Captcha Design Festival

Captcha is a design festival for watching, participating, and discussing. For everyone who wants to understand design not just as a finished product, but as an ongoing process.

From September 14 to 21, 2026, students from the Faculty of Design at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences will host the Captcha Design Festival, this year in cooperation with the City of Mannheim, the Abendakademie, and the Alte Feuerwache. Young designers in particular will be offered easy access to workshops and talks featuring exciting figures from the creative industry. This year’s Captcha is titled “Momentum.” Momentum refers to the momentum of an existing movement. It creates a momentum of its own that is virtually impossible to stop from the outside.

Participants include A2 + B, Deutsche & Japaner, HAL Typeface, Julia Kahl, Liv Virnich, Raoul Gottschling, Sophia Krasomil, Tim Lindacher, Wenzel Rehbach, and Yannick Bach.

Over the course of eight days, Captcha will explore the theme from various perspectives:

September 14 – Symposium
Four lectures at Cinema Quadrat will kick off the design festival.

September 15–18 – Workshops
Seven workshops at the Alte Feuerwache and the Abendakademie will explore the theme through hands-on activities.

September 18–21 – Exhibition
The results of the workshops will be presented to the public. The exhibition, organized in cooperation with the City of Mannheim, will take place on the former Gravis site at Stadthaus N1, where the vacant retail space will be repurposed for temporary use. The event kicks off on September 18 with the opening reception and concludes on September 21 with a festive closing reception.

A heartfelt thank you goes to the Albert and Anneliese Konanz Foundation, which is once again supporting us this year and making the festival possible.

Captcha Design Festival 2026

When?
September 14-21, 2026

Where?
Cinema Quadrat, Alte Feuerwache and Stadthaus N1 in Mannheim

More information here.

Photocredits: Maya Dillmann/ @liebling.de