Bernhard Dietz

Bernhard is a designer, educator and planner whose work is grounded in both design and science and oriented toward making complex situations understandable and actionable. With master’s degrees in product design and in natural resources and environment, he brings together material, spatial and systemic thinking to create products, experiences and strategies that support more sustainable and equitable futures. Clarity and simplicity are for him expressions of responsibility: ways of enabling better decisions in contexts characterized by uncertainty, competing interests and accelerating change.

Over the past twenty-five years, Bernhard has worked across industry, consulting and research in Europe and North America. His professional trajectory spans product and systems design, corporate and communication design, sustainability analysis, and brand and innovation strategy. He has led and contributed to projects for engineering and industrial firms, environmental and design consultancies, cultural and research institutions, and early-stage ventures, often at the intersection of technology, infrastructure and the built environment. Working in cross-functional teams, he is typically involved where new frameworks, narratives and artefacts are needed to connect technical, organizational and human perspectives.

Bernhard joined the Faculty of Design at OCAD University in 2016, where he teaches upper-year industrial design studios with a focus on sustainability, circular design, systems thinking and graduation projects. His teaching emphasizes research-driven design, critical reflection and hands-on experimentation, and he is particularly interested in how students can link individual projects to broader ecological and socio-technical systems. He has also served as a part-time professor at George Brown Polytechnic’s Brookfield Sustainability Institute, developing and teaching graduate courses in design research and professional practice in a sustainability context, and has been a guest critic at several Canadian universities in architecture, interior design and planning.

In parallel to his academic work, Bernhard is the founder and principal of ZEED, a Toronto-based creative consultancy and maker practice built around a patented lighting system and a broader interest in “sense-making” through design. At ZEED he manages the full arc from concept development, intellectual property and engineering to fabrication, supply chain, branding and market introduction.

Previously, Bernhard held leadership roles including Director of Global Brand Development at Armstrong Fluid Technology, where he defined and implemented a global brand and design strategy, led international teams and introduced agile practices into a 600M$ engineering company. His earlier positions include associate creative director at Bruce Mau Design, senior researcher in design-for-environment consulting, design manager in corporate design for Festo, and collaboration with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry on circular-economy initiatives. These experiences anchor his ongoing interest in coupling sustainability analysis—such as life-cycle assessment and industrial ecology—with concrete design decisions and communicative experiences.

Originally from Germany, Bernhard came to North America on a Fulbright scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies in structured planning and innovation design in Chicago, later completing his master’s in industrial ecology and life-cycle assessment at the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems. This international and interdisciplinary background continues to inform his work with students, collaborators and clients, where he aims to foster shared understanding and purposeful action through thoughtful, well-crafted design.