Theo Zenker (Mexico, 1995), product and service designer by the Centro de Investigaciones de Diseño Industrial - UNAM with exchange studies in Germany at Köln International School of Design 2023-2024.

Throughout his 10-year career, he has designed and built more than 280 products, winning first place in the National Furniture Design Award DIMUEBLE, (Mexico 2022).

He has been recognized by American Express Essentials magazine in the article “25 Emerging Names in Mexican Culture to Know.” (2020):

“A name to watch in the field of industrial design: Theo Zenker is currently a design student at the UNAM Industrial Design Research Center, but even before starting his university career, Zenker had already become a recognised designer and carpenter. Before the age of 25, he had worked designing, producing and assembling installations, settings and furniture for festivals such as Bahidorá, Corona Capital, Vaivén and Tag.”

He has recently worked in collaboration with the City of Cologne on service design projects for sustainable cities with the project “Repair on Wheels” under the supervision of designer Birgit Mager (President of the Service Design Network), considered the founder of service design. In this area he has also implemented design methodologies such as Design Thinking, Human Centered Design and Strategic Design.

Guest tutor at the Faculty of Architecture TH Köln 2024, teaching the course “Bridging +” in the master's program Spatial Strategies, as well as creator of 2 courses on industrial design in Mexico.

Since 2017 he has worked on important collaborations as a designer with international brands and fairs such as: Nat Geo, Zona Maco, Festival Corona Cápital, Festival Bahidorá, Fox, Estudio Rizoma, Inmortal Estudio Creativo and with the Instituto del Instrumento Musical y el Sonido. In 2019 he was appointed director of visual arts at the International Festival of Music and Blindness.

He is currently creative director at Theo Zenker Design Studio, where he coordinates teams from different areas of design, highlighting sustainability projects innovating in circular economy and upcycling methodologies, combining service design strategies and industrial design to understand the artifactual complexity from a systemic perspective. Examples of this is the Spora family of furniture, made without metal fittings and implementing potato-based adhesives with recycled textile sheets.