Trends EN
Sustainability and future viability
Sustainability and future viability
Did you know that the topic of sustainability has its origins in the forestry industry? For the first time at the beginning of the 18th century, forestry principles of action were formulated to fulfil and maintain the ecological, economic and social functions of a forest. This happened at a time when the rampant demand for wood was causing forest stocks to shrink worldwide, thus leading to a rethink. What was laid down in various principles of action at that time still applies today: future viability through sustainability.
Tomorrow’s problems catch up with us yesterday. We can all see live that the whole world is changing completely within a few weeks. What seemed like a gloomy fiction is reality from one day to the next, and that across regional and national borders worldwide.
The question is rather: How do we actually want to live tomorrow?
So we know the problems, the term climate change is now several decades old, yet basically nothing has changed, why? We describe this dilemma as the Eco-Bermuda Triangle. Our ability to think in context seems lost, we are simply overwhelmed and trapped in old patterns. To achieve a better and more sustainable future, we need to start overcoming our problem of imagining the future and designing and working out our future ourselves – we need to innovate, without pause.
What does this mean for designing the future? We need design as a competence, in other words, to design with new values. Sustainability must be internalised, cycles are a must. In addition, we need to see innovation as a strategy and a necessity – to learn, to change and to dare something new.
GENERATIONDESIGN stands for shaping the future (design) with a focus on sustainability (generations) – we create future.
We live this philosophy at our location in the ELBA Zukunftswerk – formerly the well-known ELBA binders were manufactured here, today a modern location for many start-ups and companies.
This is also the case for the young Wuppertal start-up Local Life, which specialises in the sale of regional food and is thus committed to sustainability. With our expertise in business consulting, we support the young Wuppertal company in an advisory capacity.
Further competences can be found across our portfolio, for example, a few years ago we built a complete virtual and interactive showroom for the medical company QIAGEN GmbH to support digital product communication.
For Kostal Industrie Elektrik GmbH, we created the product design of the PLENTICORE Plus photovoltaic inverter as well as the associated RedDot Award-winning KOSTAL Solar App, which allows professional monitoring of one’s own photovoltaic or storage system conveniently while on the move.
We have the knowledge, the expertise and the ability to advise and design sustainably. Do you have the courage and the consistency to develop your business in all facets in this direction? We are looking forward to this task and will always question ourselves in this respect. Our active networking and cooperation with partners such as Effizienz Agentur NRW, as well as our excellent consulting tool, the GD Innovation Roadmap, stand for sustainable and innovative consulting and design across all areas. We know the ways of implementation and can apply and implement them.
Experience with us the shaping of the future, the advantages and the added value for your company and for a common sustainable future.
Contact regarding the subject
Holger Bramsiepe
Managing Partner
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New Work
New Organisation | New Work
“When it comes to our work in the future, we should strive to make it a successful future.” – is what we say in regards to our focus-topics new ways of working or “new work” as it is called everywhere.
In our perspective, many principles and perspectives of this new way of working offer an ideal opportunity to better understand and shape the way into the future in the trials and tribulations of a VUCA world.
However, we prefer to speak of “ReNew your Work”, because all facets of New Work, which is based on the thoughts and concepts of Frithjof Bergmann from the 1980s, cannot be put into practice.
The changes in the world confront us with the question of how we deal with complexity, uncertainty, instability and ambiguity and how we ourselves and our organisations respond to them. It sounds simple, however, more trust and collaboration, better perception and more agile action, creating understanding through orientation and transparency, more creative experimentation and more ability for self-direction are not easy to achieve – but they are the much-needed ingredients of an organization that wants to redefine its work.
The good news is that a new way of working based on these principles has an immediate effect and contributes directly to and helps us to meet our complex future challenges. In addition to digital, collaborative tools, this includes new team-oriented working methods and an individual understanding of one’s own tasks. As an employee or manager, I need to know at all times in which working atmosphere – e.g. creative-worker or power-worker – I am, in order to be able to solve my task with the right attitude, the right tools in the appropriate environment.
The bad news is that far too little thought is given in companies and organisations to the way of working, that further education and organisational learning are weak and that people just continue as before.
It is a major transformation, design and communication task to develop the working methods in the direction of “New Work” – we would be happy to tell you more about it and support you with its implementation.
Contact regarding the subject
Holger Bramsiepe
Managing Partner
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„Design and Mobility“
„Design and Mobility“
Questions regarding mobility are of course not only an important field on the megatrend map and, with the automotive sector, an important economic factor, mobility is a topic that we have been dealing with and encountering in many forms as innovators, designers and communicators for years.
If we look at our work over the past few years, we have “mobility” as a topic in so many fields of our activities and services that we call “design and mobility” as an expertise and focus area today and for the future. Even though we always look forward with passion towards the future, we would like to start a short reflection here.
Holger Bramsiepe started early in the automotive sector with an internship at VW Design, at that time still in Düsseldorf, and still shows a great passion for this design sector today. This is reflected today above all in his involvement in networks related to the automotive sector, such as the FOresight Network (Future Interior), the Automotive Cluster NRW (Future Study) and, for example, in his consultancy and customer relations with the Erwin Hymer Group, a globally important manufacturer of leisure vehicles.
Keith Alan Koster was also connected with the automotive sector at an early stage, so he developed and designed trade fair appearances, brand presentations for car brands and even developed a showroom in Paris on the Champs-Elysee. Today he and the GENERATIONDESIGN team deal with complex digital animations for traffic monitoring systems or real-time applications and virtual demonstrators of locking systems, to name but a few. For a major manufacturer of interior mechatronic components, we even realized everything in-house. Innovative product and interface design (UX/UI), high-end animation to present the product system as well as a real ” seating box for the IAA”. You can find examples in our references.
We have been able to further develop many of our competencies with our customers from the various mobility and automotive sectors and have used them for joint success. The GD Innovation Roadmap, for example, was the basis of the successful study on the future opportunities of the automotive supply industry in the Bergischen Land region, whereas the topic of industrial design with Limbic® takes place in consultations, coaching and concrete design of products and studies. The quality and technology in the field of visualization and animation is growing continuously with the complex requirements of the industry – and last but not least, appropriate communication concepts in all media must be developed for companies at all points of the supply chain.
Now we are curious about the tasks and opportunities of transformations in this area – what “drive” would you like to take up with us?
Contact regarding the subject
Holger Bramsiepe
Managing Partner
Keith Alan Koster
Managing Partner
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Corporate communication
Corporate communication – successfully accompanying and supporting changes with a focus on brands and employees
Corporate communication – successfully accompanying and supporting changes with a focus on brands and employees
“If you ask companies what is seen as an urgent problem and the first thing to be quickly improved, 90 percent will probably say: communication!”
Strictly speaking, communication does not only mean the “interpersonal”. Nowadays, every company has to communicate various complex topics to its employees – digitalisation, new work, market and brand changes, as well as dry topics from the areas of company health management and occupational safety – to name but a few.
A structured and user-oriented internal brand communication to the employees is often missing and towards the customer it is often located in the marketing department – but the know-how is unavailable in the area of press and public relations – not to mention internal organizational areas.
A distinct and well-designed brand-oriented communication towards the employees helps companies to better achieve their goals and to awaken and strengthen the positive motivation of their organisation. Numerous studies have confirmed that companies depend on the quality, qualification and “brand loyalty” of their employees to meet the complex challenges of the future. The fact that good creation and design helps in the mediation and communication is also regarded as proven.
So not only more, but also an increasingly better communication within the company should be achieved, because that way you achieve something else: the organisational development in the sense of “New Work” and a learning, understanding organisation.
Have you ever thought about giving your employees the same quality of communication on simple and complex topics as you provide your customers? Do you segment communication according to roles and tasks in the organisation? Do you convey knowledge and changes differently than reports about the last summer festivities? Is the company newspaper the only medium designed and planned for distribution? Do you use internal “brands” and “claims” to convey complex or difficult topics from corporate operations in a more simple and emotional way?
Afterwards, you should be able to answer the question of whether the existing communication to employees conveys your employer brand and corporate values in such a way that they are understood and also communicated positively to the outside world. Lets talk about the role of new communication concepts towards your employees for the development of your company.
Contact regarding the subject
Holger Bramsiepe
Managing Partner
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