Admittedly it is always complicated to describe more or less abstract objects visually. And it is hard to combine arts and industry. When done so, many people understand the outcome as »design«. So it happened with the Audi design award for the eastern region of Germany where the task was to create a sculpture.

From three design schools – the Hochschule Wismar, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Westsächsische Hochschule Zwickau – only 8 concepts participated. A rather small competition. Task was to create a sculpture that is connected to the Corporate Design of Audi. The winner sculpture would be handed out on special occasions of Audi in the eastern region (of Germany – yes it is still in the heads…).

Winner of the competition with a prize money of 2.000 Euros is Sandra Huxoll. Not her fault is the wish-wash statement of the jury: »The design convinced the jury by its modern and at the same time timeless style. The model has a high design quality and plays with the viewing patterns. Another jury member praised the beautiful interplay between light and shadow. The Corporate Design of Audi retrieves itself in the dynamic, nearly closed ring and the floating shape of the model.« So far the evaluation of the jury: Uli Mayer-Johanssen, Board Member and Co-Founder of MetaDesign, Professor Marion Meyer, Hochschule Magdeburg Stendal, Sculpturer Thomas Reichenstein and Markus Siebrecht, Sales Manager Audi Region East.

First of all it is of course creditably that Audi is promoting young design in Germany. On the other hand the question arouses what kind of design this is. At least the arbitrary declaration of the jurors but even more the outcome – a quite uncommitted peace of stone – does not really provoke the idea that there could be a design concept behind it. It rather looks like a piece from a handicraft shape study. But the ideas of what design is are manifold and this should not be the topic here right now.

Anyhow – ROGER thinks there is a winner in the end: with those expressionless words and the talent to only use the most-outworn words borrowed from art critics of the stone age, the real effort was done by the jury with its felicitous declaration. This for sure is a shiny piece for ROGER’s »Promotion Poetry« section.