Axel Thallemer

Germany

Head of SCIONIC® I.D.E.A.L.

Graduate engineer, Professor Axel Thallemer was born in 1959 in Munich-Schwabing / Upper Bavaria. In 1994, he founded and headed Festo Corporate Design for long-lasting capital goods and components of industrial automation. Through strategic development, Professor Thallemer has enabled transformation from a subconsciously lived family brand into a truly global master brand by holistic, multi-disciplinary approaches. As of 2004, Professor Thallemer has been self-employed under the motto “... innovation input by team Airena®!”

Professor Thallemer studied Theory of Science, Logic and Theoretical Linguistics at the Ludwig Maximilians- University at Munich, and achieved the degree “Diplom-Ingenieur” in Civil Engineering at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. He received a DAAD postgraduate scholarship in Business, Public Relations and Psychology at NYSID, New York City / Manhattan, USA and a professorship for Computer Aided Design and Marketing, as well as Corporate Design at the Munich University of Applied Sciences since 1999. As of 2003 professorship for Technical Design at Academy of Fine Arts, Hamburg. From 2004 on, Dean of Industrial Design at Linz, Austria, repositioning under the brand “scionic®”. Visiting professor at University of Houston, Texas, USA as well as at Academies of Fine Arts & Design Guangzhou and Tsinghua University, Beijing, PRC and Shih-Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Professor Thallemer’s first appointment was in a brand identity agency at Hamburg. He then worked for five years as a Design Engineer in the styling studio at the Research and Development Center of Porsche AG, Stuttgart, initiating the introduction of the Computer Aided Styling process.

A member of the Roster of Experts in the area production technologies for the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, Professor Thallemer is also as member of the Founders’ Council involved in the German Design Council. He is an international member of the Industrial Designers Society of America. Professor Thallemer is a permanent participant of the Berlin Forum for Strategic Product and Business Area Development.

The author of regular essays published in journals, magazines, newspapers and books, Professor Thallemer has made keynote speeches, led workshops and given lectures in many countries. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and his designs are included in permanent collections of eight museums around the world.

Professor Thallemer has received numerous national and international awards and prizes. For example, in 1998 the Fluidic Muscle was given the Good Design Award of Japan. In 1999 the Fluidic Muscle was awarded the Best of Category/Industry – Product
Design Award by the Industry Forum in Hanover. In the same year, the Design Center of North Rhine Westphalia awarded the Fluidic Muscle the Red Dot Highest Design Quality. Also in 1999 the Organisational Committee and Scientific Advisory Board of the International Techtextil Symposium awarded the Techtextil Innovation Prize for the development of the Fluidic Muscle. In 2000, the Fluidic Muscle was honored with the highest German Prize from the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology in the form of the Federal Award for Product Design. In 2001, the Design Center of North Rhine Westphalia awarded Professor Thallemer for his leadership the “Design Team of the Year Trophy”. Since 2002 appointed Fellow of The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, London, founded in 1754.

The many other honors received by Professor Thallemer include the following: Federal Awards of German Product Design 1998, 2000 (twofold) and 2002 from the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology; Silver and Gold Industrial Design Excellence Awards USA, from the Industrial Designers Society of America; Good Design
Awards from The Chicago Athenaeum; Excellence for Material Development and Best of Show at the Material ConneXion, New York City; Best of Category, ID Annual Design Review for ID Magazine, New York City; Contender, 5th in the world, of Core77 International Heavyweight Design Championship; The Animago 3D Award, Los Angeles; Merit and Distinctive Merit Awards from the Art Directors Club of New York, USA; Design Week Award from the London Design Week; Singapore Design Award; Internationaler Designpreis Baden-Wurttemberg; The Saarlandischer Staatspreis Produktdesign; The Fraunhofer Office 21 Award; The Busse Longlife Design Award; The World Technology Network Award for Design.

Winner of Innovation Award of the German Printing Industry 2009, 1. Prize in the category “books”.