Our first exhibition booth
During the last 10 years, we’ve done tons of designs for screen, we’ve done a lot of CD/vinyl sleeves, poster, brochures etc, but we’ve never really designed a real, 3-dimensional space. So we’ve been pretty excited to work on our first exhibition booth for Future Audio Workshop (some more background information about this project can be found here).
Our budget for the booth was very limited. We couldn’t afford to buy or build any extra furniture/interior/construction, so we’ve rented a ready-made stand from the Messe Frankfurt:
Since a lot of other smaller exhibitors also use those kind of stands, our challenge was to create something distinctive and memorable with what we’ve had.
An obvious and easy option would have been to just cover the walls with posters. But we thought that a lot of other companies would go for this solution, and even covered with good-looking posters, the whole construction with its white walls would have looked ready-made. This is how the stands of our neighbors looked like:
So instead of hanging posters, we’ve decided to colour the walls. Because everything was rented we couldn’t paint the wall-elements, but we were allowed to laminate them. We made a 3d-sketch of the booth in Sketch-Up and tried different combinations of black/white/yellow (the FAW colours), included the 15° angle (which is an integral part of the corporate design) and added the logos.
We also rented two cabinets (for the iMacs on which the software was presented). The bottom part was of opaque material, the upper part was made of glass. So we’ve covered everything in black, except the top of the cabinet and a die-cut logo on the front, and placed an fluorescent tube in the glass cabinet.
The result was a illuminating effect - the logo was glowing and it made a very nice ambient lighting.
In the end we were extremely happy with our booth. It turned out exactly as we’ve planned it and it looked even better than we’ve imagined. It was a fun project and we hope to have a chance to work on something similar again soon.
Future Audio Workshop
After Johannes gave some insight into our latest work last week (and desperately tried to find excuses for not having updated our portfolio yet), we would like to present one current project in particular.
During the past months, we have been involved in the creation and development of a new audio software company called Future Audio Workshop. We are mainly responsible for all visual design parts. Until today, we worked on the visual identity of the company and its first product, a software synthesizer called “Circle” including logos, a brochure, business cards and a lot of merchandising material such as stickers, t-shirts, shopping bags or badges. We also designed the interface of Circle, just launched an advance website and are very excited to see our trade show booth design come alive tomorrow. Within the next months, we’re going to focus on the packaging for Circle, some advertising as well as some fine-tuning of the interface. We’ll keep you posted.
This week, Circle is going to be presented at the MusikMesse in Frankfurt and we’ll be there on March 12th and 13th. So if you’re around, please come by our booth and say hello!
We’d like to show you some bits and pieces here, and we’re also going to keep you posted about our MusikMesse adventures on the FAW Weblog.
Here is Circle’s main interface (go here for more of them and for some screencasts):
This is how the website looks like:
Some of the merchandising (you can win a FAW Fan Kit if you’re one of the first 100 subscribers of the FAW newsletter!):
And some 3d renderings of the booth design:
precious work 2007/2008
We meant to update the work section for quite some time… heck, we even planned a relaunch of the whole site. But we’ve always delayed it, since we’ve been pretty busy. It’s a lame excuse and we know it.
So for anybody who’s interested, here’s a little overview about what we’ve been working on in the last couple of months.
Our dear friends Tocotronic released a great album last year. Together with the band, we’ve been working on almost the whole graphical output surrounding this release. We’ve designed several CD/LP packagings, posters, advertising, the website (still in progress) and much, much more. Here’s a glimpse:
We also did the cover artwork for the debut album of Herrenmagazin, a young band from Hamburg. Their album is coming out in April and there’s a series of three limited 7″ singles preceding the longplayer. This is what it looks like:
For all your chocolate lovers: you can now order your daily dose at the Ritter Sport Online Shop which we developed together with Fork Unstable Media. While working on it, we tested almost all flavours. We recommend: Knusperkeks, Joghurt, Ganze Mandel, Weiße Voll-Nuss, Erdbeer-Joghurt, Marzipan, Voll Erdnuss, Voll-Nuss, Pfefferminz… actually most of them are quite tasty.
Comissioned by Jung von Matt/next, we did some conceptual and design work for Spiegel Wissen, a new kind of online encyclopedia by German news magazine Der Spiegel. At present, most of our work isn’t implemented though.
An ongoing project of ours is the maintenance and further development of the NIVEA Styleguide BRAND eSSENTIALS. Check out the new Logo Finder.
For our long-time client Native Instruments, we designed software interfaces for new versions of Guitar Rig and Kontakt last year. Currently we are working on two other Native Instruments products, to be released later this year.
Another music software company that keeps us busy is Future Audio Workshop from the Republic of Ireland. They are debuting with their first product at this year’s MusikMesse in Frankfurt. It’s a software synthesizer called “Circle” and we are not only responsible for the interface design, but also the visual identity of the company and product including packaging, website, advertising and the booth at the trade show. More about that in a few days.
DIY07: Build Your Own Fucking Musical Instrument
The article spread, an Ableton ad, my monome 40h and my feet.
I just wrote another article for de:bug magazine (#115) about DIY musical instruments. It presents a workshop called Musical Interfaces at FH Potsdam and features an interview with the people behind monome.
The magazine is now for sale at the newsstands, a free PDF version will be available on the de:bug website in a couple of weeks. I’m planning to publish full-length versions of both interviews here sometime soon. The monome interview will be in English then as well.
[Update]: The article is now online on the de:bug website, too.
Kapitulation.
Nitrada live in Berlin
Good news! Nitrada has been invited to play a liveshow at this year’s seefa festival near Berlin. We’re looking forward to meet you there (on Saturday, June 23rd), it’s for free and the idea is stunning:
Sinnbus SEEFA, issue #5. Amidst jagged and sober architecture, we find a glow hovering above the water. Music resounds inside and all around it. It encapsules the performers inside, it invites audiences to have their way: Take part in the inside intimacies or savor the alienation outside. The glow’s heart is mirrored on its exterior shell - cut-up imagery, abstract streams, a free, autonomous visual equal to the sounds and the music.
For the fifth time, sinnbus invites you to witness SEEFA - our treasured, special and unique festival in the singular, balky setting of Berlin’s FEZ. Here, in the Kleines Forum, music exists in the two extremes of performance - the complete separation from the audience on the one hand, and the direct and immediate experience of sharing one moment and one point in space on the other. A closed room floating on the water basin’s surface gives the performers the freedom to work and play with each other, and eliminates the need to direct their performance towards their audience. At the same time, the listeners may cross the stage’s borders and share this intimate situation. Or they may decide to stay outside, where the music gets caught within buildings, and where all events become visual, edited and alienated and released as video projections.
Typo 2007: Photos
Some photos of the lecture we gave at the Typo 2007 conference some weeks ago. Photos by Philipp, click to enlarge.
Hyper-envelope (or: putting too many links into one posting)
There’s not very much going on here on the precious weblog these days. That’s great, there are so many other cool things to read and buy out there. Consider it like that: by not posting much, we’re providing you a fraction of focus for free!
Although this weblog has many more authors, I can only reliably update you on Johannes, Phil and me. We’re still working on the record artwork as well as online and offline marketing activities for Kapitulation, the new record of Hamburg based band Tocotronic – go and check out the teaser website or listen to the first single on myspace. Additionally, we’re developing a new band website for Tocotronic and there are some new and exciting projects in the making for Native Instruments. Lust but not least, I’m currently doing a workshop called Electronic Music Interface at the Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule.
To sweeten the waiting time for our copies of Adobe CS3, I just found out that Transmit, one of my favorite Mac OS X applications, got a sibling called Coda (tag line: “grow beautiful web code”). I have not checked it out in detail yet, but the concept sounds promising and the user interface has many nice details. For example the automatically generated thumbnails for saved sites (see image on the left). I also think the product promotion website feels very appetizing. If you’re now thinking “oh shit, another tiny app among too many other ones”, I can only recommend to get a copy of Yojimbo, another tiny app among too many other ones; it helps you to keep track of all your serial numbers and passwords. At least.
Oh wait, one more thing! we’re going to speak at the Typo 2007 design conference in Berlin on Friday, May 18th, 8.00 pm (20:00 Uhr) at the so called “TYPOshow” venue. Come and join us, if you’re over there. We’re going to talk a bit about precious, show some projects and possibly let you know what the Nintendo Wii Remote has to do with making music. It’s also a good chance for meeting people you like – we’re especially looking forward to meet Mario Lombardo and the Human Empire guys again. And you.
TYPO Berlin 2007 feat. precious
We have been invited to present some work at this year’s TYPO Berlin design conference. We’re looking forward to meet you there.
most precious 2007
Inspired by Timo’s post, here’s what we’re looking forward to in 2007:
- Building an anti-social website using HTML-tables
- Creating the new record artwork and website for german band Tocotronic
- Setting up a webcam in our office
- Working on a social network website
- Thinking about the next big thing and how to earn much, much money
… and much more.
precious work
This is just a short notice to let you know that we finally put our portfolio online - go and watch it here. Not all projects are fully online yet, we will add them as soon as they’re ready and announce it in this weblog. If you have any questions or comments, please let us know - and do not hesitate to spread the word!
Getting Harvest
We’re now part of the New Founders Program on the weblog of our favorite timetracking tool Harvest – read the interview here. Thank you to the makers of Harvest over at Iridesco.
We’re currently still setting up our new office facilities and we’re finally working on our full-blown portfolio, so please stay tuned!
precious work: Native Instruments Absynth 4 and Battery 3
Here’s a short update and an explanation of what kept us really busy during the last couple of months: We were heavily involved in redesigning the GUI of two products that have been unveiled on the Native Instruments website this week.
For both products we worked on conceptual Interaction Design tasks and designed the Graphical User Interface. We’re really happy about the result and as active and loyal users ourselves we hope we were able to contribute making these two amazing software instruments even more fun, more comfortable and easier to use.
Click the images below to read more about the products and to have a look at some screenshots on the Native Instruments website. As soon as we’ll find some time, we’re going to finally launch our online portfolio where we are going to show and tell you a bit more about our work.
By the way: Meet us at the NI-versary party in Berlin at the Watergate Club on Saturday, September 23rd, 12pm. A very nice lineup of artists is waiting there! Happy birthday, NI!
Absynth 4
A legend in its own time, ABSYNTH returns in a more powerful, creative and intuitive guise than ever before. Renowned for its organic, evolving sounds that range from the simple yet sublime to outlandish sonic textures, ABSYNTH 4 continues to build on its exceptional reputation. The addition of new features combined with an optimized workflow and user interface brings fluidity and simplicity to the creation of intricate and intriguing sounds.
BATTERY 3 is the professional standard for drums and percussion. The latest version of the acclaimed drum sampler fuses an extensive library with functionality and simplicity. A powerful new engine and a host of sound shaping options deliver tight, punchy drums while the user-friendly interface guarantees instant access and complete control. Whether electronic or acoustic, BATTERY 3 will have your drums rolling in no time.
without further delay…
hi precious friends,
allow this to be my introduction to the precious weblog. my name is daniel, but you can call me dan. i live in germany where some people don’t understand my short name, so it often sounds like the word denn. if you had to spell it in german then maybe it would look something like dän.
full time work often doesn’t leave much time for play, but if i get a spare moment you can catch me making music (d_minum), riding my bicycle, watching people, and hopefully writing some blogs. i have a fond taste for most things retro, which is likely my defense mechanism against technological complexities abound in society. to put it easily… i like things simple, but that still doesn’t get me off the hook. i remain a victim and culprit at the same time.
i think precious is a great platform for exchange and i hope to bring more interesting (and some less so) posts to the table.
let dinner be served.
Why precious?
Some people ask us: Why precious? I’m trying to write down some possible explanations here, so next time we’ll be able to send a link instead of typing the same words over and over again. I think this list will grow over the years …
A personal anecdote
Together with my now more than 90 year old, good friend Hanns I went on a short trip to New York City in 1997. It was my first time in the US, so I was pretty excited. During some of the nice talks we had, he kept talking about precious people – a term that was totally new to me in this context. I thought and still think it’s a good way to pay tribute to someone and also Hanns is one of the most precious people I know.
The look and the sound
The german word is “wertvoll” in this context: Useful. Valuable. Worthwile. Precious. When I first saw and heard the english translation, I immediately fell in love. I liked it typographically and how it sounds.
Market research
When googling for precious, you get some rather strange, some confusing and some more obvious results. Since Depeche Mode had a single called precious, everything’s pretty packed with them as well. But I was pretty amazed that I couldn’t find anything related to music or design (at least not on the surface). We also did (and will maybe continue sometime) a live music series called Precious Music here in Hamburg.
Precious coincidence
There’s a great band called Pleasure Forever and I used to listen to their first album a lot. The record contains a song called Stay Precious – I think this is the reason why our domain name is and will always be precious-forever.com.
Precise
Last but not least, Philipp told me just recently that he had an association with “precise” when he heard precious the first time. Perfectly fits to our deep love for details.
…