Rökona was honoured with the prestigious German Design Award 2025 in the Excellent Product Design – Material and Surfaces category!

The German Design Award is the premium prize of the German Design Council. With its global scope and international appeal, it is one of the most prestigious awards in the design landscape across all industries. Since 2012, the German Design Award has been identifying key design trends, presenting them to a broad public and honouring them. Extraordinary submissions in product design, communication design and architecture are honoured each year.

With our sustainable textile sense of leather – Afilia®, we were able to convince the jury of our textile.our Afilia® – the sustainable textile sense of leather, combines high-quality design, the advantages of warp knitting technology and the current topic of neo-ecology. Developed for the automotive industry, the article fulfils the highest technical textile standards. The spun-dyed Afilia® saves water in the production process. The special texture of the surface and the handle make the article a high-quality leather alternative, not only in the automotive sector. It offers versatile design options through cut-out techniques, embossing and printing.

Thanks to our dedicated team and we look forward to the award ceremony at the beginning of next year.

Nomination The German Design Awards sets the highest standards for determining its award winners: In a nomination process, expert committees of the German Design Council invite only those products and communication design services to participate in the competition that demonstrably stand out due to their design quality. All awards are determined in a multi-stage judging process and during a two-day jury meeting.

Categories for a Broad Design Spectrum In order to adequately reflect the diversity of our design culture, The German Design Awards are divided into the disciplines “Excellent Product Design”, “Excellent Communications Design” and “Excellent Architecture”. These cover all areas of everyday life. The “Gold” and “Winner” awards are presented in each category.

The Transformative Power of Design Whether digitalization, AI or circular design – The German Design Awards platform reveals the contribution design can make to the sustainable transformation of the economy. Now more than ever, outstanding design can provide answers to the challenges of our time that focus on the impact of products and services on the planet and our society – through multi-perspective approaches, sustainable and circular design processes or resource- and environmentally friendly production. The German Design Awards have set themselves the goal of promoting the diverse transformation tasks of our time through design and providing orientation for others through outstanding examples.

Focus on Circular Design

The additional category “Circular Design” highlights particularly innovative solutions from companies and designers that implement the current objectives of the circular economy and provide inspiring impetus.

Gold The “Gold” award of the German Design Awards is the highest distinction awarded for an excellent, holistic and innovative design achievement. Gold award winners provide groundbreaking and important impulses for entire industries. The internationally renowned jury selects one or a maximum of two “Gold” award winners per category, depending on the quality of the submissions.

Winner The “Winner” award of The German Design Awards recognizes outstanding and exemplary design achievements in the context of a specific category. An appropriate number of design products are honored as “Winners” in each category. These are selected by a separate jury of experts in each category of The German Design Awards.

German Design Council – the Organizer The German Design Council was founded in 1953 by a resolution of the German Bundestag and sponsored by German industry to meet the growing need for information on design in the economy. Since its foundation, the German Design Council has promoted design as a lever for economic success. Today, the foundation is one of the world’s leading competence centers for communication and knowledge transfer in the field of design. With competitions, exhibitions, conferences, consulting services, research and studies, it opens up new horizons for representatives of business and the design discipline, always with the aim of communicating the value contribution of design to corporate success.

Today, over 330 of the most important German companies belong to the German Design Council’s circle of founders.

The German Design Awards 2025 facts

The proportion of international submissions was 48%. In total, products and projects from 59 countries were submitted to the award.

A total of 65 products/projects were awarded “Gold” in the three disciplines in 2025, 39 of them in “Excellent Product Design”, 16 in “Excellent Communications Design” and 12 in “Excellent Architecture”.

Jury

The German Design Awards 2025 jury is made up of 16 nationalities. It is made up of renowned design experts from business, education and science as well as the design industry.

The Jury Members of the German Design Awards 2025:

Martin Pauli, Arup

Daniela Bohlinger, BMW Group Inventionen

Manuel Bickel, Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie

Julie Hjort, Danish Design Centre

Pradyumna Vyas , Confederation of Indian Industry, World Design Organization

Teresa Franqueira, University of Aveiro

Jeff Dayu Shi, Dragonfly Design Center Beijing & Shanghai

Evan Jerry, Studio Anansi

Julia Pültz, Vestre GmbH

Silvia Olp, aed e.V.

Andreas Diefenbach, Phoenix Design GmbH & Co. KG

Konrad Bergström, X Shore, Zound Industries (Marshall Group)

Elke Malek, Hadi Teherani Design GmbH

Bernd Eigenstetter, KISKA

Massimo Frascella, AUDI AG

Christian Zanzotti, ZANZOTTI INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Jeannette Altherr, Altherr Désile Park

Werner Aisslinger, studio aisslinger GmbH & Co KG

Christine Matz, Tatic Designstudio

Patrick Speck, LIXIL Global Design, EMENA

Juliet Kavishe, International Council of Design, Pan African Design Institute

Andrea Macruz

Alain Gilles, Alain Gilles The Studio

Reinhard Pascher, Pascher+Heinz

Ruth Oberrauch, Oberalp Group

Marius Jung, Moncler

Annie Kuschel, LEONHARD KURZ Stiftung & Co. KG

Ansger Eidens, Brand University of Applied Sciences

Jessica Sandoval Mamba Studio

Lukas Cottrell, Peter Schmidt Group GmbH

Linda Stannieder, TMRW Ventures

Jianjun Xie, Dongdao Creative Branding Group

Laurent Lacour hauser lacour Kommunikationsgestaltung GmbH

Hans Meier-Kortwig, gmk Markenberatung

Jens Grefen, Interbrand GmbH

Patricia Reiners, Patricia Reiners

Luzia Hein, Studio Luzia Hein

Ole Heydekamp, Deutsche Telekom AG

Monica Ahanonu, Monica Ahanonu Design

Daniel Knies, deSter GmbH

Roland Bechmann, Werner Sobek

Oanh Nguyen Henriksen, Dorte Mandrup

Siegfried Zhiqiang Wu, Tongji University

Vera Hartmann, Sauerbruch Hutton

Tina Kortmann, UNStudio

Tomek Rygalik, Studio Rygalik

Corinna Kretschmar-Joehnk, JOI-Design Innenarchitekte

Jasmin Jouhar