I recently got back from a visit to Berlin with my graphics class. We had an amazing time visiting studios, seeing the sights and generally stumbling across a load of cool places acrros Berlin. This was the itinerary:
Dates: 27/02/2017 to 02/03/2017
Accomodation
Generator Hostel
Storkower Strasse 1
60.10407,
Berlin
The Bauhaus school of design, which was founded in Berlin itself in 1919 by Walter Gropius. The design ideas fostered by the pre-WWII era school covered architecture, visual design and industrial design. Bauhaus has made an undoubtable contribution to the field of graphic design and you can see exhibits of how it all began here with sights like László Maholy-Nagy’s early poster designs and Paul Klee’s colour theories.
It was really interesting to see the building itself as it was a really eye-catching piece of architecture. The exhibition itself was really interesting and taught me a lot about the context and history of graphic design.
Pentagram
Pentagram is the world’s largest independent design consultancy. The firm is owned and run by 21 partners, a group of friends who are all leaders in their individual fields. They design architecture and interiors, books, branding and identities, digital installations, exhibitions, films, products, posters, and websites from offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Berlin and Austin.
Their offices were near the Kurfürstendamm, in a turn-of-the-century mansion block on the corner of Leibnizstrasse and Mommsenstrasse in the Berlin, Charlottenburg district.
Chloë Galea
We also had the opportunity to talk to talk to Leeds College of Art graduate Chloe Galea, who moved to Mitte, Berlin shortly after graduating. I found listening to a female speaker really inspiring as many of the visiting professionals have been male graduates. It was really empowering to hear how much success she had found since graduating and moving to Berlin and was interesting to find out that her studio was predominantly female. In her talk she covered information and advice about working abroad, life in Berlin and helpful tips on working both freelance and for a design agency after university.
Cee Cee Creative, the Berlin-based agency she works at focuses on design, content and consulting. Points she talked about included:
Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum of Contemporary ArtWe also had the opportunity to talk to talk to Leeds College of Art graduate Chloe Galea, who moved to Mitte, Berlin shortly after graduating. I found listening to a female speaker really inspiring as many of the visiting professionals have been male graduates. It was really empowering to hear how much success she had found since graduating and moving to Berlin and was interesting to find out that her studio was predominantly female. In her talk she covered information and advice about working abroad, life in Berlin and helpful tips on working both freelance and for a design agency after university.
Cee Cee Creative, the Berlin-based agency she works at focuses on design, content and consulting. Points she talked about included:
- Working in a studio can help idea generation can bounce ideas off each other.
- Can feel daunting at first moving abroad but held onto clients in London during the move.
- Skype/Facetime makes meetings easier when working abroad.
- There is usually an expectation to work for free after graduation or after a paid internship for a favour after working for them.
- Making contacts snowballs as they will sometimes recommend others if they cannot help. Working from home makes this more difficult as working in a studio you can share contacts.
- Freelancing you have to think of every expense for taxes etc. Moving abroad, german lessons helped with this kind of thing.
The Hamburger Bahnhof is the former rail station for trains running between the capital and the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. Its station building houses the museum for contemporary art, which belongs to the Nationalgalerie and counts as one of the world’s most successful exhibition spaces for contemporary art. Here, we found work by artists such as Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring as well as many innovative contemporary artists.
One of my favorite Bars was the Cinema Cafe in Mitte. The interior design was amazing with all cinema inspired decorations such as spotlights, and a wall made entirely out of backlit film roll with Japanese and Chinese animations on.
Sight Seeing
We also visited a lot of the sights including the Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag Dome, and the Holocaust Memorial.
One one of the days we went venturing into a different part of the city, Kreuzberg, where we found an amazing food market in an old disused train station. It was one of my favorite parts of Berlin as there was loads of cool street art, good food, independent shops, cafes, and bars. The architecture was also amazing with big trailing vines of wisteria and balconies on every building.
One of my favorite Bars was the Cinema Cafe in Mitte. The interior design was amazing with all cinema inspired decorations such as spotlights, and a wall made entirely out of backlit film roll with Japanese and Chinese animations on.
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