Kai Linke
Frankfurt/Main, Germany

As a kid, German award winning designer Kai Linke and his sister often played with old cardboard boxes, tape and glue. He always loved to create objects with his hands and to play with materials. Growing up, he studied architecture at the University of Technology in Darmstadt, and then entered the Academy of Art and Design in Offenbach, studying at the Department of Industrial Design. From 2005 to 2009 he was supported by a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation. After working as a freelancer for some time, he set up his own design studio in Frankfurt. The work of Kai Linke is based on the philosophy that design can be conceptual, environmentally friendly and functional at the same time. He believes that designing objects is like using a language to explain his thoughts and feelings.Innovation according to Kai Linke: "For me, being creative is being an explorative mind. I like to make experiments and test my ideas to figure out if they really work. To be creative is like a fascinating search for good solutions in the right form. I'm a hunter and gatherer of a lot of different things that I like. Mainly things out of nature, like roots, barks or alga. But also books, everyday objects like spoons or clothes hangers and a lot of art, design or day life images. I like to have a mix of these things around me during the design process. That inspires me a lot. And I like being on holiday. Very close to nature. I find it very fascinating to work with nature itself. I feel there is an endless potential in this field."