WE ARE THE NEXT GENERATION TALKS
WE ARE THE NEXT GENERATION TALKS is a series of talks by promising young designers graduating from respected international design schools to talk about their research and work. We see these talks as a new way to bring knowledge of future experts to Flanders and the region.
The talks have already been organised several times at BUMP festival in Kortrijk. BUMP is a one-day creative conference organised by the Digital Design and Development Howest course with keynotes by illustrators, media artists, ux experts, animators, graphic designers, creative coders, etc.
In collaboration with


BUMP 2022
At BUMP 2022, we invited the following speakers:
- Studio Moniker: Moniker is an autonomous design studio of Luna Maurer and Roel Wouters in Amsterdam. Moniker focuses on the relationship between humans and technology. Their work continues to question the effects of technology.
- Arvid & Marie: From collaborations with pigs to supporting machine rights, they playfully test the limits of free will against increasingly pervasive technologies and hegemonic power structures.
- Tom Sibma: He talks about the fun of shaping an idea and works as a freelance Creative Director and Film Director for advertising agencies, brands and independent artists.

BUMP 2020 & 2021 were unfortunately cancelled due to the corona crisis.

BUMP 2019
At BUMP 2019 we invited the following three promising designers:
- Designer in Residence Kortrijk 2018 Jasna Dimitrovska (Berlin). She talked about interaction design in her talk.
- Manon Van Hoeckel (Rotterdam) told us more about design experimentation.
- And Studio Post Neon (Amsterdam) talked about their research on virtual reality.
BUMP 2018
At BUMP 2018, we invited the following three promising designers:
- Alexandre Humbert was trained as a product designer (Design Academy Eindhoven) and gradually developed a fascination for, and expertise as filmmaker. He currently focusses on Filmmaking as a design practice. “As designers we are storytellers, we are not designing chairs but ways of sitting.”
- Frank Kolkman is an experimental designer whose latest projects include: an Out-of-body experience simulator, a Domestic drug screening kit, a DIY Surgical Robot and proposals for a Humane Caviar Extraction Super Yacht & a Synthetic Rhino Horn Growing Device.
- Japanese designer Tomo Kihara has developed a tool for “street debating”, which allows homeless people to earn money without compromising their dignity.


BUDA LIBRE 2017
The first edition of the WE ARE THE NEXT GENERATION TALKS took place at the networking event BUDA LIBRE 06.07.2017, Howest - Industrial Design Center.
Our first Next Generation Designer, Bram Vanderbeke is a maker, and as a maker he tries to find an interaction between materials, people and their surroundings and provides in this way a renewed vision on the future. He is an observer, and create or direct spaces within the space. Spaces in many possible scales.