Prof. Markus Frenzl

Chair in Design and Media Theory

High-Tech Agenda Chair in Design and Innovation Cultures
(Transfers section)

Applied design research, design and innovation cultures, applied cultural semiotics and phenomena of everyday culture, the public image of design and the reception of modernist design, design as a social, cultural and transformative practice in the context of digitalisation, globalisation and Transformation.

Courses on offer

Design theory, design criticism, design education, and researchers, conceptual, experimental, curatorial or editorial design projects in the fields of ‘Social Change and Transformative Processes’ and ‘Design Theory and Design Culture’ (BA and MA).

Career history

Markus Frenzl studied product design at the Offenbach University of Art and Design and, through his studio 4gzl/designkontext, works in the fields of design consultancy, conceptual development and corporate publishing for companies such as ClassiCon, COR, e15, Lufthansa, Magazin, Merck, Phonak and Serien.Lighting. Many of his projects have won design awards. He is a member of several advisory boards (MCBW, German Design Day, DIVE, GDG) and design associations, and is frequently active as a speaker, curator and jury member.

He publishes in specialist and mainstream media on the public perception of design, on topics relating to design history and everyday culture, and on design as a social, cultural and transformative practice. In 2009, a selection of his essays was published in the volume *Was heißt hier Designkultur?*. In 2019, his collection of columns, “Designerglück – On Design People and Other Mysteries of Design Culture” (designerglueck.de), was published.

Since 2010, he has been teaching as a Professor of design and media theory at the Department of Design on the bachelor's degree programme in Design and the master's degree programme in Applied Design Research. In addition to teaching design theory, he offers projects with a focus on research, conceptual work, experimentation, curation or editorial work. Cooperation partners in university projects include Bauerfeind AG, form magazine, Hansgrohe, the Museum of Concrete Art in Ingolstadt and the research consortia ForChange and ForDemocracy.

Since 2021, he has also held a High-Tech Agenda professorship in “Design and Innovation Cultures in the Context of Social Change and Transformative Processes”. As part of this role, he founded the Designcultures Institute for Applied Design Research (dci) in 2024 with funding from the Bavarian State Parliament. The dci conducts research into cultures of perception, knowledge, action, innovation and enterprise through design. It further develops cultural patterns in order to make them culturally relevant in the context of the major transformative issues of our time and to provide impetus for social, ecological, technological and entrepreneurial futures.

Since 2025, he has been curating the ‘Flaggenzeug’ programme together with Tina Barankay.

Interviews

• alpha-thema discussion: ‘Crafts: a cultural asset!’, presented by Eva Lell, ARD alpha, first broadcast 17 December 2025
• Interview about the High-Tech Agenda Chair in Design and Innovation Cultures, Hochschule München
• Interview about the Designkulturen Institute for Applied Design Research in Stylepark magazine, 14 March 2024
• Interview on the power of design in the *Süddeutsche Zeitung*, 27 August 2021 (© Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH, Munich. Courtesy of Süddeutsche Zeitung Content)
• Interview on Spiegel Online by Jochen Overbeck, 17 January 2020
• Interview with Nadja Hempel on the Advanced Design master's degree programme, featured on Social Design, Hans Sauer Foundation, 26 July 2018
• Interview on the topic ‘Design of the Future – More than Just a Discipline for Making Things Look Nice’ by Liane von Billerbeck, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, 7 August 2017

PublicationsSelection

• "serien.book – Over four decades of luminaire design from Rodgau, Germany" (2026). Frankfurt am Main: Verlag form. ISBN: 978-3-943962-78-9.
• "In Praise of the Shadow Joint – On the Fascination with the Perfect Joint, the Visibility of Material Joints and their New Relevance in the Context of Sustainability" (2025). In: Magazin, No. 6. Stuttgart.
• "Your blue blanket and my blue coffee table – On Jana Sophia Nolle’s installation ‘Blue Blanket’ at the Museum Giersch in Frankfurt" (2024). In: Jana Sophia Nolle – Blue Blanket. Frankfurt am Main: Trademark Publishing. ISBN: 978-3-9823978-6-3.
• "Thinking in Cardboard and Polystyrene – Models in Design as a Repository of Ideas, a Preserved Form of Representation and a Relic of Connection" (2024). In: Weber, Grit/Wagner K, Matthias (eds.): Thinking in Materials: The Model between the Design Process and the Museum Collection. Stuttgart: avedition. ISBN: 978-3-89986-423-6.
• "A Wooden Hut and the Emblem of Sovereignty – On the Semantics of the Hunting Tower" (2024). In: Ebbing, Georg (ed.): Rare Types 2 / Hunting Tower Fittings. Frankfurt am Main: Trademark Publishing. ISBN: 978-3-9823978-2-5.
• "Signs of the Times and Condensed Artistic Statement – On the Semantics of a Functional Object" (2023). In: Glasner, Barbara (ed.): Most Touched. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag form. ISBN: 978-3-943962-60-4.
• "Marginal Notes on Major Construction Sites" (2022). In: Mäcklerarchitekten (eds.): Transformation Architecture – Terminal 3, Frankfurt Airport / Mäcklerarchitekten. Frankfurt am Main: Trademark Publishing. ISBN: 978-3-9819839-9-9.
• "The Seating Area as a State of Mind – Volker Albus’s Journey from the Motorway to the Römerberg" (2020). In: Opatz, Wilhelm E. (ed.): Frankfurt Architecture Guide 1980–89. Hamburg: Junius Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-96060-525-6.
• “Designer Happiness: On Design People and Other Mysteries of Design Culture” (2019). Stuttgart: avedition. ISBN: 978-3-89986-323-9.
• "The Fascination of Series and Line: Thonet as a Design Myth of Modernism" (2019). In: Nollert, Angelika (ed.): Thonet & Design, exhibition catalogue, Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Munich. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. ISBN: 978-3-96098-582-2.
• "Writing as a Design Principle – On the State of Design Journalism and the Significance of Design Criticism in Higher Education" (2018). In: Gronert, Siegfried/Schwer, Thilo (eds.): Design Criticism – Theory, History, Teaching. Stuttgart: avedition. ISBN: 978-3-89986-278-2.
• "Falling Stars – On the myth of the genius designer and the author-designer as a thing of the past" (2018). In: form, No. 275/2018.
• "The Return of Warmth – How Non-ferrous Metals Made a Comeback in Contemporary Design" (2012). In: Henschel, Antonia: Objects: All Metals. Frankfurt am Main: Trademark Publishing. ISBN: 978-3-9814885-7-9.
• "Who Wears Black Turtlenecks Here? – On rivalry and sophisticated clichés between two related disciplines" (2012), (on architecture and design). In: form, No. 243/2012.
• "A Sober View – On the New Perception of the Old Braun Design" (2012). In: *Welt am Sonntag*, special edition ‘Industry and Design’, February 2012.
• "Interactions – On the Interrelationships between Fashion and Furniture" (2009). In: Bonner General-Anzeiger, 1–2 August 2009.
• "What Do We Mean by Design Culture? – Essays on Contemporary Design 2006–2009" (2009). Frankfurt am Main: Trademark Publishing. ISBN: 978-3-9812294-8-6.
• "Return from the Land of Luxury – On an Industry’s Image Problem and the Forgotten Ideals of a Discipline" (2006). In: du 766 – Design. What Shapes Everyday Life, Journal of Culture, No. 4, May 2006.
• "The Ulm Icon – On the Iconisation of the Ulm Stool" (2005). In: Breuer, Gerda (ed.): Exhibiting Design History. The Design Collection of the University of Wuppertal. Wuppertal: Bergische University.
• "I Want It Orange – On the Rise and Fall of the Colour Orange" (2000). In: design report, 10/2000.

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