Inspiration is actually one of those terms in design that should be treated with caution – like creativity and imagination. Many still associate inspiration with something between a muse's kiss and divine revelation. In the 1960s, the Ulm School of Design deliberately moved away from the artistic training concept, a similar process took place decades earlier at the Bauhaus, at the latest with the move to Dessau.

Today, both positions coexist, sometimes in extreme forms. To find out more precisely what inspires international designers, we launched a survey for this issue. The answers are surprising and – certainly – inspiring! The cover story is supplemented by an exciting article on sculptures generated from digital sounds, as well as a report on free sculptural studies of rich engine sounds.

March/April 2011, Verlag form, 106 pages, 23 × 29.8 cm, softcover, edition in German/English