Intelligent Design – The Red Dot Design Museum

For six short weeks I have moved to a different part of Germany for my job: The Ruhr region. I am lucky to be living with some awfully great people in Bochum, but I work in Essen. Essen is a particularly interesting city in this area and it was named European Capital of Culture 2010. One of the most iconic places in Essen is Zeche Zollverein, a UNESCO world heritage site. And within that retired industrial complex, there are a few really great museums.

This particular museum’s exhibit includes items that have won the Red Dot Design Award.

And the building itself looks quite stunning as well.

Here are my wonderful hosts, Toni and Patrick!

Ain’t they cute?

There is a mix of information and actual objects on display and the museum covers a wide range of vastly different things, for example furniture, technology, toys, labels, fabrics, cars, medical equipment, and so on.

Here’s a leafy looking lamp:

A surprisingly comfy sofa:

Some fabric with a cool 3 D effect:

Wooden flooring with stitches:

A scooter, that is so innovative it is a bit hard to drive (but Patrick is obviously doing his best):

I am more in love with this carafe, than I have any reason to be:

Toni ogling a flying object:

A tap with added ease of use for your dirty, dirty hands:

This beautiful dish set:

Some bright guys hanging out in the attic:

Erotic toys:

A pebbly tile design:

A fancy font by a fancy fountain pen manufacturer:

These colorful images:

A label I like at lot:

A book about food-themed online resources:

This cute toy set:

A backpack that looks like a paper bag:

This beautiful oil lamp ornament:

A golden wall, that just exists and has never been honored with the award, but I liked it, so I took a picture of it and put it here:

The added special exhibition was about Japanese design.

This bottle design is so absolutely gorgeous!

A bottle costs about 50 € and I don’t drink sake, but I would like to have that bottle.

This is… mostly paper, I think.

The fire ring is also beautiful and about a meter wide, so… heavy.

This umbrella has a different folding concept:

And this is an MRI machine, not a sex toy:

And so we were through. It took us the better part of 3 hours, I think.

Museum selfie!

This is what the building looks like from the outside. See the dot?

There is a whole lot of industrial beauty around:

And this is a miniature model of the site:

We then had a few beverages and some great conversation at the super cute cafe.

This table is part of the cafe, and might have been my personal design highlight of the day:

That sofa, on the other hand, was very disappointing.

It is made of plastic and so very deceptive and so very hard.