Skip to content
Technical University of Munich

Fritz Frenkler

Prof.

Former professor of Industrial Design
TUM School of Engineering and Design

born May 5, 1954

fritz.frenkler(at)tum.de

CV

Prof. Frenkler studied industrial design at the Technical University of Braunschweig (HBK). He worked at frogdesign in Germany and the USA and as managing director of frogdesign Asia in Tokyo and Taiwan. He headed the wiege Wilkhahn development company and was head of design at Deutsche Bahn AG. In 2000, he founded f/p design gmbh in Frankfurt am Main, now based in Munich and Berlin, and opened a representative office in Kyoto, Japan, in 2012. Its sustained success led to the establishment of the subsidiary f/p design co.ltd. in 2018, an independent company of f/p design gmbh.

In 2005, he was appointed honorary professor at the Technical University (HBK) in Braunschweig and in 2006 as full professor to the new chair of industrial design at the TUM. Fritz Frenkler is Regional Advisor to the WDO (World Association of Industrial Designers, formerly ICSID) and has been Chairman of the Jury of the iF Product Design Awards for many years. In 2018, he was a founding member and, from 2018 to 2024, a board member of the iF Design Foundation, Hanover.
Since 2013, Fritz Frenkler has been a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts (AdK), Architecture Section, and from 2021 to 2024 he was Senator of the AdK and Director of the Section.

In October 2020, he was appointed TUM Emeritus of Excellence.

Since 2000, Fritz Frenkler has won more than 70 international design awards (including the IF Product Design Award, the G-Mark Good Design Award and the Red Dot Product Design Award), including 10 Gold Design Awards.

Fritz Frenkler has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dieter and Ingeborg Rams Foundation (Rams Foundation) since 2022.


Awards (selection)

  • Braun Prize, Kronberg, Deutschland (1983)
  • Compasso d'Oro, Mailand, Italien (1998)
  • G-Mark, Tokyo, Japan (1997-2020, 20 awards)
  • iF Product Design Award, Hannover, Deutschland (1994-2025, 33 awards)
  • The Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Award, Chicago, USA (1996-2000, 3 awards)

Explanations of prizes and honours can be found here (pdf-file to download 215 KB).

 

Key publications

Frenker F: „The Report. Industrial Design at the Technial University of Munich", 2020
Available online at: https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1580154

Frenkler F: „Das Design macht oft den Unterschied“. Logistik heute. 2010; 4: 42.

Frenkler F: „Nahverkehr und Design“. Der Nahverkehr. 2009; 12: 8-9.

Frenkler F: „Marketingdesign vs. Markendesign“. Architecture Preview. 2008; 2: 17-19.

Frenkler F: „Design + Architektur“. BDA Jahrbuch 2006.2007. 2007: 18-25.

Frenkler F: „Computer Aided Design im Industrial Design“. Diplomarbeit an der HBK-Braunschweig, 1983

To top