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I like to say that it was a little mistake.
It was never our intention
to become Germany's biggest design festival.
My name is Joerg Suermann.
I'm the founder and CEO of DMY Berlin.
DMY organises the Berlin
international design festival.
It's one of our projects.
We're also hosting the German Designpreis
and we promote Berlin design globally.
We'll go to the production office to get my stuff.
Then we'll go to the Hong Kong Trade Center.
My little desk.
Every day, I'm out and about
from 9am until midnight.
My day is filled with meetings and lectures,
with interviews. Even more so right now,
because of the festival.
You deal with it. We have to discuss with them
how it's going to work tonight.
I should be back by 5
or 5:30pm at the latest. Bye.
People laugh coz the boss
always has promotional materials on him,
but it's my project, my baby. Why wouldn't I?
I came to Berlin in the mid-90s
and worked as a graphic and web designer.
Back then, and I'm afraid
this hasn't changed much,
there were lots of designers but very few clients.
Back then, I invited 20 people into my studio.
I said, let's show our projects during the day
and do some evening workshops
and party at night.
And the format worked so well
that now, 11 years later,
I rent the old Tempelhof airport.
This year we have more than 500 designers
from 40 countries.
What we do most of all is communication.
Keep left, then turn left onto Lindenstrasse.
It's communication services.
90 per cent of my work consists of excel tables
and writing emails.
It's here, I guess.
The Foreign Office.
It has to be... He said it was across the street.
Apart from that I noticed
that it's a lot of fun for me
to deal with design
without the pressure
of having to create something myself.
I can always take the step
back to designing something myself if I want to.
But the knowledge I have gained over the years
from the thousands of designers
who have applied to us
and whom I've seen internationally is unique.
It's very valuable and very inspiring.
So I don't really miss it.
Sometimes I'm envious of my project managers
who get to meet all the designers.
We found a parking spot. I'm afraid we're late.
But I hope it's all
within an acceptable time frame.
I think they have a security checkpoint.
FOREIGN OFFICE, MITTE
I'm afraid we didn't get permission
to shoot at short notice.
I've just been to the Asia Pacific Weeks,
organised by the Foreign Office.
It's probably easy to picture men in black suits
and a room in oak.
You have to consider what you say
and how you say it,
because it was all very formal,
with politicians and stuff,
but I actually like this kind of tension.
It's a bit like moving around in a lion's den
without running away from the lion.
My security is so amazing
I might not get into my own festival.
Hello.
What's he doing?
He's not on the list and he doesn't have a ribbon.
Who is it?
Won't the car start?
Ms Boehme! Everything alright?
I'm happy. There is a very good atmosphere.
She's my CFO woman.
If she's all smiles on a bench,
it's all going very well for us right now.
Now we're off to the jury's meeting.
We'll determine the winners of the DMY Award.
Bad design is still something that doesn't work
or something that makes life more complicated,
but reducing good design
to function and form
which was the definition of design 30 years ago
is totally out of date.
Lately, new materials have been crucial
due to scarcity of resources;
environmental issues,
individual characters, different approaches,
production facilities, 3D printers,
these innovations create
new facets of design, too.
The designers work with them
and this changes the design.
The last thing on the agenda is over.
We've just handed over the award.
Now the night is waiting for me.
So thank you eNtR Berlin...
Subtitles by Stephanie Geiges