Talks

Felix Kosok & Heart Directors Club

Talks 14:00 – 16:00

Chris Campe is a designer and author who works with language and lettering as her medium. She shapes content and form simultaneously—for instance, by designing protest signs. Her protest signs opposing the far-right went viral, inspiring imitators across Germany and beyond. The signs won international design awards and are now part of the collection at the Haus der Geschichte (House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany) in Bonn. Chris Campe has published seven books on typography, teaches at universities in Germany and abroad, and designs postage stamps for the Federal Ministry of Finance. She fosters connections within the design community through the Berlin Letters Festival and Typostammtisch Hamburg.

14:00 – 15:00

Lisa Kolbe is a designer and has served as Art Director of the weekly newspaper der Freitag for ten years. She oversees the visual design for both the print edition and digital products, leading a seven-person team comprising photo editors and graphic designers. In recent years, her work has shifted noticeably toward the digital realm, bringing the question of what design means in digital spaces to the forefront. At the WDC, Lisa Kolbe discusses the pressure to adapt that design faces when a small publisher confronts the logic of platforms and algorithms, and what this implies for democracy online. She also demonstrates the impact that can still be achieved on a smaller scale.

15:00 – 16:00

17:00 – 18:00 Panel discussion on Communities / Community Building

Ninu Dramis, Concept Development, Partnerships & Program Curation at FABRIC – Future Fashion Lab
How can we revitalize city centers through collaborations and bold concepts? Collaboration accelerates industry transformation.

Salome Roessler, Freelance photographer for 20 years; also a board member of the Female Photoclub
Female Photoclub e.V. specializes in increasing the visibility of photographers; it has around 500 female members nationwide and is a member of the German Photo Council (Deutscher Fotorat e.V.) and the Alliance for Maternity Protection for the Self-Employed (Bündnis Mutterschutz für Selbstständige).

The FPC offers its members a unique and powerful network within the photography scene.

Tina Kohlmann / Dominik Eckel
EAT IT e.V.: A collective that promotes queer performance art and organizes interventions within (museum) institutions. EAT IT regularly hosts a drag brunch, inviting queer performance artists—including international ones. Their primary goal is to create a space that supports artists in freely expressing themselves through performance and provides a stage that is as diverse, low-barrier, and accessible as possible. EAT IT frequently collaborates with institutions in Frankfurt and Offenbach; events organized by the collective include "READ IT" (a children's storytime), "CAKE" (a collaboration with Tanzhaus West), and various other interventions focused on queering spaces and fostering engagement. Diversity, subversion, and queerness are central to everything they do—and not just in their merchandise.

Moderator Nikolai Dobreff, Art Director and Founder of the Heart Directors Club
Nikolai Dobreff works as an art director for people and brands with a social conscience across the cultural, political, and social sectors. His clients include the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Paul Mellon Centre London, and Viva con Agua. Through the Heart Directors Club, he launched an initiative that views design as a tool for social change and brings creatives together for social projects.

Heart Directors Club

The Heart Directors Club is a platform for design with a purpose. Through events, discussions, and collaborative projects, it brings together creative professionals who wish to use their skills to make a positive social impact.

Since 2020, more than 250 international creatives have engaged with the Heart Directors Club. The HDC was founded by Nikolai Dobreff in Hamburg.

In addition to fostering cultural exchange, the HDC develops tangible creative projects, collaborations, and formats for companies, institutions, and initiatives.