Project service: Poster

Berliner Festspiele

Bringing together 6 unique festivals and 2 exhibition houses under one cohesive visual identity.

ClientBerliner Festspiele

Year2018-2022

ServicesVisual Concept

Editing
Organisation
Editorial Design


BackgroundBerliner Festspiele is one of the largest cultural institutions in
Berlin. All year round, they host a multitude of festivals, exhibitions and individual events in two houses – the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the Gropius Bau.
Our main focus when developing and refining their identity was to give individual freedom to each single festival / event while still maintaining the umbrella brand’s overall visual language.

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Differentiation through typography, unification through grid

Within the Berliner Festspiele universe, each festival’s unique character is expressed through its own typeface, highlighting the distinct identity of each festival.

Posterarchive 2016–2021

BFS-Layer
Festival-Layer
Key Visual-Layer

Over the course of five years, we’ve developed countless visual worlds – made up of analogue experiments, multifaceted digitally created designs as well as collaborations with artists from all around the world.

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Jazzfest Berlin

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© Adam Janisch
© Roland Owsnitzki
© Adam Janisch
© Roland Owsnitzki

The Sun Machine Is Coming Down

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Poster with large lettering and images of a building on a yellow circle in the background in an illuminated display case at night
© Eike Walkenhorst
Poster with large lettering and images of a building on a yellow circle in the background in an illuminated display case at night
© Eike Walkenhorst

Musikfest Berlin

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Theatertreffen

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Maerz Musik

Everything Is Just for a While

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Immersion

Circus

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MaerzMusik

MaerzMusik brings together avant-garde sounds and innovative musical experiences, redefining the landscape of new music in Berlin.

ClientBerliner Festspiele

Year2018-2022

ServicesVisual Identity

Illustration

Key Visual

Poster Series

Printed Matter

Trailer

BackgroundMaerzMusik is a festival dedicated to pushing the boundaries of contemporary music, showcasing experimental sounds and pioneering compositions. Our design for MaerzMusik reflects its avant-garde spirit, using bold visual elements and dynamic layouts to mirror the festival’s commitment to musical innovation. By intertwining complex patterns and striking typography, we crafted a visual identity that resonates with the festival’s cutting-edge approach and its role in shaping the future of music.

Key Visual 2018 in Collaboration withBureau Klaus Alman

Key Visual 2019Robert Lippok & Lucas Gutierrez

Event Photos by
Camille Blake

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Staatsballett Berlin

Staatsballett Berlin is a defining institution that embodies the timeless elegance and dynamic energy of ballet in Berlin’s vibrant cultural landscape.

Client
Staatsballett Berlin

Year
2023–ongoing

Services
Consultancy 
Workshops 
Visual identity 
Campaign strategy 
Motion design 
Posters 
Print media 
Web design

Background
As one of Germany’s leading ballet companies, Staatsballett Berlin plays an essential role in the development and preservation of the art of ballet both locally and internationally. This project allowed us to immerse ourselves in the world of dance, capturing its grace, energy and emotion and translating it into a visual narrative. Working closely with the amazing team at Staatsballett Berlin, we have created a design that we believe reflects both the art of ballet and contemporary design.

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Alwan338

Attracting the attention of the Manama public with a black and white series consisting of countless individual posters.

Client
Al Riwaq Art Space

Year
2014

Services
Visual Identity
Newspaper
Exhibition Design
Poster Series
Workshops

Background
Alwan338 is an annual exhibition project by Al Riwaq Art Space in Manama, Bahrain. Each year 20 international and 20 local artists are invited to create art pieces in public space within the block 338 – the area Al Riwaq is situated in. 2014 we were invited to develop the identity for the exhibition and furthermore take part as artists. We developed a visual concept for a series of countless individual posters which were pasted in public space all around town.

Photos by
Sergio Miranda, Ahmed Buasally, Chris Lawrence

The visual identity and poster series we designed for the Alwan338 Festival is based on three concep­tual approaches.

Foundations

We developed four bold pat­terns consisting of repeti­tive basic graphic elements aligned to a linear grid. The graphic elements serve as foundation /basis of the visual identity and form the connec­ting links between graphic and typographic compositions.

Bilingualism

Working with Arabic and Latin is an exceptional challenge as not only two different languages but two different scripts with opposite reading and writing direction confront each other. We approach each bi-scriptual project indi­vidually. For Alwan 338 we developed a typographic grid allowing us to simply rotate the respective media by 180° in order to place the contents of the opposing languages. Both languages form each others foundations.

Alwan (Arabic for Colours)

White represents the presence of all colours, whereas black is an absence of colour. Obvious enough for us to keep our artwork black and white.

Also the design of the Alwan 338 newspaper is based on a typographic grid that allows us to simply flip the contents of the opposing languages. This way Arabic and English are treated completely equal and readers of both languages browse through the paper the same direction – they just have to turn the publication upside-down.

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Theatertreffen
2021

Client
Berliner Festspiele

Year
2021

Services
Visual Identity
Magazine
Print Media
Poster
Web Design
Barrier-Free
Trailer

Background
Every year, the TheaterTreffen festival brings remarkable productions from Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as works by emerging artists from across the world to Berlin. Having a long history and tradition, the TheaterTreffen constantly brings socially relevant topics into focus with its several artistic and discursive formats. For the key visual of TT21 we collaborated with Rachel Maclean taking her animated eye as basis for several short trailers and animations for digital displays in public space.

Photo:Eike Walkenhosrt

In collaboration with theaternetzwerk.digital we also created a digital digital stage on which the festival was streamed live and viewers could attend after parties in the virtual garden.

Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
Photo: Eike Walkenhorst
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Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman

Times Art Center asked us to create the visual identity for «Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman», a group exhibition showing an amazing selection of female artists.

Client
Times Art Center

Year
2019

Service
Visual Identity
Poster Series
Print Media

Background
Times Art Center is a non-profit art institution located in the center of Berlin. As a partner organisation of the Times Museum in Guangdong, China, TAC focuses on the artistic relation between Asian and European contemporary art. For the first exhibition in their new space we were commissioned to design the visual identity of their latest exhibition Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman showing a diverse selection of female artists.

Curated by 
Nikita Yingqian Cai and Xiaoyu Weng

Participating Artists
Chang Wen-Hsuan, Dachal Choi, Chitra Ganesh, Jane Jin Kaisen, Iris Kensmil, Sylbee Kim, Mai Ling, Laura Huertas Millán, Sara Modiano, Mai-Thu Perret, Thao Nguyen Phan, Arin Rungjang, Shen Xin, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Wang Zhibo, Luka Yuanyuan Yang & Carlo Nasisse, Mia Yu

In 2019 Times Art Center Berlin moved to the building designed by the German architect Arno Brandlhuber. The new building also inspired us by using a straight minimalistic stacked grid and typography as well as the silver and grey concrete walls.

Inspired by the artwork «She the Question, Head on fire» by Chitra Ganesh we used bright neon colors to promote the show.

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Circus
Die Originale

The “Circus Festival – The Originals” is an interdisciplinary festival organised by the Berliner Festspiele that explores the current state of contemporary circus through research programs and workshops.

Client
Berliner Festspiele

Year
2018

Services
Visual Identity
Editorial
Magazine
Poster
Motiondesign

Background
The “Circus Festival – The Originals” is an interdisciplinary festival organised by the Berliner Festspiele that explores the current state of contemporary circus through research programs and workshops. In 2018, the theme of the festival was “The Circle.” This theme finds its origin in the history of circus, as it has traditionally always been presented in a circle or ring. This is an essential difference from the theatre.

The visuality of classical circus is characterised by bright colors, shapes and patterns and the dynamics that arise from them. A Circus can be experienced from all sides through the circular presentation.

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Jazzfest Berlin 
2020

Cancel, replace, swap, rearrange, rethink, reschedule, erase, overwrite, and after you’re finally done: start all over.

Client
Berliner Festspiele
Year
2020

Services
Visual Identity
Logo
Illustration
Poster Series
Print Media
Motion Design
Trailer

Background
The Corona pandemic made life for the Jazzfest team more than hard – it was impossible to plan an international festival with lockdowns, new policies, and regulations changing every minute all around the world. Our visual concept for Jazzfest Berlin 2020 reflects the team’s process one-to-one. Crossing out, overpainting, highlighting,  rearranging.

The Berlin crowd gladly helped us with the overwriting and tagging

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Photo: Camille Blake
Photo: Wolf Daniel/Roulette Intermedium
Photo: Camille Blake
Photo: Camille Blake
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Kommunale Galerien Berlin

One City – twelve districts – more than 30 galleries. One visual identity for a week of exhibitions, talks, events and much more.

Client
Kommunale Galerien Berlin

Year
2019–ongoing

Services
Visual Identity
Logo
Brochure
Programme
Poster Series
Illustration
Web Design
Barrier-Free
3D Animation
Motion Design

Background
The city of Berlin runs 30 communal galleries which create a yearly impressive programme repre­sen­ting themselves as important loca­tions for local as well as inter­nationally established artists. The challenge was to develop a visual language for the 33 different institutions – each of which already have their own corporate design. In order not to clash with any of the existing identities, a strong, purely typographic concept was created. The striking and targeted use of typography guarantees high visibility and recognition.

The Kommunale Galerien Berlin present the KGB Art Week every year. Works by artists and other cultural actors – in exhibitions, readings, performances, concerts, lectures and workshops – show the artistic diversity in all districts of Berlin. Each art week gets its own new display typography.

Every year works from hundreds of artists and other cultural protagonists – in exhibitions, readings, performances, concerts, lectures and workshops – demonstrate the artistic diversity in all districts of Berlin.

Inspired by Roger Excoffon’s typeface “Calypso” from 1958, we created custom-made letters for the initials of the Kommunale Galerien Berlin for the Kunstwoche 2020. Inspired by Roger Excoffon’s typeface “Calypso” from 1958, we created custom-made letters for the initials of the Kommunale Galerien Berlin for the Kunstwoche 2020.

Inspired by Roger Excoffon’s typeface “Calypso” from 1958, we created custom-made letters for the initials of the Kommunale Galerien Berlin for the Kunstwoche 2020.

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Down to Earth

The largest immersive system which we’re not only confronted with but also have an impact on is the climate.

Client
Berliner Festspiele 
Immersion / Gropius Bau

Year
2020

Services
Visual Identity
Magazine
Poster
Illustration
Print Media
Motion Design
Trailer

Background
How can we sustainably change the way we work, eat, travel, create artworks and make exhibitions? “Down to Earth” is both an exhibition and an unplugged programme with daily changing live events that explores how the agenda of a shift in climate policy affects our own “operating system”. The project critically questioned and reflected on the topic sustainability within the world of arts aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of creating arts and installing a large-scale exhibition with the halls of Gropius Bau Berlin. 

Our visual approach as well as all design-related and productional decisions were purely concept-driven aiming at the goal to create sustainable design products. The idea was never to completely forgo all media output but rather to produce printed matter and digital marketing material with the lowest expenditure of energy possible.

All posters were printed onto the rear side of left-over posters we gathered from previous jobs.

Large Typography was set with outlines to reduce the consumption of printing ink.

All media were printed solely black using algae ink – the only carbon-free bio-based and renewable ink.

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Copyright by Berliner Festspiele

Find out more about our approach on sustainable design concepts here.

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