Produktdesign (Product Design) Students Receive Rimowa Design Prize Honourable Mention
Niels Cremer and Tom Kemter received an honourable mention at the Rimowa Design Prize ceremony on Tuesday, 13 May 2025. Their »Standalone« redesign of the traditional crutch won over the jury. The Produktdesign (Product Design) students from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar received a total of 10,000 euros in prize money for their design.
Calling the project »Standalone«, Tom Kemter and Niels Cremer transformed the traditional forearm crutch into an aesthetic and functional aid. »Crutches are intended to enable mobility and independence, but their design has barely changed in over a hundred years, and they are often stigmatised«, explains Niels Cremer. »It was important for us to design an aid that is not only functional, but that is also aesthetically and materially pleasing«, adds Tom Kemter. »A key issue with conventional crutches is that they cannot stand on their own. Our fold-out feet solve this issue in a practical way: they allow the user to use their hands freely, thus giving them much more flexibility in their everyday life.«
This is the first time that the Faculty of Art and Design has participated in the competition. Two student projects from the Produktdesign (Product Design) degree programme made it to the final of the prestigious design competition. Marius Kintzel and Julian Solmsdorff’s »TONBO«, a representation of the classic hand truck, is ultra-lightweight, can carry up to 100 kilogrammes, and is easy to manoeuvre. As finalists, these two students will also receive 5,000 euros in prize money.
RIMOWA Design Prize Ceremony
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Twenty-one projects, three from Weimar, made it to the semi-finals of the third edition of this competition. Each project was paired with a mentor with expertise in design, architecture, or art. The team refined their concepts during the two-month mentoring phase. Seven projects were selected from the group for the final, which brought the designs into the implementation stage in a practical development phase.
All information on the Rimowa Design Prize can be found at rimowadesignprize.com.
This year’s finalists, including the winning project and information on »Standalone«, can be found at: rimowadesignprize.com/en/2025-finalists
The project received competition support from Pierre Jorge Gonzalez and Judith Haase from the Berlin architecture firm Gonzalez Haase AAS. Gerrit Batist, Professor of Design and Management, and Niklas Hamann, artistic staff member in the Professorship of Industrial Design, supervised the students at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Questions can be directed to Romy Weinhold, Press and Public Relations Officer for the Faculty of Art and Design by phone at +49 / 36 43 / 58 11 86 or by e-mail at romy.weinhold[at]uni-weimar.de.