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Last weekend, Cologne's graduate students celebrated their last goodbye. Each year, sixth semester students organize a last farewell party for their fresh graduates.

The Köln International School of Design, or KISD (pronounced as "kiss dee") is not meant for creative students who like to stay at home. Their academic program includes international courses and stimulates students to experience a part of their education abroad, which is quite uncommon for German education standards.

During a sunny afternoon in Cologne we enjoyed a refreshing graduation show with penguin-like yachts, magic tableware, and live presentations. See more photos and presentations after the jump.

KISD's approach to design is known to be rather theoretical but this year's graduation show features more practical graduation works than ever. To receive their design degree, each student has to work out two sub-themes and one major theme, which is researched more intensively. We summarized some of the diploma and bachelor-master projects below.

For instance, "EDDY" is a compact excavator which is more thorough than conventional excavators. Maciej Puzon made this remote controlled concept can even pass through doorways and into courtyards.

Sebastian Wolf developed a specific tool exclusively for women. Not just by making conventional items pink but by taking into account a lot of practical features including: feminine form language, flexible movement of parts, power management, and limiting the number of components.

After, a compact excavator and tools for women, we enjoy about Anna Lederer's tools for children. She visited primary schools to learn more about the eating habits and (rather poor) conditions of children. With a magnetic foil she upgrades children's tableware to realize a little bit of magic and freedom in the daily lives of our youngest students.

A more theoretical approach comes by Nevin Guelmez by publishing "Heim Spiel", a book documentary about Germans and Turks living in Germany. Nevin learned that more than 50 percent of all publications about foreigners come together with a negative message. With her book she provides an alternative to the many publications about integration difficulties by conducting six personal interviews with Turkish actors living in Germany, to provide food for thought.

The term "Service Design" is not yet ringing a lot of bells in Germany but is becoming one of the bigger themes in the world of design. Even though Germany is a service economy, the role of design in creating these services is very minimal. Lisa Flanakin and Isabel Stegmeier developed a servicedesign.info agency with practical tools to push the development of service design in Germany.

With his project "Flying in the Water" Tom Buescher researches speed of transportation in water. He researched the movement of sea animals and demonstrates how a creative transfer of the "penguin-effect" (smart surface structures that capture air) creates new opportunities for water transportation concepts such as this dark speedboat.

See more photos of the opening show and student projects under "press" at www.kisd.de/phase8