Leif Huff
Leif Huff was appointed Professor of Product Design with a focus on sustainability in October 2024. He studied product design at the HfG für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd and holds a Master's degree (3D Design) from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in the USA.
As a product designer, design and innovation strategist, he has 30 years of international experience, including 24 years at IDEO, where he worked as a Partner in Europe and the USA for more than a decade. Prior to his professorship, Leif most recently led the Strategy and Industrial Design teams at FLUID in Munich. Prior to that, he was responsible for product design and brand building at Wirelane, an electric mobility startup. During his career at IDEO, he started working as Industrial Designer at the Boston and Palo Alto studios and then, as a Partner, was responsible for managing the Munich office. Most recently he headed the IDEO NY office. Before joining IDEO, he was Design Manager at Siemens Design & Messe in Munich. In addition to his work in the industry, Leif Huff has been a regular lecturer and visiting professor at universities in Germany (HfG Offenbach), the USA (Parsons School of Design, Cornell University) and Sweden (at the HfG partner university Lund University School of Industrial Design).
Leif is convinced that the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly globalized and technologized world can be reconciled with sustainability. Technology and business that go beyond efficiency and productivity are opening up new possibilities for design. He sees integrated approaches in the collaboration of design with science, business and engineering as crucial for product design committed to sustainability.