Weeknote 336

April 29th to Mai 5th

This was probably the most intense week we’ve ever experienced at precious. A rollercoaster ride including sleep deprivation, weight loss, hangovers, cabin fever and the whole range of emotions from fierce anger to overwhelming joy.

On Sunday we packed our stuff – stacks of large printouts, knives and glues, several computers and other electronic equipment – and moved our studio to Berlin for a week. There was tons of work to do before the re:publica conference opened its doors on Wednesday.

Here are some behind the scenes pictures.

This was our workshop located in an adjacent room to the main hall. It was also used as a storage room but since we been there early, we claimed a large part of the room. This was our realm for the days to come.

Since we couldn’t testdrive the rental copiers, Michael’s biggest fear was that they weren’t fast enough for our purposes. So the first thing he did was setting up the machines and simulating some print jobs. Luckily everything worked out. One problem less to solve (there were still enough to come).

We also had an office in another building. It had the charm of a prison cell, but a fast and stable internet connection.

This was Christophe’s closest friend for the whole week. They became even closer when he switched to headphones.

Some of our tools.

Our design concept was quite literally derived from the conference motto, ACT!ON. Not only in terms of aesthetics (inspired by protest signs, pamphlets and posters), but also in the way it was produced. We chose some kind of dogme approach to design: Everything was printed on regular office paper in standard sizes. We only used xerox machines with black toner. Signage, backdrops for stages and other materials were printed and assembled (and often designed) on location. Above you see David and Michael working on a huge sign.

Me finishing another display.

raumlabor, the architects, perfectly transferred our design ideas into the construction of the furniture and signage. Everything was built with trestles and chipboards you can buy for a few Euro in every hardware store. The trestles were used in different directions and combinations to form speaker’s desks, tables and various signs.

Philipp putting final touches on the video trailer.

We couldn’t have done it without jung+wenig, who helped us a lot with the design and production. This is Christopher working on a huge billboard at the entrance.

The location was so big that we often used bicycles to get from A to B. This is Tobias fetching more posters and paste for the huge info wall.

Gilbert and Pascal, both interns at jung+wenig, taking a well-deserved break.

The main piece of our design was the analog twitterwall. Before the action began, we had to establish a grid. 660 sheets of paper, each with a reference code, had to be pasted on the wall. Michael is pretty happy with the result.

These are the first two color sets – still unmixed – for the twitterwall. Blue/green and yellow/orange/pink.

After days of printing, glueing, stapling, pasting and living in our workshop, the place looked pretty messy…

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There’s so much more to say about this week. We learned a lot, especially about ourselves. But I need a few more days to process all of it.