Rhine-Waal University student wins gold in Art Directors Club competition

“Uneo” is a modular stool system based on traditional stool shapes from around the world. The various seats can be combined with any base from the range. The concept allows customers to create their own unique stool, combining the styles of different countries and continents in numerous different ways. Lisa-Maria Kamysz submitted her creative idea, including a corresponding brand development from branding to corporate design and won gold.

The Art Directors Club (ADC) Junior Competition is one of the most important creative competitions in Europe and a great opportunity for young creative talents to attract attention. Juniors can participate in the competition with their semester, final or practical work in the main categories Experimental Design, Communication Design, Craft, Digital Media, Audiovisual Communication and Editorial. Each entry may only be submitted once. All works submitted to the ADC Junior Competition are judged by the same jurors as in the "senior" ADC Competition.

The jury especially praised the border-crossing character of Kamysz's work: "When product design becomes corporate design, when both are reinvented, and when both are perfectly combined, then a work is can really set new standards in its category. Uneo deals with the cultural history of sitting and creates a completely new product family by skilfully combining different things. At the same time, it creates a visual system that could not be more iconic. Great thesis! And hopefully on the market soon."

The concept allows customers to create their own unique stool, combining the styles of different countries and continents in numerous different ways. A Chinese-inspired seat can be combined with an African-looking foot. The result is not only a series of stools, but also a subtle plea for cultural exchange.

Kamysz describes "Uneo" as a series of extraordinary pieces of furniture. The products combine influences from different cultures and revive forgotten aesthetics in a modern form. The "intercultural" stools are intended to demonstrate how well apparently opposing views can fit together and symbolise the merging of two cultures. The bachelor thesis was supervised by Professor Christoph Zielke, Professor of Media Design and Head of the Information and Communication Design programme. "Lisa-Maria Kamysz has developed an impressive integrative work that goes far beyond the boundaries of classical communication design," emphasizes Professor Zielke.