About

The beauty of understanding

Emotion and technology, form and function: there are at least two sides to everything. A tool, for example, needs to be practical, but it should also be fun to use. A convincing user experience design makes complex content easy to grasp and provides touchpoints for consumers to successfully interact with the product. At the same time, any solution also represents a company’s expertise, innovative strength and vision. The prerequisite for meeting these demands is full understanding, and this starts by asking the right questions.

These include e.g. the following:

What gives users the feeling that their needs have been understood?

What role does the product play for the company, its technical developers, and its sales staff?

And how does a solution become a visible statement of a brand in the market?

At zweigrad we aim to understand everything from scratch and from all perspectives. To achieve this, we speak to all relevant stakeholders, and we listen carefully. As we collaborate with our clients and partners, as well as at zweigrad itself, we incorporate knowledge from various disciplines. Our workshops are designed in a way to address all senses and spark creative exchange. But, above all, we adhere to a comprehensive, precisely timed process from strategy to realisation, which is aimed at creating design solutions that combine style with everyday practicality, and proficiency with brand strength. For us, this is what the beauty of understanding is all about.

Our Team

When passion makes the difference

We are a team of young creatives and seasoned professionals, comprising engineers as well as industrial, interface and graphic designers. Some of our team members have an industry background, while others come from large agencies in Germany and abroad, and we are supported by a number of dedicated freelancers. What we all have in common is a genuine passion for designs that are both intuitive and emotional. We identify with our daily work as we realise new ideas together with our clients and across all disciplines – and we do this in an authentic, approachable and open-minded manner.

Birte Jürgensen
Partner, Director, Founder

Partner, Director, Founder

Birte Jürgensen

Creating something every day, thinking big with a view to social and technological developments, and initiating visionary changes through small steps – this is what fulfils Birte Jürgensen most. Her creative drive goes hand in hand with an innovative power that is fed by the friction between emotion and functionality, art and technology. And these are indeed the two poles of her biography as Birte studied painting at the State Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, followed by mechanical engineering at the Hamburg University of Technology. As a graduate engineer, she also completed a degree course in industrial design at the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel. After working as a designer in the interior design department of Volkswagen AG, she founded her own company, zweigrad Design, in 2002. As an engineer and industrial designer, Birte is always looking for new opportunities – and she does so with competence and perseverance. As a founder and partner, she continues to shape the company. Being in charge of the corporate strategy, Birte sees zweigrad as a dynamic living being she constantly supports with fresh ideas, analytical strength, intuitive decision-making, and the experience of twenty years in management. Her credo is: “Change, however small, emerges from an open mindset, structure, and, above all, passion.”

Timo Wietzke
Partner, Director

Partner, Director

Timo Wietzke

Even after 20 years in business, Timo Wietzke is captivated by the task of defining a three-dimensional body, providing it with expression and direction. He is particularly fond of complex challenges, which he loves to master using pragmatic, no-frills approaches. After completing a carpentry apprenticeship and studying at the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel, Timo was involved e.g. in developing and designing the first two generations of Bosch IOXs – the world’s best-selling power tool to date. Together with Birte Jürgensen, he has been managing zweigrad since 2009. As a designer, Timo is an expert in creating and shaping products, processes and visions, which is also owing to his ability to listen carefully and to visualise the very essence of what is being said. With this, he creates a positive dynamic in the working relationships with our clients. To him, a holistic approach means considering design in context and fine-tuning products and systems until they make total sense to everyone – to users, to clients, and to the zweigrad team. In terms of business relations, Timo places great value on longevity – because how else could you accomplish great things together? With regard to the team, he attaches great importance to ensuring a positive working environment – because beyond all the hard work, it is light-heartedness and fun that make creative ideas flourish in the first place.

Claudia S. Friedrich
Partner, Director of the Interface Design business unit

Partner, Director of the Interface Design business unit

Claudia S. Friedrich

First and foremost, Claudia Friedrich perceives design as social responsibility and as added value for companies. She studied industrial design at the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel and completed a design management course in London. Claudia is dedicated to driving design developments in a sustainable manner and embedded in a business environment. For over 20 years, she has been developing interface and UX design strategies in close collaboration with partners from industry and the medical sector. For example, in the context of Expo 2000 she worked with f/p design, at designaffairs she created mobile phone designs for the Siemens brand, and she spent many years as creative managing director at Human Interface Design. In her work, one of her key success factors is Claudia’s ability to harmonise user needs with corporate and brand goals in order to implement design languages for digital product eco-systems – in a holistic context and based on industrial design concepts. In doing so, she relies on highly diverse teams, discourse in the design process and knowledge transfer at various events. Today, Claudia heads the Interface Design business unit at zweigrad.

Daniel Streilein
Head of Industrial Design

Head of Industrial Design

Daniel Streilein

For Daniel Streilein, getting the best out of every project for the user and the brand alike means enhancing people’s everyday lives with products they enjoy using. He studied industrial design at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen and at the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica and gained his first professional experience at Teams Design Hamburg and as a design manager with the Vodafone Group. Daniel has been with zweigrad since 2011, and his focus lies on user experience and brand design. As Head of Industrial Design, Daniel contributes his conceptual strength, a passion for technically challenging projects, and a pronounced team spirit – alongside his desire to solve problems, question processes, and break new ground. And he prefers to do this as part of long-term customer relationships that are shaped by creative, constructive dialogue. Because to him, this is the only way to achieve optimum results.

Stefan Proud
UX/UI Design Expert

UX/UI Design Expert

Stefan Proud

It is often those projects that, due to their complexity and scope, require an enormous amount of thought and planning that make Stefan Proud truly love his work and keep evolving further. A trained UX/UI expert, Stefan has seen a lot of the world. In 1999, he founded a web design company in London, and at a San Francisco-based start-up, which was listed on the Australian stock exchange in 2014, he was the very first employee, then project manager, and finally CTO. Stefan joined zweigrad in 2015, adding more than 20 years of experience in the areas of full service UX, UI, coding and project management to the team. “I want to push our clients to go beyond emulating past achievements of competitors and instead focus on solving current issues and responding to the future”, he says. His goal is to create flexible solutions that anticipate future technological advances and that can be easily adapted across all platforms.

Martin Reuthe
Industrial Designer

Industrial Designer

Martin Reuthe

Martin Reuthe loves being part of the journey from idea to finished product. His aim is to turn sketches into something usable that meets the wishes of users and suppliers, honours sustainability along the product’s entire life cycle, and combines practicality and style in a unique way. The industrial designer has been with zweigrad since 2016 and has contributed his expertise in various industrial, interface and communication design projects. Martin is your point of contact for model and mock-up constructions, storyboarding, 3D and 2D animations as well as VR solutions. To Martin, a clear and timely definition of tasks and problems is just as relevant for the success of a project as good and close communication, which starts with getting to know each other. Martin believes in exploring unknown paths and in embracing the courage to fail early on. And one thing is clear to him: “For visionary ideas to become reality you need backbone.”

Aleksandra Chodur
UX/UI Designer

UX/UI Designer

Aleksandra Chodur

Aleksandra Chodur is always fascinated by the attention given to the exceptional aesthetics of her work. She makes decisions for her compelling design solutions based on relevant data. As an expert in Data Driven UX design, Aleksandra Chodur emphasizes fact-based design. The user experience is the focus of product development, which she approaches as closely as possible through survey data and user statistics. During her management studies, she won a rectorate award for the best student. Subsequently, she also completed a study in UX Design. Since August 2022, she has been a UX/UI designer at zweigrad. Step by step she creates explicit user experiences through curiosity, clear focus on goals and good communication with all stakeholders.

Fenja Bonn
Assistentin der Geschäftsleitung

Assistentin der Geschäftsleitung

Fenja Bonn

Fenja Bonn sees her main task in staying on top of things while keeping a cool head. So it certainly comes in handy that Fenja is passionate about organising and enjoys the diversity that comes with being the contact person for the entire team. Fenja completed a degree course in Scandinavian Studies and English in Kiel and Reykjavik (Iceland). After graduating, she gained agency experience as a project manager with a German-Danish advertising agency. For the next five years she was then in charge of coordinating operations at a large stud farm. Since November 2022, she has been contributing her motivation, curiosity and solution-oriented mindset to zweigrad alongside the willingness to rethink processes. Fenja Bonn believes that being at work should also be fun and makes it a point to treat everyone involved with the same respect.

Dias Chacko
Industrial Designer

Industrial Designer

Dias Chacko

When developing a product, Dias Chacko is fascinated by the entire design process. But what he finds most exciting is how a bunch of ideas eventually leads to the final product. Already as a child, the functioning of products would spark his curiosity. Little wonder then that Dias decided to turn his passion into a profession by taking up a degree course in Mechanical Engineering, which he graduated from in 2019 with a Master’s in Industrial Design. In late December 2022, Dias relocated from India to Germany to gain new experience at zweigrad. Contributing to the team especially in the areas of research, concept development and visualisation as well as prototyping, Dias Chacko looks forward to seeing his ideas being translated into actual, tangible products.

Henry Boy
Industrial Designer

Industrial Designer

Henry Boy

To Henry Boy, design has always been about exploring new grounds. For him, the appeal of the unknown lies precisely in the opportunity to learn and grow. Since February 2022, Henry has been feeding his curiosity as part of the zweigrad team. Prior to that, he completed a Bachelor’s degree in international design in Toronto, Canada, and was bestowed with an ACIDO Rocket Award 2021 for his thesis. Henry mainly puts his skills to use in the areas of client-focused design development, product visualisation and prototype production. As well as being a creative mind, Henry is characterised by his understanding and knowledge of customer wishes. In his view, solution-oriented work requires direct, personal exchange with both clients and potential users. In each and every job, it is his goal to provide an intuitive design that is a pleasure to use.

Aili Xue
Working Student UX/UI Design

Working Student UX/UI Design

Aili Xue

Since June 2023, Aili Xue has been bringing her creativity and user-centric thinking to our team. As an UX/UI intern, she aims to co-create digital user experiences that excel in both functionality and aesthetics. After completing her Bachelor's in Industrial Design and pursuing a subsequent Master's in Interface Design, she realized that although Interface Design is a specialized field within Industrial Design, it still holds distinct differences. Now, she focuses more on exploring interactions and utilizes digital solutions to solve everyday problems. Aili Xue particularly values collaboration with other experts. When a colleague's concept is accepted, she gladly assists in presenting it successfully.

Armenuhi Abgaryan
UX/UI Designer

UX/UI Designer

Armenuhi Abgaryan

New technologies, new design trends, new user behaviour: in UX/UI design, the boundaries of what is possible are constantly changing. Armenuhi Abgaryan sees this as a special opportunity for herself to keep learning and growing, both as a professional and as a person. Armenuhi joined zweigrad in March 2023 and is excited to create digital products that people enjoy using, with interfaces that are intuitive, attractive and easy to use. To achieve this, she taps into her creativity for new, innovative ideas and her ability to solve problems analytically and with an eye for detail. As a UX/UI designer, Armenuhi Abgaryan seeks to really understand the needs and preferences of prospective users, which she sees as vital in shaping the design in liaison with colleagues and clients. The ultimate goal is to generate aesthetic, functional designs that provide people with exceptional experiences.

Ellen Struck
Interface Design Freelancer

Interface Design Freelancer

Ellen Struck

Ellen Struck believes that interface design comes down to an interplay between people and technology. And in this interplay, it is paramount to step into the shoes of the user – who should be in the focus of each and every iterative development process. Following her degree course in graphic design, Ellen worked as an art director at an advertising agency before becoming senior art director at a tech company. With her expertise in the area of UX/UI design, Ellen has been supporting zweigrad as a freelancer since 2012. In her work, Ellen places great emphasis on creativity, user-friendliness and attractive designs – seasoned with a dash of joy, respect and variety.

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Collaborating closely

Our partners and networks

Long-term, interdisciplinary collaborations are the building blocks of our success as a company. As engineers, we work with our implementation partners at eye level, and as designers, we contribute our user-centred perspective and our special expertise to joint projects. We have known our business partners for many years and maintain close contact. This keeps us up to date with technological trends – and it helps us look at each project from the point of view of our partners and involve them at an early stage as required. In addition, we are active in various business networks that allow us to exchange ideas with like-minded people and help us develop our industry and technology expertise on an ongoing basis.

Development partner Modis
Our End-to-End Service Offerings

Working with Modis, the leading IT and engineering solutions provider, we supply product design and development services with excellent user experiences and of the highest quality. Our innovative, holistic approach based on End-to-End services enables companies to develop real user-centric products with us. -> Any scalable solutions as Modis develops globally

Krüger Aviation
Strong partners for innovations

With the plastics experts from Krüger Aviation we are not only united by our shared enthusiasm for innovations, but also by our expertises, which complement each other ideally and which we put into practice in a powerful partnership in the development of innovative products. An inspiring relationship with a future, simply because the “chemistry” is right. This becomes visible in our collaboration project K2-Lavatory.

vr-on
Cooperation with Virtual Reality Experts

Since the mid-nineties, the experts at vr-on GmbH have dealt with the subject of virtual reality in the fields of automotive and aerospace applications. With their help, we have expanded our prototyping & modelling capabilities to include “virtual testing”. “Virtual testing” is what we at 2° call the process of testing usability in digital 3D spaces. The expertise of our co-operation partner vr-on has led to robust solutions for the implementation of these new virtual reality methods in our design processes. Supplemented by physical mockups, we are now able to significantly increase the meaningfulness of the prototyping phase.

Hamburg Aviation & Hanse Aerospace
Using well established local networks…

In the area of aviation we design all types of HMI: from IFE devices and their graphical user interfaces to seats, compartments and cabin interiors. To strengthen our expert’s assessment in the aerial operating range, we are member in the Association of Aerospace-oriented Companies and the Cluster of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Both not only promote networking and successful cooperation in and between the aviation centers, but also make Hamburg a center of excellence for new flying. Together we promote the aviation location Hamburg.

Deutscher Designer Club e.V.
Discourse with other design professionals

Beyond realising design projects with our clients and partners, we are actively engaged in dialogue with peer professionals from various areas of design. As part of this, we discuss topics such as the following: What is the social responsibility of a designer? And how can design lead the way in addressing social, sustainability and political issues? As a member of Deutscher Designer Club (DDC) we are constantly prompted to question, and sharpen, our role as designers and to keep negotiating the value added by design.

German Usability Professionals Association e.V.
Keeping up to date on usability and user experience

Through the German Chapter of the international Usability Professionals Association (UPA), we are in constant dialogue on a wide range of topics relating to usability & user experience in business – from developing UX strategies and setting up UX teams to embedding a UX culture in companies and corporations. Discussions with partners from business and academia as well as agencies, other organisations and a wider public facilitate the transfer of knowledge and help shape opinions against the challenging background of balancing usability and profitability.

Our clients

AIRBUS Operations GmbH
AerQ GmbH
ANT Applied New Technologies AG
Busch-Jaeger Elektro GmbH
COLLINS AEROSPACE
Danfoss A/S
DB Regio AG
Dentsply Sirona
Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt
Deutsche Telekom AG
DINSE G.m.b.H.
D.Med Consulting AG
Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA
Dr. Johannes Heidenhain GmbH
Eaton Industries GmbH
E+S Gesunde Lösungen GmbH
GEA Group AG
Gigaset Communications GmbH
Hamburger Hochbahn AG
Hauni Maschinenbau GmbH
Hegenscheidt-MFD GmbH
Heidenhain Corporation
Idair GmbH
Jungheinrich AG
KID-Systeme GmbH
Knape Gruppe Holding GmbH
Knorr-Bremse Evac
Krüss GmbH
Lufthansa Technik AG
Lürssen Werft GmbH & Co. KG
Makita Engineering Germany GmbH
Metabowerke GmbH
Miele & Cie. KG
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Air-Conditioning Ltd
Nabertherm GmbH
Safran Passenger Solutions
seca GmbH & Co. KG
Siemens AG Industry Sector
signotec GmbH
The L.S.Starrett Company
T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH
Unite Network AG
Volkswagen AG
Vossloh AG
Vossloh Rail Services GmbH

Awards