CONCEPT WORKS

First there is a thought or an idea. There's a product, a person, or a system with a mission. But how can you make the unseen come alive and into sight? Where to start from? For me it's always listening first and then understand the challenge and to know what is the next best step. So, if you use the given information and  start to rethink with different perspectives on the idea, you're getting some kind of a rough but nice first direction. Often you need additional inspiration, so do some research for inspiration and facts all along your way. Then bring it down to paperworks and write your interpretation or concept.

Sometimes additional experimental power in a group helps to create another big step. Playin' it like a white paper or a blue ocean is nice, if you really want to create something cool or invent something new. Next, write it down and always double check. If it's not good, start from beginning. If good, move on, it'll be awesome anyway! Trust yourself! Make mistakes and learn, but repeat if needed to make a better next step. In the end you will create something big and then you have just to ...

bring it down to earth.

I love the projects I have worked on because there was always a great teamplay and we always came up with some exciting new stuff. Like BMW "check my machine" where we had a rough idea and we got the time, the belief and freedom to create something not seen before. So our approach was different from what we usually do, but we created a playful journey of the car, nicely and freshly told! And on top of this, we were two times awarded! Thanks for that! :)

The SION of SONOMOTORS was another big challenge. A rough storyboard existed, but the story was too far away from the people behind the project. Who is SONOMOTORS and why do we need another electric car? What makes the difference and what makes it a step forward with the SION? We needed this emotional extra and additionally we had so much pressure on top. It was so much to win or to loose with just one crowdfunding campaign. So everything had to be double checked, that the story is well told, but all the facts are in. So we created the moments, a copy for the voiceover,  some backplates, the animation guidance, built a repair shop, a background for the interviews and so on and so on. It was a lot of hard work, didn‘t care if it was day or night. In the end it seemed that this video worked so well that the crowdfunding campaign succeeded overwhelmingly.

Another big one was the Social Design Tour. This was the first time we developed a format with short portraits of thinkers and doers and wanted to design as less as possible. You ask why? Most of the times a proper design is important but sometimes less is more to get the direct and unfiltered thoughts and emotions.

Then there was the most playful project yet. We helped an assembly for social work to support kids with migration background at IG Feuerwache e.V. We started by asking a simple question to the kids:  "If you had magic powers, what would you look like? Please paint a picture for us". The result was amazing and we started to organize a costume designer to help the kids to create their own costumes, with recycled and used materials, which the kids collected at home. And again, we were really inspired by their creativity and we thought, why should we stop here. So one of the oldest games is the one of the emporers and defenders and we gave it a try, played a game and recorded everything onto video. And this was the magic we could give back as inspiration for the kids. They were just blown away, how they could appear with just a professional camera setup. We edited and colorgraded some small pieces of video (plus an extended version) and showed it to the parents . They were so proud of their kids! We thought, we need something much bigger. Now the project "WASTE of TIME" was born. We wanted the kids to learn and empower themselves by making art out of garbage with the support of inspiring artists & craftsmans,  just to bring the kids visions alive. The plan was to install it at schools and that it would affect all classes and subjects. The good thing was that all the kids got a chance to get in touch with arts and craftsman professionals which could be an early inspiration for further development in life. The name says it all although it's ambiguous: "WASTE of TIME" was the only motto for the kids! If you can think it, you can make it and sometimes with a little help of professionals. videos and rough concepts below...

The project "Kooperatives Marketing" was a very important conceptual work for us. The challenge: "How can small businesses and startups with kind of no budget, invest into a project, where the outcome is professional communication and appearrance in the most common online platforms?" So bring some people together, who have the nerve to challenge the standard ways of todays creation of communication, to empower small businesses, to be better seen at a very early stage and enable them to show up themselves. So we started to develop a system with everything we needed to bring it alive. It started with planning the startup team and devolping formats for different usages, an intelligent way of how small businesses could join the cooperative, quality management by the members and how much financial power we needed to bring this courageous plan alive. The financial part was very challenging, because everything should be affordable, but at the same time it should also free our minds. This being said, we decided for a kind of basic income, carried by the cooperative accessing members. Last but not least, we were looking for the social impact for our grandchildrens future! After developing, setting up and building the prototype, we gave it to the Impact HUB Munich for a long lasting and reliable future.

But sometimes you need to tear things down first, in order to see the problems and to find out, how to develop, to adjust or to fix it. The toughest challenge for me was to strip down eyetrip and to understand what works nicely and what needs to be improved. It wasn't easy after all of these successful but often challeging times. So I talked to the closest friends and worked it out as a team i.e. with heartbuilding. This is really fun and helps a lot. After a while and continuous learning of course, everything made sense to me. I just did another big step towards my higher goals in life.

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