Talks

Nina Sieverding

14:00 – 15:00 Talk

Carmen Mauerer, a long-standing communication and packaging designer, talks about searching for purpose in the design profession and her journey from civic engagement and voluntary political work to a full-time role at the non-profit organisation Armut und Gesundheit in Deutschland (“Poverty and Health in Germany”).

She is a local politician for the Die Linke party and serves voluntarily as co-chair of the parliamentary group in the Mainz City Council, advocating for social justice and inclusion. In her primary career, she works in communications for Armut und Gesundheit in Deutschland, where she combines a critical perspective on social inequalities with practical work in poverty alleviation and healthcare access for all. Mauerer studied Communication Design in Darmstadt and worked for several years in the packaging design industry.

15:00 – 15:30 Get-Together & Networking

15:30 – 16:30 Talk: Together Instead of Against Each Other – Trade Union Work in the Design Industry

Unpaid internships, overtime, low pay, a lack of standard fee structures, and insufficient labour protection for the self-employed and freelancers: design is often treated as a passion rather than recognised as a profession. In their talk, Jule Eretier and Hannah Böker present the Designgewerkschaft (Design Union) – an independent group of designers.

Since May 2025, the Designgewerkschaft has been part of ver.di Bildende Kunst & Design (the visual arts and design section of the ver.di trade union), aiming to highlight workplace grievances across the industry, demand fair conditions, and drive political change. The union organises regular meetups, events, and workshops, formulates political demands, and campaigns collectively for a fair, diverse, and supportive design industry. In this talk, Jule Eretier and Hannah Böker discuss alternative ways of working: solidarity over competition, collective strength over individualism. They share insights into what union work practically entails and discuss their political demands.

Jule Eretier is a communication strategist and designer working at the intersection of design, politics, and social transformation. Jule currently works for the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf District Assembly (BVV) in Berlin, bringing experience across political communications, public administration, and cultural project communications. Previously, Jule led communications for the cultural programme enter – Junge Kulturregion Chemnitz and worked in the Saxon State Parliament. As part of the Designgewerkschaft within ver.di, Jule advocates for fair working conditions in the creative sector, focusing on austerity policy, transformation, and supportive alliances between design, culture, and social causes.

Hannah Böker is a Berlin-based graphic designer and web developer. In her work, she designs flexible, cross-media graphic systems for cultural and commercial clients. She studied Integrated Design at the Cologne International School of Design and Visual Communication at Zurich University of the Arts, most recently working at Studio Pandan in Berlin. Her core focus within the Designgewerkschaft in ver.di is the issue of self-exploitation caused by over-identification with one's career, alongside the high level of personal drive and passion that creatives bring to their work. She is committed to encouraging designers to transition from individual ethical design practice toward political collaboration.

17:00 – 18:00 clouds and branches. Performative Reading by Louisa Schrimpf

Louisa Schrimpf reads texts and fragments based on observations of inner and outer landscapes, combining them via live projection with found footage and photographic archive material. Places, emotional states, views from train windows: the result is a collage of text fragments and imagery – a map of perception and memory.

Louisa Schrimpf is a visual artist whose work primarily centers on text and objects. In her artistic practice, she explores psychological processes, human thought, emotion, and behaviour. Her focus lies on themes such as perception, landscape, memory, protection, and transience – taking an interest in both individual and collective processes, as well as the spaces in between.

Curated by

Nina Sieverding is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the online publication the thing Magazine, a curator, and a journalist. After studying Communication Design, Art Theory, and Integrated Design, she worked as a journalist, copywriter, and graphic designer before joining the editorial team of the design journal form in 2019. From 2020 to 2023, she and Anton Rahlwes served as Editors-in-Chief of form. In 2023, the duo founded the thing Magazine. Sieverding has been lecturing at various universities since 2022.