Design94 built a titanium safety-razor set around one ribbed texture (interview)

Nothing on the market suited Klein's skin: shop-bought safety razors gave him razor burn and cuts, and he wanted a complete shaving set rather than a lone razor.

One fine ribbed texture carried across every piece — razor, brush, stand and a square bowl — in hypoallergenic titanium, so the whole shaving set reads as one object.

In a written interview with the German wet-shaving community Forum der Rasur, Klein recounts building 30–40 plastic prototypes, lathe experiments and titanium prototypes from a friendly supplier, then giving ten units to experienced razor users before founding Design94 in 2021.

The testers' verdict — 'Schade, dass man den nicht kaufen kann' ('a shame you can't buy this') — pushed him to sell; the first titanium set received a German Design Award Special Mention (self-reported in the interview), news that arrived mid-pandemic and sealed the decision to go commercial.

In a written interview with the German wet-shaving community Forum der Rasur, Design94 founder Thorsten Klein recounts how the company began as a private fix: store-bought safety razors kept giving him razor burn and cuts, so he asked whether another razor might fit him better and started designing his own. After roughly 30 to 40 plastic prototypes, lathe experiments and the first titanium prototypes from a supplier friend, he had a razor that stopped the burn — and ten test units that went to friends and experienced razor users.

The design decisions were deliberately personal. Titanium was the chosen material from the start for its quality surface and its suitability for nickel allergies; the fine ribbed structure he found most comfortable in shave tests was carried across the whole set — brush, stand and a deliberately square shaving bowl — so the razor reads as one coherent object rather than a lone head. Head geometry was set by how the ribbing and blade geometry felt in actual shaves, not the other way round.

The testers' reaction — 'Schade, dass man den nicht kaufen kann' — turned the project into a company in 2021. Klein, a trained industrial salesman with a materials-engineering background who has designed pens and run five 3D printers since 2014, had earlier patented a smart toiletry bag, the MelodyBag, but dropped series production when costs hit nearly €250,000. This time he entered the finished titanium set for the German Design Award and, mid-pandemic, learned it had received a Special Mention.

The starting point was a real, repeated personal problem — razor burn and cuts — rather than a market study.

Titanium was chosen early for surface quality and nickel-allergy safety, not for marketing value.

The signature ribbed texture came out of Klein's own shave tests and was then applied consistently to brush, stand and bowl, giving the set a single form language.

Ten prototypes went to experienced users before launch; their demand to buy the product became the business case.

A German Design Award Special Mention gave the first set third-party recognition while the company was still new.

Design for yourself first: a product built to fix the designer's own irritation, ground out over dozens of prototypes, finds a market when strangers ask to buy it.

Design94 continued as a brand, and Klein answered the community's follow-up questions in an AMA thread on Forum der Rasur. The interview was published on 3 October 2026, five years after the company's founding.