Initiated at the HTWG Konstanz in 2024 as a Master's thesis in Communication Design by Corinna Gratzl and Julia Klass, and a project very much in keeping with the motto of Munich Creative Business Week, MCBW, 2025, How to design a vibrant community, if in a very specific context, Dialog Beyond Disciplines asked questions such as, What defines and shapes the practice of designers working across disciplines? or What impulses do open-disciplinary approaches offer for a broader understanding of design? And then sets out to approach answers via discussions with a wide range of both international design studios and those whose existence is dependent on creativity in all its expressions, including, for example, Atelier LUMA, Formafantasma or the Staatsballett Berlin.
The presentation of the results in the foyer of the Deutsche Meisterschule für Mode... an institution we, and you, never for a minute thought we would set foot in, thus underscoring that one of the real joys of a decentralised event such as MCBW is that it forces, enables, you to open yourself to the previously unimaginable... the presentation in the foyer of the Deutsche Meisterschule für Mode in context of MCBW 2025 was both by way of an introduction the project and also of trying to drum up support for a reprinting of the resulting book in a much larger print run. A use of a platform such as MCBW of which we very much approve.
And while the presentation did and does provide for that introduction, and argument for the larger print run, what it doesn't and didn't do was provide answers to questions such as What defines and shapes the practice of designers working across disciplines? or What impulses do open-disciplinary approaches offer for a broader understanding of design? And that not least because it knew in advance it couldn't. That there was no point in going there, the space was to small for such an attempt. So it didn't.
Rather it is and was very aware that the discussions undertaken were but a component of an ongoing discussion to which the showcase in the Deutsche Meisterschule für Mode is and was an invitation to join. An invitation we all should seriously consider not just in terms of helping develop a vibrant design community, but also of developing a more vibrant, resilient, durable, community.
For as we all tend to forget these days: we're all in this together, dialog beyond disciplines, dialog beyond tribes, dialog beyond the individual of social media, is essential if we want to move meaningfully forward. As it always was. Always will be.
Dialog Beyond Disciplines can be viewed at Deutsche Meisterschule für Mode, Roßmarkt 15, 80331 Munich until Friday May 16th.
Or 24/7 online at https://dialogbeyonddisciplines.com
And further details on Munich Creative Business Week 2025 can be found at www.mcbw.de
