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What would you do, if you have one year of creative freedom? One year, where you don’t have to make money for a living but can create with a purpose? A year, where you can travel and meet people that you would never have the chance to meet? A year where you can speak at conferences and run workshops? A year where you can experiment and find your voice? What would you want to share? What would you want to learn? And what would you want to do?

We met folding artist Jule Waibel for an interview. The young German designer and passionate yogi has her own label and has already worked for large brands like Swarovski, Adidas, Chanel, and many more. In her two studios - in Berlin and Bali - she creates playful objects and dreams of geometric shapes dancing around the moon.

Stefan Sagmeister is certainly one of the most innovative and inspiring designers and graphic artists. Known as a "philosopher among designers", he not only designs covers for The Rolling Stones, Jay Z, David Byrne and OK Go but also initiates exciting communication projects. Together with his professional partner Jessica Walsh, he is among the leading agencies as SAGMEISTER & WALSH.

Light has been part of architecture for centuries. But in the last 20 years, more and more technologies have found their way into the design process of buildings and facades. It isn’t about natural light only anymore, but rather about how lighting and technology can be used to make the building tell a story, transmit a message or even become interactive. To explore this topic further, we sit down with iart’s founder and CEO Valentin Spiess, who talks to us about his agency, his take on media architecture and about his hometown of Basel.

Breathe In. Breath Out. Breathe MINI   We live in a hectic digital world. Waking up, drinking coffee, responding on messages, going to work, writing hundreds of emails, having lunch, writing even more emails, leave the office, arriving at home, feeling dissatisfied and the essential things are out of sight. Five to seven days a week. In this daily rush there is no time to get aware of the problems of our time, and even less time to actively work on it.

Intriguing lectures, inspiring artists, great networking opportunities: This year’s Forward Festival kickoff in April in Vienna was a full success. One of many highlights: The Adobe Stock Creative Jam event, a competition in which ten pre-selected teams had the chance to prove their creative skills.

Digitale Vernetzung, Globalisierung, das Zusammenbrechen von wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Ökosystemen und das Ringen um soziales Gleichgewicht – in ein paar Jahren werden wir diese Zeit als "Tipping Point" sehen. Von “disruptions of whole scenes” wird in vielen Medien berichtet. Inmitten tosender Wellen werden sich faszinierende Chancen für innovative "Surfer" auftun, die es verstehen diese Wellen zu reiten – und somit unsere Zukunft positiv mitgestalten. Wer, wenn nicht DesignerInnen, Entrepreneurs und Start Ups sollten diese "Surfer" sein? Kaum eine Generation ist so auf die direkte Analyse und Lösung von Problemen fokussiert. Im Grunde ist Design ein Prozess oder Denken, das fast in jeder Phase des Innovationsprozesses Anwendung finden kann. Dabei dürfen wir nicht primär an etablierte Disziplinen wie Grafikdesign, Architektur oder Mode denken.

Analog ist nur die halbe Welt. Virtual (VR), Augmented (AR) und Mixed Reality (MR) liegen zurzeit im Trend und aufsehenerregende Meldungen aus den globalen Technologieschmieden und Entwicklungslaboren versprechen laufend außergewöhnliche Neuerungen. Sowohl Industrie als auch Forschung beschäftigen sich verstärkt mit diesen Technologien, umso mehr sind auch Kreativschaffende gefragt, das Spektrum des derzeit Verfügbaren auszuloten und für ihre Arbeit neu zu interpretieren.

Just 15 years ago, the FLYERALARM story began with a flyer in the garage of a Würzburg family home. Not many people know that the company is still family-owned to this day, and one of the most impressive success stories of the European printing industry.

Maurice de Mauriac is the official timekeeper of Forward Festival Zurich 2017.   Growing up near Lake of Constance, Daniel Dreifuss had a (dis)illusion of one day being a banker. At 18 he materialised this idea and for 10 years worked in Zürich and New York, striped shirts and all.