The poster featured to the right was designed for this year's World Industrial Design Day. Download a larger image (JPG - 176KB).

About the design
The poster was designed by Uwe Loesch, an internationally renowned German graphic designer. In creating the central design, Loesch was inspired by the Classical Greek philosopher and mathematician, Plato.

The poster shows a polyhedron, defined simply as "a geometric object with flat faces and straight edges," which is used to symbolise that design is always a result of aesthetics and mathematics. The motif is also called "dull tetrahedron". The relationship of the sides are constructed as golden ratio, where (a+b) / a = a / b.

Finally, the polyhedron form demonstrates the transformation of a two-dimensional surface into a three-dimensional object, which is the process that takes place in the process of industrial design, where a drawing is turned into an object.

About the designer

Uwe Loesch

Uwe Loesch was born in 1943 in Dresden, Germany. He has lived in Dusseldorf since 1958, where he studied design at Fachhochschule Düsseldorf University. After graduating, he worked as a freelance graphic artist and lyricist for publishers, industry and increasingly for social and cultural institutions. Museums, festivals, fairs and exhibitions, as well as the political cabaret, "The Kom (m) ödchen Dusseldorf", are among his clients. He has created numerous posters as part of his campaigns, and has participated in over 100 exhibitions around the world. www.uweloesch.de

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red dot interview with the designers
red dot interviewed Professor Loesch to talk about the vision of his draft.

red dot: Professor Loesch, you have designed the poster for World Industrial Design Day. An extraordinary design whose central graphic element is a polyhedron-a quotation of Albrecht Duerer’s famous copper engraving 'Melancolia', a cryptical work that still refuses itself to a comprehensive interpretation and which dashes the hopes of every viewer to grasp its entire meaning. What was your intention when using the polyhedron as a graphic element on your poster?

Prof. Uwe Loesch: To meet the challenge of "World Industrial Design Day" with the means of a poster it is necessary to go back to the roots. Albrecht Duerer, who, as is generally known, examined the basics of geometry in detail, pictured the object quoted by me on the poster in one of his master engravings in 1514. Apart from this direct cultural and historical reference the poster scene generally refers to the mathematical as well as philosophical principles of design. The unbiased viewer would wish to name the object but at this point he will fail. Above all, the poster addresses the transition from the surface into the three-dimensional space, from the draft to the object. There is a cosmically universal something about it and, unexpectedly, it is round. Viewed from this aspect, the illustration of a polyhedron derived from Platonic bodies is a very direct visualisation of the term design. It unites what is taking shape. If you like, you may as well take my poster literally: Good design is always a bone of contention-a matter of course for bad design.

red dot: World Industrial Design Day on 29 June is a global initiative to give industrial designers and design enthusiasts the opportunity to advertise for a worldwide understanding of industrial design and anything included therein. Its equivalent is 'World Graphic Design Day' that takes place on April 27, which is the founding date of Icograda. What do such initiatives mean to you?

Prof. Uwe Loesch: Anniversaries are memories of the future. They are both a cause and an obligation to highlight the object of our interest. Industrial design and communication design strongly influence our aesthetic feeling. Throughout the world they are the expression of an attitude of mindset and spirit, which is making the visual understandable. In view of global competition, design has become a significant industrial factor. Developments in the field of new technologies become manifest and useful only through the relevant design concepts.

red dot: Professor Loesch, you are a professor for communication design at the Bergische University Wuppertal and you work in your own studio. Your works are part of important collections and you have received numerous awards. Looking back on your experience as a communication designer, what piece of advice would you give the new generation of designers?

Prof. Uwe Loesch: They should try to increase their innate pleasure in designing thus taking themselves seriously. Afterwards, they may look at their work results from a critical distance and hopefully, they will know what a delight and what an art it is, time and again, to fail.