Around 300 creatives, print experts and decision-makers from companies and agencies accepted our invitation to the Print and Design Conference 2025 to explore key questions together: What role does print play in a world where algorithms generate content and AI helps shape brands? And how can print create trust as a medium when it is increasingly becoming a contested resource? The answer that ran through the entire day was clear: print creates trust - precisely because it is tangible, substantial and authentic. It is precisely these qualities that make printed media more relevant than ever in an increasingly digital, AI-driven world.
All photos: © Burke Academy
A format that inspires and connects
The special thing about the concept of our conference format is that it not only informs, but also enables real exchange. After the welcoming address by Christian Meier, Grafikmagazin, and Holger Busch, Managing Director of the Bavarian Print and Media Association, the mixture of keynote speeches in the morning and interactive work panels in the afternoon offered participants the opportunity to first get to know major perspectives and then deepen these in smaller groups - in direct discussions with leading minds in the industry. The location - Die Macherei Munich with its creative, inspiring ambience - once again proved to be the perfect backdrop for a day full of encounters at eye level.
Keynotes: Four perspectives on print and trust
Philipp Brune: Identity as the greatest superpower
Philipp Brune, CEO of the renowned branding and design agency Strichpunkt, kicked off the event with his keynote speech on brand identity in the age of AI. His central thesis: "Identity is a company's greatest superpower - and print is a medium that makes it visible and tangible." Brune advocated understanding transformation as a design task. Using examples from his work for Audi, Deutsche Bahn, Bucherer and Vorwerk, he impressively demonstrated how brands can consolidate credibility through analog experiences in times of artificial intelligence. In doing so, he sensitized the guests to two crucial questions: what will change in the future (and what will not). According to Brune, the second question in particular is often not included in strategic considerations. His message: in the age of AI, authentic, humanly designed brand encounters are gaining in importance instead of losing them.
Magnus Gebauer: Print as the answer to real-time culture
As an experienced trend researcher, Magnus Gebauer, Teamlead at MedienNetzwerk Bayern, shed light on social developments in dealing with artificial intelligence and information overload. According to Gebauer, this is a major advantage for print: "People are looking for regeneration, orientation and, above all, trust. This is exactly what print offers if it shows attitude and has a high editorial quality." Paradoxically, while digital communication is accelerating, the need for deceleration and consistency is growing. Print fulfills precisely this need and creates moments of concentration - a quality that is increasingly lacking in the real-time culture of the digital world, making it all the more valuable.
Sabine Cole: Design as a democratic act
In her lecture, Prof. Sabine Cole from HAWK Gestaltung Hildesheim showed how design can act as a democratic act. Using the example of her project "The coalition agreement as a magazine", which she implemented in record time with publisher Oliver Wurm and a group of students, she made it clear that design can make complex political content transparent and tangible. For Cole, bringing the coalition agreement to the kiosk as a high-quality print product is an expression of respect for democratic work - but above all a bridge between politics and citizens. "Trust only works if it is lived mutually," Cole summarized. Her message to the designers of tomorrow: they are literally helping to shape the future and can strengthen democratic values and trust in the rule of law through their work.
Maren Martschenko: Small, strong, focused
In a closing keynote, brand consultant Maren Martschenko, who stood in for Dirk von Gehlen, advocated consciously limiting brands, including in terms of design - true to the motto: "A brand should be like an espresso: small, strong and focused - on the essentials and effective." She showed that design fulfills a variety of tasks that go far beyond the actual design and reach deep into the strategic process of a brand. Her keynote speech rounded off the morning with a clear plea for focus and the courage to reduce - qualities that can really come into their own in print.
Work panels: inspiration meets practice
At the heart of the afternoon session were the work panels, in which participants were able to talk directly to experts in smaller groups.
Marco Bölling, Managing Director of Bölling GmbH & Co KG, provocatively posed the question: Is Goethe's insight "What you have in black and white, you can carry home with confidence" still relevant today? His answer, backed up with insights into the work of his print shop, which specializes in fine papers and classic printing and finishing techniques: Yes - especially today! "Print creates trust - precisely because it is consistent," says Bölling. The immutability of printed information, its physical presence, creates a dimension of trust that cannot be replaced digitally. It is not for nothing that manufactories and hand printers are flourishing.
"Against arbitrariness - how brands become tangible" was the title of the joint panel by Kerstin Denzler (Managing Director, effektiv Druck+Veredelung) and Lars Schrodberger (Creative Director, Tabula Rasa Hamburg). Using concrete examples, the two showed how strategic brand development and high-quality production can merge to create tangible trust. Their formula: Strategic brand development + high-quality production = trust you can touch. The two are convinced: Design creates the space for trust, high-quality production makes brand messages tangible. The panel was a powerful plea for conscious partnerships between agencies and print shops - and for the fact that trust is created when creativity meets precision craftsmanship. In an oversaturated media world, the easiest path leads to invisibility - the two showed how brands are created that are not only seen, but felt.
"What print can do, we've been doing for a long time! - What the design industry can learn from the printing industry in the context of AI," was the thesis of Thorsten Kinnen, Business Development Manager Commercial Printing at Konica Minolta and initiator of WE.LOVE.PRINT. He focused on the parallels between design and the printing industry, particularly with regard to the challenges of the AI age. His message: the printing industry has already mastered several technological upheavals and learned that automation and craftsmanship are not opposites, but complement each other. "The design industry can learn from print how to materialize trust," Kinnen made clear, referring to the diverse projects of the industry initiative WE.LOVE.PRINT.
Award-winning designer and creative director Denis Widmann introduced participants to the world of tactile experiences. With over 16 years of experience in brand development and brand communication as well as his work for clients such as Adobe and Campari, he demonstrated how his philosophy leads to brands that are not only seen, but felt. His work combines German precision with British creativity - concept and craft, digital and physical. With deep expertise in print, materiality and in-house prototyping, Widmann ensures that every idea has substance - and endures.
Petra Wöhrmann, graduate communication designer, artist and calligrapher and former 1st chairwoman of the Typographische Gesellschaft München, took the participants on a journey into the world of calligraphy and lettering. After many years as an art director in corporate design, she now juggles with letters - digitally, but especially enjoys analog in her Munich studio. Her work, particularly in the luxury brand and fashion sector, shows how analog font design can act as a conscious antithesis to digital uniformity: "I have found a wonderful niche here," she says of her impressive journey, which was characterized by creative intuition and personal growth. Her panel inspired the participants to think anew about the potential of handwritten elements in brand communication - and to create their own space in which unexpected potential can be realized.
Exhibition & meeting: paper innovations you can touch
Accompanying the conference program, numerous exhibitors presented paper innovations, print finishes and creative print projects in the exhibition area of the Macherei. Carl Berberich GmbH, Gmund Papier, LEONHARD KURZ and OVOL Papier Deutschland GmbH were represented as premium partners.
Exhibitors included Antalis, Arctic Paper, Butz & Bürker, Fedrigoni Special Papers, Forum Druckveredelung, Fujifilm, F&W Druck & Mediencenter, IGEPA, KONICA MINOLTA, Lenzing Papier GmbH, multi-druck, RUDOLPH DRUCK, THE PAPER FAMILY and WE.LOVE.PRINT. This created a lively atmosphere in which designers, printers and material experts were able to talk, examine samples and discover new possibilities for their projects.
Conclusion: Print creates trust
Many participants emphasized in the evening that they went home not only professionally inspired, but also personally enriched. The mixture of theoretical impulses and practical insights, of broad perspectives and concrete solutions had achieved exactly what we had hoped for: a conference that connects. The common thread of the day - "Print as a driver of trust in the age of artificial intelligence" - proved to be viable and forward-looking. At a time when AI-generated content permeates the digital world, tangible, human-designed media is gaining in importance. Print stands for substance, credibility and proximity - values that count more than ever today and in the future.
"Druck und Design is a place where creative minds from design, technology and business meet at eye level," said Christian Meier at the end of the event. With a successful day in terms of both content and atmosphere, the conference confirmed its reputation as the leading industry event in the German-speaking world. Print and Design 2025 has shown: When creativity meets first-class print technology, when designersand print expertswork together as equals, strong brand messages are created that are not only seen, but felt. Print connects - successfully, creatively and sustainably.
We would like to thank all participants, speakers, partners and exhibitors for this special day! ❤️
About the Print and Design Conference
The Print and Design Conference is an initiative of Grafikmagazin and the Verband Druck und Medien Bayern e. V. (VDMB). Every two years, it brings together experts from print, design, agencies and industry and offers a platform for knowledge transfer, inspiration and industry dialog. The next edition is planned for 2027.
Further information at druckunddesign.org
