During Dutch Design Week (DDW), the Secrid Talent Podium is bringing together a selection of groundbreaking designers for the fourth time.
This year, seven international talents take centre stage, aiming to transform the industry with sustainable and innovative solutions—from agriculture to construction, textiles, and energy. At the same time, the platform draws special attention to a theme that often remains underexposed in the creative sector: Intellectual Property.
Seven Designers: Design as a Driver of Change
In collaboration with the Dutch Design Foundation, Secrid selected seven designers for their innovative ideas, holistic vision, and entrepreneurship. Each participant will receive, alongside a place on the stage, coaching, publicity, and €7,777 in prize money—a symbolic reference to Secrid’s seven holistic design principles.
The designers demonstrate that a hopeful future is already becoming reality: radical changes are underway in agriculture, textiles, construction, and energy. The selected designers for 2025 are:
Floris Schoonderbeek | Circle Farming (NL)
Regenerative agriculture with circular fields where technology, nature, and humanity come together. Read interview with Floris Schoonderbeek
Chloe So & Barna Soma Biro | PulpaTronics (UK)
Recyclable RFID tags made of paper, replacing disposable labels containing metal. Read interview with Chloe So & Barna Soma Biro
Auke Bleij | Respyre (NL)
Low-maintenance green façades using moss concrete, which purifies the air, cools, and supports biodiversity in the city. Read interview with Auke Bleij
Itika Gupta | Dungse Labs (NL & IN)
From cow manure to high-quality, biodegradable construction material as an alternative to wood and plastic. Read interview with Itika Gupta
Marjan van Aubel | Ra (NL)
The transition from solar technology to solar design, where the energy source blends seamlessly into daily life. Read interview with Marjan van Aubel
Sarmīte Poļakova & Mel van Dijk | (un)woven (NL & DE)
Transforming textile waste streams into circular biomaterial for the built environment. Read interview with Sarmīte Poļakova & Mel van Dijk
Elizabeth Lee, Eden Harrison & Ori Blich | Carbon Cell (UK)
A compostable, CO₂-negative foam for packaging, as a replacement for polystyrene. Read interview with Elizabeth Lee, Eden Harrison & Ori Blich
Intellectual Property: Dilemmas and Responsibility
Within the Secrid Impact Fund, talents are coached on themes that are decisive for the future of design. One of these is intellectual property—often underexposed in the design sector, yet crucial to both protecting and sharing creative value. It is not only about legal protection, but also questions of ownership, ethics, and social responsibility.
Every designer is sooner or later confronted with fundamental questions, such as: what rights and responsibilities come with a design? Dutch pocketwear brand Secrid is familiar with these dilemmas from its own experience: since its introduction, more than a thousand copies have appeared worldwide of the Cardprotector—a design that forever changed the traditional wallet market.
With this theme, the Secrid Talent Podium invites designers to reflect on the choices and dilemmas associated with the protection and sharing of creativity.
“As designers, we bear responsibility for what we bring into the world. Not only for the function and beauty of our work, but also for its impact on people and the planet. Intellectual property is not merely a legal formality, but a means to protect creative value and enable sustainable innovation. By cherishing and openly sharing our ideas, we collectively build a future in which products become not ever more, but ever better,” says René van Geer, founder of Secrid and industrial designer.
Impact Fund: Design for Impact
Through the Impact Fund, Secrid invests 1% of its turnover in talents who set sustainable change in motion through design. The objective: transform the Industrial Revolution into an Industrial Evolution; moving from producing ever more to producing ever better. The Talent Podium is an important part of this effort.
In addition to the Secrid Talent Podium, Secrid is a mission-driven partner of the design competitions run by What Design Can Do (WDCD). In this context, Secrid supports three winners of the most recent WDCD Accelerator. The work of one of these winners, Carbon Cell, is also featured within the Secrid Talent Podium.
Secrid Talent Podium during Dutch Design Week 2025
Klokgebouw, Hal 3, stand 3.01, Eindhoven
18 – 26 October, 2025
ddw.nl/secrid-talent-podium
Photography: Blickfanger
