Meet Design for Planet alumnus Martha von Guenther

Tell us a bit about yourself!
I’m from Hamburg, Germany, and live in Kolding at the moment. For my bachelor's degree I studied Fashion Design and continued to study Fashion Design in the Design for Planet master’s programme at Design School Kolding.

Where do you work? What is your role and what are your tasks?
I worked for 2 years at Sheworks Atelier in Kolding as Head of Artistic Development and became co-founder 1 year ago. Sheworks Atelier has both sustainability and social aspects on its agenda: We use only discarded fabrics for our designs and transform them into desired interior objects. We involve women on the outskirts of the labour market in the production. Besides learning new skills at Sheworks, it offers them a chance to be part of a community. I design after a brief from our collaboration partner and in close dialogue with my boss, keeping in mind the time it takes to make a certain design, the skillset of the women working in the production, and the materials available. Further, I’m responsible for the timeframe of a project, that everybody finds its role in production, and that the outcome is as it’s supposed to be.

What is the value of a Planet Designer?

“As a Planet Designer, Martha’s most important task is to first understand and analyse our client’s aesthetics along with a parallel exploration of the available materials (textiles) we have at hand. We need a thorough understanding of the textile properties and abilities in order to be able to create lasting solutions and designs that fit our customers’ wishes. This includes calculations and a careful overview of what is available so that we utilize as much as we can with zero to no waste. Martha’s responsibility is, together with the Sheworks team, to move the general perception of the value of materials and repurpose discarded textiles from waste to high-end value by utilizing and combining them in new and interesting ways, along with making sure a certain price point is kept.”
- Solveig Søndergaard, CEO/ Creative direction, Sheworks Atelier

What has been the role of the Design for Planet MA programme in getting you where you are today? Can you tell us about an important memory?
Contrary to my expectations, the master's programme was opening up many paths instead of focusing on one specific part. I’ve always been playing with all kinds of different types of materials for my designs and have become more aware of how we are used to marking them as valuable or trash. This was especially relevant for my master's project, where I collected museum banners, which are usually burned after use, and transformed them into unique garments. The created garments show the effort put into them but also traces of use of their former purpose. I haven’t worked at this scale with waste and was surprised about the freedom it brought to the process despite its negative connotations.

Do you have any advice to give to someone undertaking this educational path?
Like the photographer has an eye to tell a story and to show the beauty of a certain moment no matter how little the object value is in the real world, a Planet Designer should expand their ability to see value and opportunity in each material there is, and through their designs make it visible to everybody, so that the world will benefit from it.

Find more interviews with Design for Planet alumni here.

Interested in the journeys of our alumni from the other master's degree programmes? Explore the stories from Design for Play alumni here and Design for People alumni here.