I C O N S ― Tony Özkan

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11 Creative Agencies & Attractions in Berlin, City of Design

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Been bitten by the wanderlust bug but have no travel plans this summer? Not to worry. Join us here for an exploration of the creative culture and local design scene in Germany’s capital, from iconic studios to hot spots for creatives of all kinds.

Last year, Berlin celebrated its 11th anniversary as a UNESCO City of Design. The party kicked off with an all-night design celebration, where studios, boutiques and agencies opened their doors, presenting their work to the public. As the German capital celebrated its creative culture, one couldn’t help but look closer at the overall local design scene that not only helped garner that title, but is constantly evolving.

Berlin is so much more than the Wall that divided it 40 years ago. Since the 1989 reunification, the city has gained a reputation for being “the New York of Europe.” It may not have the skyscrapers, but this cultural hub is filled with star talent, creative agencies and sleek architecture, as well as edgy public works that line the lively streets. As a cosmopolitan culture capital, some of the world’s edgiest design agencies are set up here. From pop-ups to poster paste-ups, a host of up-and-coming agencies are changing the city’s design scene. We spoke to some of the city’s key designers about their work, the urban fabric and what fuels their creativity.

Berlin-Based Design Agencies to Know

Slang

Tengantiale: Themen Text Kino – literary poster series for Kino Krokodil by Slang

The SLANG design studio was founded in 2000 by the French-American duo of Nat Hamon and Florent Moglia, who have brought fresh energy to the art world. “Our practice is often a mix of art and graphic design, exists in between cultures, and is expressed in three languages,” Hamon says. “Our focus lies in contemporary art and cultural exchange.”   With a studio located beside the former Berlin Wall’s no man’s land, it has become a go-to hub for visual art exhibitions—so much that you might call the duo artists themselves. The studio recently launched a photo exhibition and book of interviews with homeless youth, which was created in collaboration with a social organization, and it recently launched a magazine, The Scenic Route, which is based on the sense of touch. The duo has also been working toward the logo, communication materials and exhibition design of the “Politics of Sharing — On Collective Wisdom,” a forthcoming show at ifa-Gallery in Berlin and Stuttgart, as well as developing a website for the Goethe-Institut, which will be a blog platform for youth from Europe and Central Asia. “Berlin provides an inspiring environment,” Hamon says. “It’s a center of contemporary artistic activity and has an international, dynamic population.”

Objects of value – print ad campaign for ArtFacts.Net by Slang

Hello Neukölln! – folder in 10 languages for the Stadtbibliothek Neukölln by Slang

Ahoy Studios

Connie Koch and Aline Ozkan first met at art school in Berlin before co-founding their agency in New York in 2000. Today, they have three offices (New York, Berlin and Zurich) and that international outlook has become a metaphor for their work. With clients including United Nations, as well as key players in the art and design worlds, “there’s a continuous exchange which keeps inspiring our colorful, bold and international style in a synergetic way,” Koch says. Some of their work includes a rebranding of Advertising Week Europe’s Official Guide for the 2016 event in London, and Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics, one of the world’s biggest fashion textile trade shows. Koch, who lived in Berlin from 1990–1995, has seen the city change since she moved back.   “I am still a bit melancholic regarding the golden days right after the Wall came down,” she says. “These were truly free, creative times! There was a big music and club scene, but there was no real commerce. That has changed, along with the many new arrivals from all over the world. You can see things pick up a bit in speed, becoming a bit more like New York—in certain parts of the city, that is.” AHOY is based in the district of Prenzlauer Berg, which is lined with cafés and boutiques. “You just step out of the building and you are surrounded by a very casual, yet refined vibe,” Koch says. “I guess that spirit resonates in our designs as well.”

Key Visual for Intertextile Shanghai 2016 with illustration by Connie Koch; ad campaign for WolfGordon with artwork by Charlotte Mann and photo by James Shank

MoreSleep

If you go to the jobs section of MoreSleep, you’ll see a peculiar sentence at the end of each job posting: “Before you hit send, you should know that music (and  Benji B) is quite a big deal in the office, so share a track you are playing on repeat at the moment—doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s good!”   This design agency was co-founded in 2006 by Torsten Bergler and Frederik Frede, who say, “MoreSleep, Less Headache.” Set in a loft in the heart of Berlin’s Mitte district, their approach is what some would call relaxed. “The studio is very open with no hierarchies and feels more like a big co-working, living place rather than an office,” Bergler says.   The team has worked with Adidas, Absolut Vodka and BMW, while running their own widely recognized lifestyle blog, Freunde von Freunden. More recently, they’ve started working on the rebranding and corporate identity for a hotel group in Georgia. They’re also working on content strategies for Visit California and launched a website for the world’s third-largest solar company, Aleo Solar. This year, we can expect to see the relaunch of their blog and a brand new print magazine, as well as a new loft concept space in Kreuzberg. “Berlin is becoming more and more international with all the people moving into the city,” Bergler says. “There is still a lot of space and freedom of expression. Those people and the spaces are very inspiring and bring in a lot of input.”

upstruct

Famed designer Charles Eames once said, “The details aren’t the details—they make the design,” a motto that upstruct lives by.   “We’re not happy before everything is perfect,” says Toni Harzer, who founded upstruct in 2005. Since working with Lars Trautmann in 2008, the team, which also works with freelance designers and an intern, focuses on web design, branding, graphic design and illustration. The studio’s projects range from film festival posters in Norway to software interfaces and working with JONES Ice Cream, a locally operated food truck. What sets it apart: The team creates their own annual, limited-edition screen-printed calendar, which is essentially a work of art in itself. But while Berlin is a creativity-fueled city filled with artists, the studio makes one clear distinction: Design is about solving problems. “‘We’re not only artists’ is one of our strongest competences,” Harzer says.   The city drives them to stay motivated. “A lot of things are happening in Berlin—that’s why you see and experience a lot of impressions—but this also means we have to compete with a lot of other great studios and designers,” Harzer says. “There are many startups and people starting projects and searching for design in Berlin. Somehow the indication of ‘design from Berlin’ seems to make the things more interesting for people. So generally, we think Berlin is a great place to be a designer.”

Berlin Food Week 2014 assets by upstruct.

Amandus 2015 and Rock Am See 2015 by upstruct

Eps51

After doing projects abroad from the likes of Cairo and London, Ben Wittner and Sascha Thoma founded this design agency in 2008. With a focus on type and bilingual design, it spawned from their first big project, a book called Arabesque 2: Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia, published by Gestalten.   Then, as Wittner recalls, “we sort of fell into being self-employed,” and now work in a Kreuzberg studio, which is part of a building filled with artists, dancers and designers. There are so many creative people in Berlin that Wittner calls it a “creative ghetto.” “The Berlin design scene has grown immensely over the past years; sometimes it’s almost too much,” he says, adding that it “has for sure brought forward some great designers and fantastic work.” Their client list includes L’Oréal, Heineken, Nike and the Victoria & Albert Museum, but more recently, they’ve worked on the lookbooks for fashion designers Michael Sontag and Vivian Graf and taught a class in editorial design at the University of the Arts in Berlin, where they created a 128-page prototype book with 19 design studios in 10 different languages.

Posters for the Alwan 338 Festival, Bahrain, by Eps51

BiScriptual by Eps51  

Click to page 2 to for the must-see attractions in Berlin.

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I C O N S ― Tony Özkan

@iconsfabric​ · ©

I C O N S ― Tony Özkan

@iconsfabric​ · ©