Martin Ballendat is an internationally successful designer for 25 years. Born in Bochum in 1958 he studied Design at the Folkwangschule in Essen. After 3 years as an employee for the company Sedus at the border to Switzerland he took over the design- and development department of the Austrian company Wiesner Hager and shaped their design for more than 10 years. In 1995 he founded his own studio in Upper Austria and later a second one in Germany. Meanwhile Design Ballendat is a company with 18 employees and is working for well- known brands in more than 10 countries ( Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, Thailand, USA, Egypt, Poland, France and the UK). He achieved more than 100 design prizes and other awards, among them 17xRed Dot, 2xBest of the Best, IF-Award Hannover, Best of Neocon Chicago Gold and Silver, Good Design Award Athenaeum, Best of the Best Interieur-Innovations-Award, Focus LGA Stuttgart in Gold and Silver, Design Plus Award, Materialica Award, IIDEX Gold Award Canada, National Award Saarland, Josef Binder Award in Gold, National Award Austria ; prizes in Belgium, Netherlands, Japan, China, Hungary and many more. Martin Ballendat is also working as lecturer and visiting professor at the Universities of applied sciences in the field of design in Graz and Salzburg.