LEARN as you CAN

As the 21st century unfolds, we are faced with the need to make fundamental shifts in how we approach education and schools.  We embrace new thinking – and have developed approaches to project-based learning, featuring an increased role for technology, and more sustainable and socially responsible institutions.  We are designing education facilities with flexible spatial configurations, integrated break-out and project rooms, and better connections between the indoors and out.
Our model has students growing food and learning from the building itself, exploring social needs of society and extending the school’s role into the wider community. This innovative approach, and its application will be a radical shift in the way children experience and learn. By using mechanical systems such as wind turbines, green roofs as learning tools students learn in a real world setting. We are working with what architects call “ad hoc urbanism” to illustrate how these necessary changes in education can be translated to the design of schools today, providing a new blueprint for the “future classroom”.

Why Corporate Identity?

Some thoughts about how to take a stand.

Just like individuals, every organisation, company or brand has its own identity. A distinct identity differentiates an organisation from its competitors. It allows customers, suppliers and staff to recognise, understand and clearly describe the organisation concerned. The identity of any organisation is complex. It includes the effectiveness of its services or products, the shared values and ambitions of its employees, the corporate tone of voice and PR profile. Naturally, its visual appearance (or visual identity) plays the key role.

Visual identity manifests itself in many ways. In addition to its logo, typeface and colours, the following all contribute to the impression created by the identity: stationery, marketing literature, buildings, interior design, signage, product design, customer information, vehicles and every aspect of promotional activity from a high-profile advertising campaign to the design of a giveaway.

The detailed management of a visual identity is equally important as the management of other business assets such as finance or human resources. Without a well thought out visual identity guideline, an organisation’s brand perception will be at best diluted, and at worse appear chaotic and unprofessional.

When all of the visual elements of an organisation work together in unity, the investment in its identity is protected and the overall image becomes one of quality and strength.

Corporate Design

Corporate Design ist für uns die einheitliche visuelle Darstellung einer Unternehmung in den Segmenten Graphik- und Industriedesign, Architektur und Werbung. Corporate Design ist das ganzheitliche, visuelle Erscheinungsbild eines Unternehmens. Corporate Design umfasst die visuelle Darstellung eines Unternehmens nach innen und nach außen und ist eine Komponente der Corporate Identity einer Unternehmung, also Bestandteil der (strategisch geplanten und) operativ eingesetzten Selbstdarstellung und Verhaltensweise eines Unternehmens nach innen und außen auf Basis einer festgelegten Unternehmensphilosophie, einer langfristigen Unternehmenszielsetzung und eines definierten (Soll-)Images – mit dem Willen, alle Handlungsinstrumente des Unternehmens in einheitlichem Rahmen nach innen und außen zur Darstellung zu bringen. Ziel aller Massnahmen ist die optische Positionierung und Profilierung eines Unternehmens bzw. Unternehmung.

Das Corporate Design erschöpft sich nicht nur in Gestaltung und Nutzung eines Firmenzeichens (Signet, Wortbildmarke), sondern schließt die einheitliche Gestaltung aller visuellen Komponenten eines Unternehmens zu einem unverwechselbaren Erscheinungsbild ein.

Folgende Bereiche sind Bestandteil des Corporate Designs: Signet bzw. Wortbildmarke (Branding) – Corporate Graphic Design (Kommunikationsdesign) – Corporate Typography (Werbe-, Gebrauchs- und Lesetypographie) – Corporate Picture (Bild bewegt und unbewegt) – Corporate Color (Farben) – Corporate Industrial Design (Produktdesign) – Corporate Architecture (Außen- und Innenarchitektur) – Corporate Material (Materialien und haptische Qualitäten)

Art has many faces

That is why design, scenography, film, photography and painting are gathered on our palette.

Generally, design in exhibitions is thought that humans receive meaningful information, after their brain receives stimulus from the environment. In fact, however, information exists in the environment itself. In other words, our perception and recognition are activities to get information directly from the environment, not creating the information in the brain.

When we recognize something, we search it from the environment. And the environment is the place where ‘information’ of ‘continuation and changes’ exists, not the place where stimulus which will not have any meaning unless processed in the brain, inhabits. Recognition is not what we are forced to receive; it is what we try to get and discover. We perceive most of the things by the brain and not by the eyes.

When we were children, everyday was full of discovery. We were actively looking at things and not passively. Sketched scene upon travelling, small world in a microscope, favourite toys, someone you like… You had surprises and discoveries more than just perceiving things. “If you look carefully…” you’ll see, that there are many surprises and discoveries in our surroundings. Nothing is the same as yesterday, neither your room, nor the roads you take, streets you stroll…We now live in a world of abundance.

Therefore, we tend to lose vision of the future since people’s values have been diversified. Our modern society produces both ignorance and arrogance. We think design will help us appreciate various stimuli and discovery in living daily life. We have to propose infinity and possibilities, we have to engage people´s brains.

We would like to propose a new direction of design: from seeing things passively to looking things actively.Design, we think, is not just shape, colour or function, or even the combination of these, but is a concept which directly connects to one’s subconscious. A human being will become mentally affluent if design is embedded in space, objects, and all the creatures on earth, allowing us to realize the real significance of design in daily life. We believe that, in a word, design is “attachment”, and its higher concept is stimulus and discoveries.

So, if we, the designers create surprising environments where people’s natural (hidden) capability of discovery will be stimulated, we will force them to see with their brains – in other words: not just seeing but receiving and processing information, given by the entire environment.

However, we strongly believe in the power of “full spectrum impact” in order to make the visitors experience unique.

What we want, is the most intuitive, sensitive, and creative communication between senders and receivers – finding a keyword to the fascinations, the wonderings and all the mysteries in life. People will be stimulated, and be given new ideas, feelings and enjoyment. Design sometimes has more impact than any words. If people are inspired by it, design serves real purpose. Scenography, in its sensorial and creative apprehension, is today, more than ever before, fundamental and essential if we want to establish a viable connection with science in general and with technology in particular. Educational valid metaphoric statements grow organically out of the entire visual and auditory world of an exhibition. Bueroplasz (Machen ist Wissen)

„Kunst“

„Kunst ist das, was von Künstlern gemacht wird. Künstler sind Leute, die als einzelne über besondere Begabungen verfügen und die von ihrem Auftraggeber für etwas bezahlt werden, das diesen keinen weiteren als ästhetischen Nutzen einbringt“ (Rahmen: Kants „Interesseloses Wohlgefallen“, Genie).

Außer der Tatsache, dass ein ästhetischer Nutzen gefordert ist muss bei der Gestaltung von Ausstellungen, insbesondere interaktiver Szenarien, der Fokus auf die Kommunikation gelegt werden. Was bedeutet jedoch Kommunikation? Eine ganzheitliche Sicht der Dinge ist die Grundvoraussetzung. Mit Kommunikation meinen wir nämlich nicht das nachträgliche Anbringen von Graphiktafeln, sondern das Gestalten ganzer Welten, die aus sich heraus kommunizieren können.
Jedes Detail, sowohl der Code von Formen als auch der von Farbe, sollte wohl überlegt in den jeweiligen Zusammenhang integriert werden. Kommunikation bedeutet auch „sprechende Szenarien“. Eine durchgestaltete Szenerie spricht also für sich selbst und braucht nur einige, wenige erklärende Worte. Information wird schon durch die Atmosphäre vermittelt. Dies macht es wesentlich einfacher, gesamte Zusammenhänge zu begreifen. Es entsteht also eine Art Interaktion zunächst auf ästhetischer bzw. visueller Basis. Für den Besucher erschließen sich, im Idealfall, die Zusammenh änge nahezu unbewusst. Kommunikation findet „by the way“ statt, im Idealfall taucht er völlig in die vor ihm liegende Geschichte ein.

Eine zentrale Aufgabe von Kunst liegt für uns im Vermitteln von Informationen auf visuellem Wege. Mit Farbe und Form ist eine spezifische Gemütsbewegung verbunden, eine Sprache der Sinne. Für uns ist die ganzheitliche Gestaltung auch immer ein Appell an das Schöpferische des Betrachters.

Aesthetics

Term defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as the philosophy or theory of taste, or of the perception of the beautiful in nature and art’. It was first used about the middle of the 18th cent. by the German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714-62), who applied it to the theory of the liberal arts or the science of perceptible beauty. The scope and usefulness of the term have been much discussed, and in Gwilt’s Encyclopaedia of Architecture (1842), it was still described as a silly pedantic term’ and one of the useless additions to nomenclature in the arts’ which had been introduced by the Germans. In the 20th cent. there is no general agreement about the scope of philosophical aesthetics, but it is understood to be wider than the theory of fine art and to include the theory of natural beauty and non-perceptible (e.g. moral or intellectual) beauty in so far as these are thought to be susceptible of philosophical or scientific study.

The study of the concepts of ‘beauty’ and ‘art’. Aesthetics attempts to give an account of the human reaction to beauty and art, to define the words, to explain how men perceive the ‘beautiful’ or the ‘artistic’, to decide whether the concepts have any other than a subjective meaning and to explain what happens when a man stands before a ‘beautiful’ sight or a work of ‘art’ – what kind of experiences he has and in what way he is able to ‘experience’ anything. Although the writings of Plato and Aristotle contain observations on the subject matter of aesthetics, the word was first used by the 18th-century German philosopher A. G. Baumgarten. Some of the most prominent theoreticians in aesthetics since the 19th century include Winckelmann, I. Kant, Lessing, J. Schiller, G. Hegel, J. G. Herder, F. Schelling, Ruskin, Baudelaire, Taine, F. Nietzsche, Croce, Worringer and Gombrich.

Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb (1714 – 1762), German philosopher, a follower of Christian Wolff (1679-1754) and Leibniz. In 1740, he became professor of philosophy at Frankfurt-am-Oder. He invented the term aesthetics and his Aesthetica (1750) is a pioneering work on that subject.

Serious Formulation / Ernsthaftes Gestalten

Apart from the fact that aesthetic benefit is required, the focus in the creation of interactive scenarios must be on communication. But what does communication mean? A holistic view of things is essential. By communication we mean not the subsequent attaching of graphics panels, but the structuring of whole worlds that can themselves communicate.

Every detail, in the code of both forms and colours, must be deliberately integrated in the context concerned.

Communication also means “talking scenarios”. A structured scenario therefore speaks for itself and needs only a few explanatory words. Information is imparted through the atmosphere. This makes it much simpler to comprehend whole interrelations. A kind of interaction on an aesthetic or visual basis consequently arises.
Ideally, the interrelations open up practically without the visitor being aware thereof.

Communication takes place by the way. Ideally it immerses itself in the story concerned.

Außer der Tatsache, dass ein ästhetischer Nutzen gefordert ist, muß bei der Gestaltung interaktiver Szenarien der Fokus auf die Kommunikation gelegt werden. Was bedeutet jedoch Kommunikation? Eine ganzheitliche Sicht der Dinge ist die Grundvoraussetzung. Mit Kommunikation meinen wir nämlich nicht das nachträgliche Anbringen von Graphiktafeln, sondern das Gestalten ganzer Welten, die aus sich heraus kommunizieren können.

Jedes Detail, sowohl der Code von Formen als auch der von Farbe sollte wohl überlegt in den jeweiligen Zusammenhang integriert werden. Kommunikation bedeutet auch „sprechende Szenarien“. Eine durchgestaltete Szenerie spricht also für sich selbst und braucht nur einige, wenige erklärende Worte. Information wird schon durch die Atmosphäre vermittelt. Dies macht es wesentlich einfacher, gesamte Zusammenhänge zu begreifen. Es entsteht also eine Art Interaktion auf ästhetischer bzw. visueller Basis.

Für den Besucher erschließen sich, im Idealfall, die Zusammenhänge nahezu unbewußt. Kommunikation findet „by the way“ statt, im Idealfall taucht er völlig in die vor ihm liegende Geschichte ein.