumpe. [read...]

The threshold was passed early in September: designers Lara Glück and Claudia Stiefel were the 100th and 101st people to sign the “Charta for Sustainable Design“.  [read...]

Expectations were high, standards higher. When the jury viewed the 46 submissions after the General Meeting in Dresden and selected the teams for the next round, the entries were extremely promising, and consequently much was expected from the next stage. And it was not a disappointment. The teams presented five very different concepts, each offering great potential in its own way.  [read and view...]

What the AGD Newsletter is for the association as a whole, the regional letters are for the individual regions. Now the regional letters have been given new faces: the AGD family resemblance is unmistakable. [read more ...]

In February 2009 the government report "Overall Economic Perspective of the Cultural and Creative Industries in Germany" was published by the Ministry of Economy and Technology and the Commission for Culture and the Media. The Alliance of German Designers has compiled a critical evaluation of the study’s results and recommendations.  [read...]

And is Europe creative? In the European Year of Creativity and Innovation representatives of Enterprise Europe Network Berlin and numerous partners met on 13.05.2009 in the premises of the EU Commission in Berlin. Vice President Jürgen Grothues represented the AGD at this event. [read more...]

Now the AGD has not only a charter on sustainable design; there is also an entire page where you will in future be able to find contemporary articles about the subject. In May: Sustainable Print Design and the Media Mundo Congress. [read...]

An event organised by the iDD and the BMWi to bring entrepreneurs and designers together. Design is good for the economy – increasingly this is also the view of politicians. Cultural and creative industries are promoted, contacts between design and economic institutions fostered. This was the thinking behind the conference "Design Strengthens Mid-Sized Companies", held on 24th March in Berlin. [read more...]

From 25th to 27th March the 24th AGD Member’s Assembly is being held in Ulm. Among other things, voting will take place on motions to elect new members of the Board, and of course all AGD members can also take an active part by means of motions, contributions and discussions.
The fringe program this year revolves around the Ulm School of Design.
 [read more...]

• Registration to the AGD Office by 19th March, please
• All information on Member’s Assembly
• Voting rights for members
• About the motions
• For your information; 2008 and 2009 Member’s Assemblies

In 2010 the Ruhr Region is the European Capital of Culture. The AGD is launching a campaign "from the bottom": RUHRPOST.2010. Your mission: kindly design your own RUHRPOST-card and send it to the Ruhr Region!

• More information on the campaign at www.ruhrpost2010.de
• Action folder with blank postcard, PDF, 1,6 MB

Only electronic invoices which adhere strictly to the regulations allow you to deduct input tax. Ansgar Müller, ECOVIS Grieger Mallison & Partner, explains everything you need to know [for members].

They have been found, they have been notified, and we are delighted! Next year’s agd|viertel will be designed by Markus Büsges, Godelewa Jipp, Gerhard Lienemeyer and Regina Otteni, in association with Frank Linke. Warmest congratulations! [more...]

There is now an AGD flat rate for fonts, exclusively for AGD members. Access to all exclusive Linotype Open Type fonts for use in project phases, at a monthly flat rate subscription fee of €29.90. [more for members]

From now on AGD members can benefit from the work of a company called Euforma Forderungsmanagement at special rates; the discount can be as high as 50%. You can have them collect outstanding payments or avoid such situations all together. Stress-free and cost-efficient.  [read more...]

Mühlhausen welcomed the AGD with open arms, and the designers were delighted to accept the invitation, turning up in droves. About 200 AGD designers gathered in Mühlhausen from 24th to 26th September. They learnt a lot about true values and enjoyed an exquisite recreational program. [more...]

• Your opinion in the Forum
  
• Networks, partnerships. Blog by Herbert Pauser
  

• Panoramas by Joachim Nickel
  
• Pictures by Friederike Niemeyer
  
• Pictures by Annette Liese
• Pictures of the card event by Frank Linke
  

The threshold was passed early in September: designers Lara Glück and Claudia Stiefel were the 100th and 101st people to sign the “Charta for Sustainable Design“.  [read...]

Kommunikation als Erfolgsfaktor in der Chefetage
Communication – and its consequences! – can be described as a discipline for genuine heavyweights. On Leadership Strengths and Leadership Competence – an essay by Isabel von Heymann. [read...]

This was the question posed by communication designers at the Constance University of Applied Sciences on 25th July 2009, the “Day of the Master”. The reply provided by AGD President Dr. Aladdin Jokhosha, who was representing the AGD in Constance, was: “We have become consultants”. [read more...]

The "CODE" poster competition, which is held by Create Berlin, has a number of technical flaws: the prize money is too low, the production costs are to be borne by the designers themselves, and the jury is not independent. Fidius, the Association for Fair Design Competitions, has called upon Create Berlin to improve the situation – with only moderate success. [read ...]

The 14th TYPO in Berlin was critical and political. The discussion "The Future of German Communication Design" was one of the most popular events of the entire conference, and there were many speeches casting a critical eye on the working methods and employment situation of designers. But we also heard powerful suggestions as to how things could be different and better. [read more ...]

• Chamber of Design: no Chance
  
• Florian Fischer AGD. Inspired Spaces
  
• Sol Sender. Design for Obama
  
• Gemma O'Brien. Write here
  
• Nick Shinn. Perspective
  
• Thomas Hoyer AGD. Space und Fun
  

Early in May the 130 participants at the 1st "Media Mundo" Congress for Sustainable Media Production were provided with information about paper, climate neutral printing products, manufacturing processes and regenerative energies. The discussions revolved around the question of what everybody concerned can do to preserve the world of today for the generations of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
[read more ...]

More success for businesses. The "niedersachsendesign" discussion forum at the CeBit 2009 in Hannover demonstrated yet again how companies can benefit from design. It also provided opportunities for designers and clients to come into contact. [read more about the discussion and client subsidy possibilities]

One main aim of the AGD has always been to promote member training, and this year the association has greatly expanded its training program. A wide variety of seminars are available, concentrating on conveying useful, practical knowledge. [read more...]