Here are some blurry, grainy, crappy pics of our year-end party.

Cake, champagne and gifts

At the museum for art and commerce (MK&G)

Philipp admiring a macbook unibody

Dinner

Last photo of the night (at Toast Bar)

Not enough though. At least that what it feels like. We are still playing catch-up with some of the things we’d like to do and just barely keep up with our client work these days.

It would be easy to blame the typical year-end frenzy (which is even more crazier this year), but that would not solve the problem. Especially if the demand keeps up in 2012, which we strive for. So these days I think a lot about organizing and planning, but even more so about focussing. What projects make sense for us, which ones are just slowing us down? Of course you end up with something like “What do we want precious to be?” and since the design studio is not an end in itself, you finally reach the universal question: “What do I want from my life?”.

Ok, that is taking us a bit too far for this weeknote. Rewind.

Here’s an article I came across that resonated with my current thoughts: Twitter/Square founder Jack Dorsey talks about “theming his days” and “tuning out the rest”.

Although still far from perfect, I myself got much better at compartmentalizing my time. It helps me a lot to get more done in less time with a sane mind. The question that’s challenging me right now is: How can these principles be adopted for an organization? How to sync everybody? It’s tricky, even in such a small team as ours.

Multiscreen workshop at the HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd

No ruminations, just the facts: Once again, Christophe and I went to Schwäbisch Gmünd for a two-day workshop with the master students of the HfG. We also did some workshopping at the Brand Perfect Tour event in Berlin. There was a kick-off meeting for a new project (“Kootenay”). We started working on it together with Christian, a freelance designer. Philipp did some analysis and drafts for Osoyoos. Another project Michael, Christophe and I had been working on recently went awry (bummer!). We’ve talked to an internship applicant and liked what we’ve heard (ace!).

A vexing matter popped up this week, but there was enough great stuff to compensate for it. I can’t talk about the unpleasant issue right now, but it taught us a lesson. When it’s finally over and done, I might share our learnings.

So let’s rather talk about the good stuff. Christophe and I met the re:publica organizers and they had great things to report. The plans for next year’s conference are very ambitious and exciting (more details will be revealed soon). We’re happy to be part of the team again. On the way back we already had plenty of awesome ideas. We can’t wait to work on this project.

Also on the fun side of things: Christophe and I took part in an introductory workshop for LEGO Serious Play. Now, to understand how fun this was for me, you have to know that I was a LEGO fanatic when I was a child (I probably still am). A whole room in the basement of our house was dedicated to a massive plastic city. I spent hours upon hours rummaging in piles of bricks, building houses, cars and other objects. It was then, when I became interested in design (without even knowing it).
I heard about Serious Play a couple of years ago, when I was at the LEGOLAND hotel in Denmark and I always wanted to learn more about it. So I was really stoked to hear about this workshop. It was even better than expected. LEGO is not just the best toy ever, but also a great tool for visualizing and storytelling.

I’ll be traveling the next few weeks, so Christophe will take over the weeknotes duties. I might post a few reports from the road though. Over and out.

Christophe’s brain was mainly occupied with Wapato, a new project. As usual, it’s NDA’ed, so we can’t reveal much yet. A first kickoff-workshop with the client took place today and went well.

Philipp stayed in Hamburg for a few days to finish Okanogan. We sent off the last batch of designs and guidelines, so our client’s engineer can finish a beta version of the software, which will be tested soon. Back in Berlin, Philipp started to work on Ecola. We already developed some wireframes and basic conceptual ideas for this application a few weeks ago, now we got green light to dive into the visual design.

Right now, Michael is working on his last lines of code for Comox. The rest of the team will have to do without him for at least 6 weeks, because he’s starting to work on a theatre project from Monday on, followed by some traveling.

I was busy with some organizational stuff, like today’s drudgingly quarterly book-keeping session. There was at least a bit of creative work as well: a few hours photoshopping for Twisp and some brainstorming with Christophe for Wapato.

We also did a bit of long overdue decluttering this week. We amassed so much cardboard and paper, that we had to walk to the recycling bin twice! As a result, the corner to my right feels unfamiliar empty. What should we put there?

German design magazine weave wrote an 8-page article about one of our recent projects — a generative visualization of twitter messages at the re:publica conference. You can get the new issue (04.11) at well-assorted newsstands or order a copy online.

And here’s a photo of the last session in January this year:

Christophe and I spent the rest of the week with preparing and giving workshops, meeting a prospective client, gathering material for a magazine feature, writing a case study for a book, organizing our spontaneous trip to New York and rescheduling all the meetings we had planned for next week.

Michael is still exploring friction and gravity on his new iPad, with daily builds that get better and better.

That’s it. An eventful week. Looking forward to the next.

Unfortunately we had to cancel our gig at the Pecha Kucha night in Hamburg, because we’re in NYC, but we hope to make it next time.

On July 8th, Christophe will give a talk at the Art Directors Club’s “Management Dialog Mobile” in Berlin.

If you are at any of these events, let us know, so we can have a drink together.