The highlights of the German Design Awards 2021 will be presented in a digital format from 12 February to 12 March. In addition to the presentation of the gold winners in the respective award disciplines, the "Newcomer of the Year" award will also be announced. This year’s “Personality of the Year” is Paola Antonelli, architect and curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In an interview with Lutz Dietzold (CEO of the German Design Council), she talks about the high points of her curatorial work so far as well as international design discourse.
In further interviews and talks, industry and design experts discuss the most important trends around the focal points of innovation, brand, sustainability and digitalisation.
The full programme can be viewed at awards.german-design-council.de/winner.
Paola Antonelli is the German Design Awards 2021 Personality
This year’s “Personality” award went to Italian-American architect and curator Paola Antonelli. Antonelli was born in Sardinia in 1963 and studied architecture in Milan. She has curated various different design exhibitions in Italy, France and Japan, and writes for various high-profile publications. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York appointed her a curator in 1994.
“Through her previous work, whether as a curator, editor or author, Paola Antonelli has made an extraordinary contribution to design being perceived by a broad audience as a diverse cultural asset – and therefore as part of both an individual and societal identity – rather than being reduced to just aesthetics and functionality,” says Lutz Dietzold, reciting the jury’s decision.
Information about prize-winners and awards
- Further information and the “All Eyes On” can be found here.
- Further information about the “Personality of the Year” can be found here.
- All the winners of the German Design Awards 2021 are on display in our online gallery.
- Up-to-date lists of the German Design Awards 2021 winners can be downloaded in our dropbox.
- “German Design Award Newcomer”: the winner of this distinction and the prize money that comes with it will be announced on 5 March 2021. The five finalists can be found on the German Design Awards website.
The German Design Awards 2021 were given out in three award disciplines: “Excellent Product Design”, “Excellent Communications Design” and “Excellent Architecture”. This year saw over 4,200 entries from 60 different countries. Accordingly, the international jury with representatives of business, science and design worked arduously to make their selection from the superb submissions. In the end, it picked a total of 76 “Gold” recipients in 71 categories.