Puzzles, Pirates & Projection Mapping: Maker Day 2017

If you walked into our Berlin office one Friday earlier this month, you’d have found all 50-something members of our team making, soldering, printing, dancing, coding, and puzzling stuff that had nothing to do with normal work. From a game based on AI to building our very first Edenspiekermann bikes, we had 6 hours to run wild and do whatever we’d been daydreaming about for the last few months—without an email or Slack message in sight.

This was, of course, Maker Day. Started in 2015, it’s our chance to pursue things that definitely can’t be called work. As long as you can persuade someone to join you—no lone rangers allowed—then you’re good to go.

A bit like Christmas, Maker Day comes but once a year, so we’d had plenty of time to plan our projects. The 2017 edition saw us make zines, a noise-indicator, a neighborhood guide and a game, AND prepare two bikes for the whole team to use, do some projection mapping (which also served as our pre-party) and complete a puzzle made up of nothing but colors. Our mums would be proud. And when Maker Day became night we turned a techno club into a pirate adventure playground.

We could talk about it more but we reckon it’s best to show you, so here’s what happens when a whole agency does exactly what they want for a day.