Design Experience Laboratory

From 29 April until 8 June 2014, the Red Dot Design Museum Essen presents an exhibition of a special kind. Tickling all senses and getting first-hand experience of award-winning products: By exploring the “Design Experience Laboratory”, visitors are encouraged to touch around and surprise themselves with the design of everyday items. This way, visitors experience materials and forms in a completely different perspective and get a multi-dimensional understanding of the basics of design. The exhibition sharpens the power of judgment and helps them to realise what good design is all about.

Besides the interactive part of the presentation, which focuses on the sensual experience, the exhibition also features the findings of the workshops “Design Gymnastics”, “Design Anatomy” and “Touch, Listen and Learn” which were organised in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen in 2013. Photographs document the content and process of the design education programme for children and drawings provide insights into the results which were worked out by the young participants. The “Design Experience Laboratory” is completed by a presentation of the products which were used during the workshops and which helped equipping the children with knowledge about the basics of design.

The museum’s permanent exhibition offers further interesting insights into the world of innovative and elaborate designs on an area of 4,000 square meters: Roughly 2,000 exhibits from 45 nations impart the outstanding quality of design. Touching and testing is important and required since good design becomes apparent in use.

The special exhibition “Design Experience Laboratory” is part of the EU project PROUD (People Researchers Organisations Using Design for innovation and co-creation).

About PROUD:
PROUD (People Researchers Organisations Using Design for co-creation and innovation) is a European project with the objective to make Europe a better place by co-designing for all and by all. PROUD brings designers together with public organisations, businesses and user communities to experience the added value of design thinking and design, while working on innovative solutions for today’s real world problems. PROUD helps and supports designers to have the right facilities, knowledge and expertise to play this key role in innovating, improving and consolidating Europe.