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Forward Festival 2017 in Munich
One thing I’ve learned since living in Berlin and working here at Edenspiekermann is that you kind of get trapped in a bubble and forget there’s more to this country than currywurst and techno. Since our agency trip to Bauhaus Dessau the other month, I’ve wanted to see more of what Germany has to offer. However, committing a weekend or a few days to sorting it out has been a bit of an afterthought. That was until this month.
Through the Feedback and Mentoring scheme here at Edenspiekermann, I got the chance to check out this year's Forward Festival in Munich: a design conference hosted in 3 cities that aims to ‘bring together the best international and local creative heads, who provide insights into their success stories’.
It was shit hot in terms of both weather and design.
First up was Moby Digg, a Munich based design studio. Korbinian Lenzer and Maximilian Heitsch (both German I believe) talked about how they went to Buenos Aires to found the studio and how they decided to gamble the last of their money in a local casino (and won). They went on to explain how these experiences of risk taking and traveling shaped their approach design and how this translated into their work.
Next up was Wild, a Viennese digital branding studio. They told us about how they went viral with sendamessage.to as well as their experiments in virtual reality with ‘Konterball’, a ping pong game you play as if your head was the bat.
buero bauer demonstrated how design can make a difference with their universal pictogram system made in response to the refugee crisis. It was eye-opening to realize the differences in how Western and Eastern worlds understand symbols and how they approached the project to make each pictogram as universally recognizable as possible.
For example, the pictogram for the women's restroom is designed in such a way that someone from an Islamic culture would see a headscarf, while someone from the West would see a typical female hairstyle.
Without doubt the most bad ass/rock & roll/bat shit crazy talk of the event came from Stockholm based creative agency SNASK, who brought along their own band ‘Väg’ to play through their chapter slides. All of their projects, whether it was a shower beer, the #monkifesto campaign, or their own book ‘Make Enemies & Gain Fans’ (which was written in 72 hours), show what can happen when you push an idea to the extreme.
They also created a conceptual rebrand for North Korea, changing their name to ‘Love Korea’ whilst stating they will only hand over the brand assets once the country becomes a fully functioning democracy.
They even hired a Kim Jong Un impersonator to pose with their redesigned flag.
These are just a few highlights that I wanted to share from the festival. I have to say all the talks were of a really high standard so I’d like to give a shout out to all the speakers, especially Slanted magazine, A Color Bright, Birgit Palma, Frau Isa, Niklaus Troxler, and SUPERSENSE! If I had more time, I would write something about all of your talks.
(I had to miss Stefan Sagmeister’s talk to get my flight back but I’m sure that was great too.)
Header image from [Forward Festival](http://forward-festival.com/en/munich/), other images from Moby Digg, Wild, buero bauer, and SNASK.