25 July 2025  Design as Ongoing DialogueFashion.at has reviewed the program of the Vienna Design Week 2025 as far as currently available, noting that the final details remain in progress. True to the nature of the festival – which is developed over the course of a year and culminates in curated results presented in early autumn – this edition once again emphasizes the process over the finished product. The notion that "Gestaltung ist kein Endprodukt" (design is not a final product), as stated by Max Schnürer, design director at Fredmansky – the agency responsible for this year's campaign – is more than a slogan. It reflects the festival's guiding principle and resonates throughout its formats, notably in Urban Food & Design.A wheel of Vienna's own colors: Vienna Colour WheelUrban Food & Design, a format co-developed by Wirtschaftsagentur Wien and Vienna Design Week, returns this year with the experimental project Vienna Colour Wheel. Fashion.at was told in a phone conversation that the team at Biofabrique Vienna is currently collaborating with several academic and creative partners – including the University of Applied Arts Vienna, TU Wien, Kunstuniversität Linz, the traditional natural dyeing workshop Fritsch Färberei, and the design label Rudolf Vienna – to develop a palette of "Wiener Farben" (Viennese colors) made from 'unvermeidbare Lebensmittelabfälle', which translates to 'unavoidable food waste'.These include non-edible parts such as seeds, leaves, or peels from food production. While testing is ongoing, it remains unclear how many colors the Vienna Colour Wheel will feature, or how they will be named. The pigments are being trialed on different materials, and the final outcome is still undetermined. Colors, textiles and a laboratory of processAntonia Maedel, textile designer and co-founder of Rudolf Vienna together with textile chemist Lisa Mladek – daughter of Rudolf Fritsch from Fritsch Färberei – is part of the color development team. In a video interview produced three years ago by the Austrian Fashion Association, Maedel said that her design process always starts with color. She also quoted Rudolf Fritsch, who compared natural dyes to alchemy. The results of this process are scheduled to be presented during the Vienna Design Week from 26 September to 5 October 2025, at the festival's headquarters in a repurposed 1950s car workshop located at Wiedner Hauptstraße 52 in Vienna's 4th district. This year's headquarters continue the festival's tradition of inhabiting spaces undergoing urban or architectural transformation.According to what Fashion.at was told by phone, the exhibition will not present fashion but focus on textiles and raw pigments. Importantly, it is envisioned as more than a static display – it will function as a laboratory where the dyeing process will be demonstrated. It is even possible that visitors will be invited to try out dyeing themselves, although specific plans are still being shaped. As with much of the festival, the exhibition design itself is part of the ongoing exploration. Looking Ahead: From Process to PresentationAs the preparations continue behind the scenes, the anticipation is building. The open-ended nature of the Vienna Colour Wheel – from the naming of the shades to the final form of the exhibition – reflects the spirit of an event that thrives on experimentation and transformation. Fashion.at is looking forward to witnessing how this evolving project will take shape during the Vienna Design Week 2025, running from 26 September to 5 October, when ideas in progress turn into tangible experiences.Image: This symbolic, AI-generated artwork illustrates the origin of natural food colorants. On the left, a collection of raw ingredients—including beets, avocados, onions, and nuts—is displayed. On the right, these are transformed into a vibrant color wheel of processed pigments, with lines tracing each color back to its natural source. Image: © Fashion.at generated with Imagen, Google AI Studio |