With Triad (Berlin/ Cologne, Germany) we designed the exhibition for the “red dot: design team of the year 2010″ award, which was won by the tool manufacturer HILTI who wanted to showcase their approach on industrial design. I was responsible for concept together with Andreas Horbelt and for overall design and implementation.

GESTURE: INTERPLAY BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Left: abstracted construction site with customers and their needs. Brand new tools.
Right: glorified design heroes (used tools) – emotion, brand, principles, and history.
The two opposing walls act as active backgrounds for the exhibition inbetween.

HANDS ON - THE CONSTRUCTION EXPERIENCE

Exhibition platforms out of raw concrete, particle board, and planks suggest work in progress. This is underlined by projected customer silouhettes and statements. Brand new tools (yet to be proven on site) can be touched and examined. The broad range of tools display the design consistence among the product lines.

DISPLAY OF HEROES

Heavily used tools in high-end illuminated showcases represent the core aim of Hilti design: product use. Short texts explain the individual tools’ histories: Who used it, how long, for what kind of work, e.g. “Demolished 207 bridge pillars of different size during its working life – and still works perfectly.” The used products beatifully proof the Hilti brand claim “Outperform. Outlast.”

The Hilti design mission statement on the red wall gives an insight into the aims and approach of Hilti product design.

My new book “TOKYO CLASH - Japanese Pop Culture” is finally available. check it out here

TOKYO CLASH

Japanese Pop Culture
A visual joyride into the hearts of contemporary japanese pop & design culture.

BOOK INFO:

© Feb. 2009 - Ralf Bähren (all rights reserved. Author, Designer, Photographer. The author owns all intellectual property rights.)
192 Pages, full color, 21 x 21cm,
double photo pages with captions and text box explaining or commenting on a cultural issue or phenomenon. English text with japanese Katakana titles and their phonetic translation.

ABSTRACT:

Tokyo Clash is a visual, photographic encounter with highlights of the extremely colorful and overwhelming japanese design culture. It covers less of the high valued *chique* you find in stores around the world, but more of what strikes on the street. It is everyday design targeted at the japanese people - be it signs, shopping goods, street styles or spiritual offerings.
This mindblowing journey provides delightful and provoking insights into a society still hard to understand for many westeners. Awful, astonishing, admirable and absurd, but highly valuable for the playful mind: Targeted at designers, architects, photographers and all sorts of culturally and visually interested people with a sense of open-minded humor. The author explains, comments and critically deconstructs the underlying cultural phenomena that seem deeply rooted in the japanese mind. He does so with a homoureque, almost poetic language.
“Get ready for the ride of your life.”

THE AUTHOR:

The german designer and photographer Ralf Bähren (32) lived 1 year in central Tokyo and spent half of the time exploring, wondering, understanding and documenting. The other half, he was working in Animation, programming, illustration and graphic design. Many insights that made it into the book are the result of close relationships and cultural discussion with both old-fashioned and freaky japanese, half-japanese and foreigners living in Tokyo.

This is his first book - usually he designs exhibitions, interactive experiences, animation, websites and information all over the world. And of course, he loves to travel and explores world culture in general.

look inside!

sample page: “Tokyo”
more pages:

alright…

So if you like this book, please feel free and WRITE ME AN EMAIL with contact information, and i would be more than happy to present the complete book in person.

The book market is INTERNATIONAL, but especially interesting also for the JAPAN market, as japanese are usually very curious on how they are perceived by foreign guests.

Recent flash technology (namely papervision3d) drove me into sketching a small, bouncy 3D image browsing application with not much use whatsoever. Anyhow it is fascinating to explore the freedom of camera-based interfaces and its potential of creating seamless interaction experiences. Unfortunately, it’s quite a programming task as well.

Fun to use, i think… let’s see what it’s useful for.

Together with simple gmbh (Cologne, Germany) we were asked to develop the all new childrens learning and experience center for the BMW World in Munich. In the project i was responsible for overall design concept and specifically led the interactive media development and implementation.

concept

We send the kids on a two hour workshop to explore the fascination of mobility through a large variety of interactive experiences and hands-on exhibits. With a great team of architects, designers, engineers and programmers it was a demanding but thrilling experience to create one of the most compelling integrated learning environments to date.

Campus Portal

(images: Martin Müller - © simple GmbH)

Rolling Ball Sculpture horizon and Dreamcar (videos: CHBP - © simple GmbH)
sketches and concepts

Campus Lab

After beeing attracted by the dazzling Rolling Ball Sculpture, the Dreamcar and the all-illustrated horizon in the public zone, the kids enter the “Campus Lab”: (images: Martin Müller - © simple GmbH)

damper crankshaft explosion steering (videos: CHBP - © simple GmbH)

What follows is a round trip through the inner workings of a car: Each interactive station lets them actively experience the physical principles that drive modern mobility.

Campus Workshop

After collecting more points in the quiz show, the crowd is prepared to master their own engineering skills in the “Campus Workshop”: Here they gather material at interactive stations to build their own car. (images: Martin Müller - © simple GmbH)

engines designlab safety cable car (videos: CHBP - © simple GmbH)

The clients desire of creating an educative “out-of-school” learning experience, while maintaining core brand strategies was fully accomplished and is rewarded by crowds of fascinated children who experience it today.

How to explain hydrogen? How communicate its future potential to a desiring crowd of journalists, experts and potential customers? At simple gmbh, we developed the new BMW Clean Energy strategy for technical hydrogen communication.

I took a central part in the intensive creative process that was pressed through a merely 6 months, responsible for concept, general aesthetics and 3D exhibit design. Furthermore i led the media design and programming team, partly programming the animations by myself.

Setup

The grand unveiling was the Valencia Dealer Drive, an educative opportunity for thousands of international BMW dealers to experience their brand. The communicative elements revolve around the all new BMW Hydrogen 7, the first serially manufactured hydrogen car on the market.

(images and videos: Uli Grohs - © simple GmbH; particle animation: industriesauger; 3D: renderbaron )
hydrogen tank hydrogen engine interactive semantic map
sketches and concepts

interactive media

Apart from physical interactive exhibits, the project focused on reusable interactive applications to be shown in various contexts such as exhibitions, international trade fairs and the BMW website itself.

Of course, a brand new BMW comes with dozens of new features and innovations. But what are these actually good for? The team of simple gmbh helped to understand complex technologies playfully.

Probably the most efficient research and brainstorm process i ever attended, the basic ideas for this project came out of a team of four talented people in about two weeks. Furthermore, I was responsible for most animation, mixed and virtual media.

6 light bulb moments

For a series of international events, we were asked to develop sophisticated interactive exhibits that reveal the use of six specific new features. The essential focus was not to explain the technology itself, but to let users actively experience how it actually improves the driving.

Active Steering Adaptive Drive Double Wishbone iDrive Bookmarks Rearview Camera
Adaptive Drive Concept ( images & videos: Uli Grohs - © simple GmbH)

(image: © simple GmbH )

Surprise me!

We were asked by BMW dealer marketing to design a series of desk exhibits for presentation in showrooms and service stations. We identified the need of playfully and quickly convey the essential message: “Original BMW spare parts last longer and help to keep your BMW safe”. This was underlined by a spice of surprise, to keep the message sticky.

 

In a team of three, we developed CI and website for the tough and active swiss consultancy PIT Ag. Their unique approach of brownpaper-analysis and hands-on spirit was transformed into an outstanding appearance amongst competitors, while maintaining a professional and reliable image.

The PIT approach

The client approached us for a new website, but we could convince the management of refurbishing the whole corporate image. A close and intense look at the inner workings of the company, their people and spirit was soon transformed into a lively picture.

I developed a flash website for the spanish Exhibition & Museum Design Company GPD SA (Géneral de Diseno y Prodúcciones, Seville - Spain).

fun. fast. flexible.

Time and budget were short, so i came up with a simple structure that made content editing as easy as possible, while at the same time make browsing the site a pleasant and worthwhile experience. Central element is the expanding image browser that features a smooth moving rollover behavior to explore the images without the typical thumbnail-enlarge-back behavior.

Several interactive haptic exhibits explaining special techniques of the glass making process.
I was responsible for research, concepts and sketches for the exhibits.

Hands on

The museum approached us with the desire of creating interactive exhibits, that allow the visitor to understand more of the actual process of glass-production. Adopted to the fairly small budget, we developed simple, but intriguing devices, which included samples from the museum’s collection to touch and explore. ( images: © simple GmbH)

sketches and concepts

Working as a freelance designer for Vodafone Global (Duesseldorf, Germany), i created a comprehensive iconography language for use over a large range of mobile phone applications. Together with 3 other designers, we developed a standardized visual grammar and vocabulary to generate thousands of individual icons based on various application needs.

A new approach on Iconography

To manage the complexity that arouse from creating new icons for a growing number of individual functions, we introduced a flexible language that made it possible to combine a multitude of elements according to strictly defined iconography rules.

sketches and concepts

The AMC (Alfa Metalcraft Corporation - Bingen, Germany) kitchen department was searching for a new sales tool to use within their direct marketing strategy. We came up with an interactive planning device which helped the client to design his personal kitchen while beeing subtely guided by the given layout and style options.

Find your style:

The kitchen planning process always incorporates the famous question of “how should it look like?”, which we even took further to “how should it feel like?”. To guide the clients’ design process we created landscapes of style, which relied heavily on cliché imagination of actual landscapes, cities or regions.

 

Conceptual approach:

As the sales procedure takes place at the customer’s home - usually in the kitchen - it’s important to boost the imagination beyond the standards elements of colors, handles and functions. In a truly interactive process, the salesperson finds out needs and desires, while the customer actually takes the leading role of the step by step design process.

 

For Kahn + Associates (Paris, France) we were asked by the BnF (La Bibliothèque nationale de France) to analyse the world’s four largest national Libraries websites. Upon the outcome, we proposed structural improvements on the BnF’s own website.

Our approach

The main focus of the analysis was strategic. Web-accessible database software and content management systems make these large sites possible. What are national libraries communicating on their website? Why are they doing it? What are they preparing to do next? We looked closely at the kinds of information available on each web site, the intended audience for this information, and the relationships between serving the audience that visits the physical library and the remote audience that uses information on the website.

Elements of the process

We gathered information about all the digital collections and services available on the current websites of the four libraries. This information was categorized and presented in tablular form to further analysis and discussions with the client. The table facilitates comparison of similar resources across the four sites.

In cooperation with the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum of Ethnography (Köln, Germany), i developed a modular touchscreen interface for multifaceted use in exhibition contexts.

watch the interface in action
 

Media modules

Based on a theoretical analysis on visitor behaviour in museum surroundings, the system uses the concept of interactive information chunks that can be selected and navigated individually.
 

 

download thesis [pdf, 7.5 mb]

This kind of modular information structure enables dynamic interplay between visitors, exhibit and information system through various cognitive channels (reading, sensing, interacting).

Abstract

A structured typology of common exhibition learning methodologies based on applied exemplary exhibits within the exhibition context. The typology is embedded in a theroretical analysis of the medium of exhibitions. The study can be regarded as a working tool for interactive exhibition planning: The thematic examples provide creative input, comparison possibilities and reflection in future exhibit planning processes.

download thesis [pdf, 3.5 mb]

 

sketches

Working as a freelancer for Triad (Berlin, Germany), i joined a team of two designers to work on a proposal for the new corporate showroom for Stroer, german market leader in billboard media and outdoor furniture. In an intense team effort within two weeks, we created a full concept targeted at multiple audiences, based on previous marketing research.

Explaining “out of home media”

The showroom was supposed to be located within the newly built company’s headquarter in Cologne - a sophisticated architectural complex into which we subtly integrated our concept. Our central communication plot line focused on “making contacts”, visually via billboards, signs and media as well as personally between Stroer associates and its partners throughout the visit.

The Experience Lab

The essential story around the showroom concept is based on the interactive participation of the visitors: Both simulated media planning (for media agencies) as well as city furniture design planning (for community delegates) were anticipated via a large 270° panoramic screen controlled through an interactive table.