Great design resolves
around people.

Outstanding design is invaluable – and the result of an intensive, creative process. At Dauphin, we develop our designs in-house, often collaborating with external designers. The result: seating solutions that are perfectly tailored to diverse work requirements, excel ergonomically, captivate with their aesthetics, and adapt flexibly to all body sizes.

For its design excellence in holistic brand management, the Dauphin HumanDesign® Group received a Winner award at the 2017 German Brand Award in the category "Industry Excellence in Branding Office Stationery."

The Dauphin HumanDesign® Group is also a long-standing member of bayern design, the international competence center for knowledge transfer and collaboration in design across Bavaria. Dauphin and bayern design view design as a transformative force in society, a mindset, and an integral part of corporate strategy.

Introducing our Dauphin Design Team

 

Jessica Engelhardt

Integrating means “connecting” – Jessica Engelhardt regards the synthesis of design activity and intensive partnerships across disciplines as the key to creating successful products.

 

Jessica Engelhardt is a designer with a passion for innovative product solutions. After earning her degree in Integrated Product Design from Coburg University in 2010, she has been contributing her creativity and expertise as an in-house designer at the Dauphin HumanDesign® Group since 2011.

 

She has been involved in numerous projects, shaping the design of our contract chairs as well as seating solutions for office lounges.

 

Her designs include the following products:

Reefs
Reefs
Reefs flex
Reefs flex
Cay
Cay
Fiore
Fiore
Fiore outdoor
Fiore outdoor
Fiore club
Fiore club
Stilo
Stilo

 

Rüdiger Schaack

"Design is a matter of standards, not just taste."

 

This principle defines the approach of Rüdiger Schaack. Born in Düsseldorf in 1973, the product and furniture designer laid the foundation for his career early on: after completing an art-focused high school education and earning a master craftsman’s certificate in carpentry with distinction, he received the International Design Award Baden-Württemberg during his studies.

 

With many years of experience in the office furniture industry, his designs have received numerous accolades, including the Red Dot Design Award, the iF Design Award, and the German Design Award.

 

Since summer 2017, Rüdiger Schaack has been enriching the Dauphin HumanDesign® Group with his expertise, driving forward innovative projects for the Dauphin and Züco brands.

 

 

 

The following products showcase his meticulous attention to detail and refined aesthetics:

Indeed automatic
Indeed automatic
Indeed
Indeed
Sequel
Sequel
Atelier
Atelier
Allora Poufs
Allora Poufs
Tec identity
Tec identity

Our products are that excellent

BEST of DESIGN Award 2025

Sequel

 

The Dauphin Sequel office swivel chair combines comfort, durability, and sustainability. With a sturdy honeycomb structure and a 10-year warranty for up to 150 kg load capacity, it impresses with its functionality and resource-efficient design. The jury of the Schöner Wohnen Design Awards recognized this exceptional product and design quality in 2025 with the Best of Design Award in the Home Office category.

 

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BEST of DESIGN Award 2024

Indeed automatic

 

Subtle design, intelligent engineering, sustainably designed and manufactured in a 100% climate-friendly way: The Dauphin Indeed automatic satisfied the high criteria set by the Schöner Wohnen jury and in 2024 was presented with the Best of Design Award in the Home Office category.

 

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German Design Award 2022

Indeed impresses with its design quality

 

Ingeniously constructed, ergonomically sophisticated, smartly designed and also manufactured in a resource-conserving way: The Indeed impressed the high-calibre international jury at the German Design Award 2022.

 

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ICONIC AWARDS 2022

Innovative Interior - Indeed sets standards

 

“The Indeed combines lightness and ergonomic comfort with sustainability in a design with an aesthetic contemporary feel that fits into many modern office environments. An ingenious product that, despite its subtle design, promises to deliver outstanding performance,” said the jury at the Iconic Award 2022 in explaining the reason why it decided to declare the product as the “winner”.

 

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German Design Award 2020

Stilo conference declared winner

 

Reasons given by the international jury of experts: “The Stilo is a stylish, elegant office chair whose streamlined design makes it look incredibly light and yet still offers a maximum level of seated comfort. It is impressive to see how functionality has been combined with modern aesthetics here.”

 

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German Design Award 2019

Special mention for Fiore

 

“The ergonomic seat shell promises to deliver pleasant, relaxing seated comfort. At the same time, the design of the shell, armrests and frame appears wonderfully slender and delicate.” – This was the positive verdict of the jury.

 

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German Design Award 2018

Atelier declared winner

 

Statement by the jury: “Atelier presents itself with a clear and straight shape and features high-quality upholstery that promises to deliver plenty of comfort. The elegant rhombic structure of the backrest is particularly emphasised in the highback version.”

 

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Red Dot Award: Product Design 2017

Award for Fiore

 

This was the jury’s verdict on the Fiore FI 7560 conference chair: “The Fiore shell chair impresses with its modern aesthetics. The combination of a wooden seat shell, elegant armrests and a delicate roller frame is perfectly coordinated.”

 

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From the design sketch to the finished product

Our design partners

Martin Ballendat

"Good design must be simple, very simple." Martin Ballendat ought to know: With over 150 design awards and accolades, including the title "Designer of the Year 2019," he is one of the leading designers in the industry.

 

Martin Ballendat is an internationally sucessful designer for 35 years. Born in Bochum in 1958 he studied Design at the Folkwangschule in Essen.

 

In 1995 he founded his own design studio in Upper Austria and later a second one in Germany. Meanwhile Design Ballendat is a company with 16 employees and is working for more than 40 well- known brands in 16 countries.

 

Martin Ballendat has worked over 15 years as lecturer and visiting professor at the Universities of applied sciences in the field of design in Graz and Salzburg.

 

Since his working relationship with Dauphin began, he has produced these innovative products:

Lordo

dat-o

Daniel Figueroa

Daniel Figueroa was born in 1965 in Cuba and studied furniture design and interior architecture at the university of arts and design "Burg Giebichenstein" in Halle/Saale, Germany.

 

Since 1995 Daniel Figueroa has worked as a freelance designer for different furniture manufacturers and other industries.

 

His design work includes conference, seminar and office furniture, exhibitions and fair concepts as well as home furnishing products. He won numerous international design awards.

 

He designed the X-Code range of swivel chairs for Dauphin:

X-Code

Norbert Geelen

Norbert Geelen, born in 1968 in Straelen on the Lower Rhine, started freelancing for the Italian studio Matteo Thun in Milan following his graduation as an industrial designer at the University GHS Essen. Together with Robert Kilders, he founded the design studio bert&bert in 1997 before becoming self-employed in 2005.

 

His designs cover a wide spectrum of products, though he has specialized in upmarket furniture design, mainly contract seating and home products. He has demonstrated his abilities as an out-of-the-box thinker.

 

His series are characterized by matching design aesthetics, and at the same time, each product boasts unique features and has been designed with a keen eye for details.

 

The robust and hard-wearing Tec profile is the result of his working relationship with Dauphin:

Tec profile