Simple craftsmanship or formally aesthetic product design is no longer enough today. Escaping into spectacular styles is counter-productive in the long run, as these products contribute to the loss of authenticity of businesses through rapid changes in styles and fashions.
It is therefore becoming less a question of form and more one of content. These processes include not only meaningful product designs but also the creation of business processes such as online-shopping or of business positioning.

“Integrated product development, that is the simultaneous development of products, communication and distribution, are decisive for sustained market success.“
Advisory board member Joachim Schirrmacher

In the fashion industry, it is becoming increasingly important to create collections with a recognisable brand character, just as „family faces“ have become standard in the automobile industry. Such fashion collections are still very rare, preventing many companies from developing a brand image.

Innovative strategies require not only great talent and intuition but are increasingly based on research and development. Design, which has traditionally included not only economic interests but also social and cultural interests, is therefore undergoing a significant structural change process in parallel to overall economic developments:

• Design is now only relatively object-oriented and must become more and more process and strategy-oriented.
• An increasingly virtual business economy is leading to new fields in design (convergence of media, interfaces, eBusiness).
• Design is therefore developing from a creative to a knowledge-based discipline.

Craftsmanship and “creative“ development now form only the foundation of the fashion designer’s profession. Well-founded theory (design theory, sociology, psychology), design management (qualitative market research, project management, strategy, branding) etc., now belong to today’s vital strategic competencies.

This is the point at which the foundation works - through direct support and indirect guidance. It promotes work and projects that are based on a strong conceptual format, and which deepen or newly expand existing skills and knowledge. Projects should be dedicated to the increasing amalgamation of sports and fashion. Projects by interdisciplinary teams are explicitly desired.