Prof Holger Jahn, born in Backnang in 1966, is Professor of Mobility and Design in the Product Design programme at the Design Department.
He was previously Professor of Product Design at the University of Applied Sciences Dresden and founder and director of the Institute for Innovation and Design there.
Holger Jahn trained as a cabinetmaker and then studied product design at the University of Design in Schwäbisch-Gmünd. As part of his diploma thesis, he designed a self-service station for changing engine oil. From 1992 to 1993, he was a scholarship holder of the International Forum for Design at the former Ulm School of Design, where he developed a reusable packaging system, among other things.
In 1993, he founded Jahn Design, a studio for design and product development in Stuttgart. In addition to various study and development projects for the automotive industry and the Fraunhofer Institute IAO (Institute for Work, Economy and Organisation), Holger Jahn designed his own furniture collection and developed flexible kitchen furniture systems, office furniture systems, children's transport systems, kitchen knives, medical technology and shop systems for consumer goods for industrial companies.
Since 2004, he has been Professor of Product Design at the Faculty of Design at the University of Applied Sciences Dresden (HTW). Here, he researches and teaches the conception, design, development and prototyping of products and systems. He teaches skills that enable designers to successfully conceptualise and design innovative, sustainable and attractive services, systems and products. At the same time, he has worked as a consultant for regional innovation alliances on behalf of the BMBF, in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institutes IPK, IWU and HHI in the areas of research, teaching and product development, in the planning and conception of online and e-commerce platforms and as a speaker on the topics of digital transformation, sustainability, design and innovation.
Since October 2014, Holger Jahn has been working as a substitute professor for the aforementioned professorship at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
