German designer Philipp Weber was born in 1987 in Münster, Germany. Beginning his studies in the Netherlands, Weber graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2012. He then established his studio in 2013 in Berlin before moving to Munich in the Bavarian region of Germany for two years. He returned to Berlin to follow his undergraduate qualification with a Masters from the University of the Arts, graduating in 2016. Since the completion of his studies, Weber has been working on his own design projects—primarily in glass—whilst also taking on freelance design jobs, including working with Studio Tomás Saraceno; the Berlin-based production studio of the acclaimed Argentinian installation artist.
Weber’s work is focussed on production and process. He is interested in the role of the traditional design crafts within an increasingly digitized world; he is motivated by a desire to preserve and champion craftsmanship and exploring its ongoing significance in society. A perfect example is Weber’s A Strange Symphony (2013) series of glass objects; to realize these unusual, organic glass forms, with their numerous interior cavities and undulating, refracting colors, the young designer first had to invent a custom glass-blowing pipe (inspired by the trumpet) with numerous valves that allow the glass-blower to introduce hollow chambers into the hot glass. The project attracted a great deal of attention and led to Weber being awarded the 2013 New Talent Award at the international design festival DMY in Berlin, as well as the 2014 Bavarian State Prize for Young Designers. In 2015, A Strange Symphony was purchased by the Shanghai Museum of Glass for its permanent collection and the following year it was acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland. Following the success of A Strange Symphony, Weber went on to release his On Colours Collection (2016), a series of stunning decorative glass objects that use the same innovative production technique.
Weber’s work has been featured in exhibitions in Italy, France, England, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Dubai, and China, amongst others. He is a member of the Dutch Invertuals collective and has shown projects in various European exhibitions organized by the group. In 2018, Weber was named the winner of the prestigious German Design Award for Newcomers by the German Design Council, confirming his status as a rising star on the European design scene.
