Sex, gender & school

Gender Design Award Volition 2023, given by iGDN e.V.

K-WIR – Cross-media advisory concept and practical toolkit

In the school environment, learning about different gender identities and sexual diversity is mostly neglected in education. Celina Grundmann and Lasse Mieruch (Schw?bisch Gmünd University of Applied Sciences) want to change this and are focusing on raising awareness among future teachers.

The result of their bachelor thesis is a comprehensive mediation concept and a practical toolkit. It obtains the Gender Design Award in the category Volition for its appreciative, matured and wholistic approach and yet very practical outcome.

The two design graduates convinced the jury of the Gender Design Award on all levels of the design process. The jury was deeply impressed by the comprehensive implementation and the design quality of the concept: well-founded research through appreciative participation of the target groups by means of sensitively designed surveys, qualitative interviews and testing of prototypes led to a comprehensive cross-media multi-level mediation concept. This resulted in a varied poster series, stickers for various uses, a knowledge game as well as an extensive website with awareness-raising aids and know-how for student teachers on the topics of gender identity and gender diversity in everyday school life.

The participatory approach and frequent feedback with the target group and the integration of diverse perspectives kept the designers from merely reproducing their own ideas. The work is also outstanding from a communication design perspective. The young designers developed and combined various design approaches into a mature overall product with open, clear typography and playful, free elements that literally fall outside the grid.

The jury immediately agreed: The excellent level of this bachelor thesis deserves the Volition Award! https://ausstellung.hfg-gmuend.de/s-2222/projekte/k-wir