Office

Overview

What is it, that sets us apart?

gewerkdesign provides custom-made solutions, resorting to creative ideas from all areas of design. These different creative sources serve as tools for making concepts, content and mental images visible, beforehand contemplating about the topics, the rooms and implications carefully. By taking into account the views of all parties involved, gewerkdesign is able to make creative decisions that have a positive influence on the exhibition space, graphics, products, media applications and projects.

A creative process seldom resembles a straight line, it is a dynamic process rather like an organic, dynamic movement.

 January 5, 2024
• Good news!

gewerkdesign will design the next temporary exhibition at the Museum for Communication in Berlin.
Our team won the two-stage competition with subsequent presentation thanks to their great enthusiasm and motivation. The exhibition marks the anniversaries of leading news agencies as the Deutsche Press-Agentur (dpa) and Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau, as well as the 75th anniversary of the proclamation of Article 5 of the German Basic Law (freedom of the press). Disinformation, information overload, disinterest, trust and credibility, fact-based news: these are among the topics that the curators are exploring in the exhibition. To these ends, gewerkdesign will create a modular, sustainable and inclusive traveling exhibition reflecting the controversial relationship between news and its users.

The opening is planned for October 2024 in Berlin, October 2025 in Frankfurt and 2026 in Hamburg.

 December 18, 2023
• Empty envelope, blank page?

Paper is disappearing ever more from our everyday lives.
With this year’s Christmas card, we would like to cherish this very special material.
Unryu paper* is produced in Japan, exported to Berlin, stored and cut to size in a paper warehouse in Tempelhof, printed on, inserted into the envelopes, sent to the post office and transported to the addressee.
Is the elaborately designed Christmas greeting blank? Not at all: despite its elementary emptiness, it contains something that cannot be further specified, nor can it be measured, nor selected — which is precisely why it stimulates the imagination.
Filling the void is possible, indeed necessary, in order to banish this existential horror vacui. A light source emitting UV rays onto the paper might bring us closer to solving the puzzle …

gewerkdesign wishes everyone a peaceful festive season and a confident 2024!

Unryu paper*: literally also called cloud dragon paper
The paper is manufactured by adding long mulberry fibers and is conventionally used for covering Japanese shoji frames/sliding screens.

November 9, 2023
• Nothing in Bern

… The exhibition opening at the Museum of Communication on November 9 in Bern commenced rather inconspicuously in front of a freight elevator in the museum’s parking lot. Water was served. Small groups of ten people were let in and taken up two floors. The guests entered a dark room and were welcomed by the soft voice of the curator. The group moved cautiously forward. Illuminated by the beam of a flashlight, the first exhibition room revealed a wedding ring: “a hole is where something is not”. Other objects could only be discerned dimly. Then the group entered … (the narrator’s voice becomes increasingly faint).

How does one design an exhibition in which NOTHING can be seen? With a lot of sensitivity, with recycled building materials from previous exhibitions, with fake objects and replicas as well as imitations, and finally with illusionary structures. Furthermore, a lot of invisible technology came into play.

> Where: Museum of Communication, Helvetiastrasse 16, 3000 Bern 6

> When: The exhibition is open until July 21, 2024.

www.mfk.ch/nichts

The name of our company states our agenda. The Middle High German term »gewerk« was first noted in the 13th century. Our company’s founders found the term very appealing because it aptly described their conceptual, interdisciplinary design approach, when they founded the company in 1993 – perhaps today even more so:

• describing a unit working together with other units
• a facility setting something in motion
• an entirety of handycraftsmen, guild
• the wickerwork of spiders, the honeycomb of bees
• place or institution, in which tasks are performed

(cited from: Grimm, J. and W. – Deutsches Wörterbuch 1854 und Paul, H. – Deutsches Wörterbuch, 1897.)

Phonetically, the German term »gewerk« goes well with the English term »design«. Combining these two terms also indicates how design in our opinion is more than its separate creative disciplines. Only by combining many different kinds of creative skills and entering the designing process together with our clients we are able to create design solutions that are durable and effective, and a design process that is a design creation in itself.

Underlining this special design approach, the terms »gewerk« und »gewerkdesign« have been trademarked in 2008.

gewerk is also a place where our skills are being pooled together, a place for working and communicating. It usually is here that first introductions are made and first meetings take place.

The office provides room for interconnecting the creative skills of our experienced and talented scenographic artists, architects, graphic designers, media designers, product designers, and interior designers.

We value a friendly atmosphere and treat each other with respect and kindness.

Profile: Roughly, our projects can be divided into three different phases: evaluation, design, and implementation. Our team offers all three of these services. In order to see the approved design translated into the imagined form, trusting us with the implementation phase of the project is especially important. Resulting from this particular approach are both a design product and a process custom-made for our clients.

Evaluation: In the beginning of a designing process it is of key importance to thoroughly register the task in its entirety and to take all its complex implications into account. Best practice for this is listening attentively and observing the rooms and situations to be designed carefully. Working together, communicating openly and at eye level, the project with gather momentum and live up to its potential.

Design: As soon as the evaluation is complete, the next task is to agree upon a design solution and to identify the creative tools and resources that will lead to this solution, rendering the design process  constructive, time-saving, and cost-efficient for all involved.

Implementation: For the implementation phase it takes experience, reliability and perseverance. Many of our clients have been working with us for years, rely on several of our services and entrust us with their projects through many stages of its development.

We assemble our team according to the respective phase of the project and rely on a network of partners and experts for very specific tasks.

In the roughly 30 years of our company’s existence, we have accompanied more than 175 exhibitions and complex museum projects. We offer the experiences gathered from these projects to our clients for other projects as well, for instance creating durable brand designs (Berlin Congress Center since 2002 bcc), globally trend-setting products (velotaxis City Cruiser I, II and Delivery Crusier), or internationally awarded graphic designs (Logo of the Berlin Wall). We also provide consultancy services for project management and design processes, and organize strategy workshops for developing a sustainable future vision for a project (Masterplan study Bremer Landesmuseum).

A

• Amt für Kultur der Stadt Dessau-FRoßlau
• ARD Hauptstadtstudio
• Arolsen Archives – International FCenter on Nazi Persecution
• Augustinermuseum Freiburg

B

• Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für FGestaltung Berlin
• BBWA Berlin-Brandenburgische FAkademie der Wissenschaften
• bcc Berlin Congress Center GmbH
• Berliner Forsten – Landesforstamt
• Berliner Forum für Geschichte und FGegenwart e.V.
• Bertelsmann AG Berlin
• Bundesbeauftragter für die Unterlagen Fdes Staatssicherheitsdienstes der Fehemaligen Deutschen FDemokratischen Republik (BStU) FBerlin
• Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung FBerlin
• Bürger Museum Wolfenbüttel

C

• Cronos Verlag, Zürich (Switzerland)

D

• Danfoss Universe Nordborg F(Denmark)
• Das Verborgene Museum, Berlin
• Der Beauftragte für Kunst und Medien Fder Bundesrepublik Deutschland FBerlin
• Design Zentrum Bremen
• Deutsche Bahn AG Berlin
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für FGefäßchirurgie Berlin und Dresden
• Deutsches Architektur-Museum FFrankfurt
• Deutsches Historisches Museum FBerlin
• Deutsches Museum München
• Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin
• Deutschlandradio Kultur Berlin

E

• Europäische Kommission Berlin

F

• Focke Museum – Bremer FLandesmuseum für Kunst und FKulturgeschichte

G

• Gasometer Oberhausen GmbH
• Gärtnermuseum Wolfenbüttel e.V.
• Gedenkstätte Berlin-FHohenschönhausen
• Georg-Kolbe-Museum Berlin
• Grün Berlin GmbH

H

• Hansestadt Wismar
• Haus der Brandenburgisch-FPreußischen Geschichte Potsdam
• Haus der Geschichte Nordrhein-FWestfalen
• Hertha BSC GmbH + Co. KG
• Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen FOttersberg
• Hochschule Luzern (Schweiz)
• Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum FTanz Berlin SODA.WORKS

I

• Industriemuseum Chemnitz
• Interstuhl Büromöbel GmbH + Co. KG FMeßstetten-Tieringen

J

• Jüdisches Museum Berlin
• Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt

K

• Kernkraftwerk Gösgen-Däniken AG F(Switzerland)
• Knesebeck Verlag, München
• Kulturstiftung des Bundes
• Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz

L

• Landesmuseen Schleswig-Holstein, FMuseum für Kunst und FKulturgeschichte Schloss Gottorf

M

• Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur FFörderung der Wissenschaften e.V. FMünchen
• Miraikan – National Museum of FEmerging Science and Innovation, FTokio (Japan)
• Modulor GmbH Berlin
• MODUS Möbel GmbH Berlin
• Museum für Kommunikation Berlin
• Museum für Kommunikation Bern F(Switzerland)
• Museum für Kommunikation FFrankfurt
• Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe FHamburg
• Museum für Kunst und FKulturgeschichte Dortmund
• Museum für Natur und Mensch FOldenburg
• Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
• Museum für Sepulkralkultur Kassel
• Museum Neukölln Berlin
• Museum Strauhof Zürich F(Switzerland)
• Museum Wolfenbüttel

N

• Naturhistorisches Museum Bern F(Switzerland)
• Nicolai Verlag, Berlin
• Nobel Museum Stockholm (Sweden)
• Norstedts Verlag, Stockholm F(Sweden)

O

• Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum FEmden
• Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg
• Ökodorf Brodowin

P

• Porzellanfabriken Christian Seltmann FGmbH
• Posteo e.V., Berlin
• Projektbüro Gartenregion Hannover

R

• Ricordi & C.S.r.l. Mailand (Italy)

S

• SCC Events GmbH
• Schiffahrtsmuseum der Foldenburgischen Unterweser e.V.
• Schloss Eutin
• Schwedische Botschaft Berlin
• Schwedisches Architekturmuseum FStockholm (Sweden)
• Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr Fund Klima Berlin
• Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, FForschung und Kultur Berlin
• Sprengel Museum Hannover
• Staatliche Kunstsammlungen FDresden
• Staatliche Schlösser, Burgen und FGärten Sachsen gGmbH
• Stadt Doberlug-Kirchhain
• Stadt Frankfurt am Main
• Stadt Wolfenbüttel
• Stadtmuseum Oldenburg
• StadtPalais – Museum für Stuttgart
• Städtische Museen Freiburg
• Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin

Stiftungen

• Stiftung Berliner Mauer
• Stiftung Flucht, Vertreibung, FVersöhnung Berlin
• Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald Fund Mittelbau-Dora
• Stiftung Historische Museen FHamburg: Altonaer Museum, Museum Fder Arbeit
• Stiftung Luthergedenkstätten in FSachsen-Anhalt
• Stiftung niedersächsische FGedenkstätten Celle
• Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und FGärten Berlin-Brandenburg
• Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten: FGedenkstätte Bautzen, Gedenkstätte FMünchner Platz Dresden, FGedenkstätte Pirna-Sonnenstein
• Stiftung Topographie des Terrors FBerlin

T

• Technische Universität Eindhoven
• Technoseum, Landesmuseum für FTechnik und Arbeit Mannheim

U

• Übersee-Museum Bremen
• Universität der Künste Berlin
• Universität Hamburg
• Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-FHolstein Campus Lübeck
• Universitätsstadt Marburg
• Universum Managementges. mbH FBremen

V

• Velotaxi GmbH Berlin
• Vertretung der Europäischen FKommission in der Bundesrepublik FDeutschland
• VolkswagenStiftung Hannover

W

• Wartburg-Stiftung Eisenach
• Whisky & Cigars Berlin
• Wilhelm Wagenfeld Stiftung Bremen
• WonderWolf Productions Düsseldorf
• Worpsweder Touristik- und FKulturmarketing GmbH

Z

• ZBW – Leibniz-Informationszentrum FWirtschaft, Kiel
• ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd FBucerius
• Züricher Hochschule der Künste F(Switzerland)

We admit that it might sound a bit idealistic, but we believe that a good design will have positive effects on our work and life in general. Therefore we sometimes dedicate some of our time and financial resources to implementing one of our own concepts.

This might be an event (e.g. a workshop about luck and felicity at Bazon Brock’s »Denkerei«), a publication (e.g. a richly illustrated monograph about Nelly Sachs together with the writer Aris Fioretos) and sometimes an item surmounting lingual barriers (the sign language card game »Nomo« together with Andy Costrau).

Pursuing our own projects sharpens our design focus, liberates us from restraints for a while and allows us to explore new design areas.

There are many projects waiting to be implemented … stay in touch to see what happens next!

Approaching more and more complex design tasks, we could hardly do without a network of skilled experts, inspiration, and talents. We constantly seek to broaden our horizon and improve the skills of our team. We would therefore like to encourage you to get in touch and send us an application! Please submit your resume via e-mail and indicate why you think your skills suit our profile.

Unsolicited Applications

Please send your application directly to:
Jens Lohmann, eingang (at) gewerk.com

Internships

Our internship positions – one for the three-dimensional area, one for the two-dimensional/media area are intended for students of all design disciplines – who require a specialized internship as part of their education, but only as a mandatory internship. The duration should be between 3 to 6 months. Please call in advance to find out if there are any vacancies. Please send your application by e-mail and as a pdf. If you are invited to an interview, don’t be afraid to present sketchbooks, models and project progress.

Please send your application directly to:
Jens Lohmann, eingang (at) gewerk.com

gewerkdesign is a member of the following institutions:
IDZ Berlin / VerA / ICOM

Many of our competitions have evolved into projects and some of our projects have won international awards. But of course we don’t win every competition. Nontheless we are proud of the designs submitted to these competitions and consider them quite presentable.

If you plan to invite us for a competition or a negotiation for a project, we would appreciate giving us a short personal notice beforehand. It would make it easier for us to determine, whether the competition’s conditions suit our profile and our capacities.

A comprehensible tender answering all of the basic questions (who, what, where, when, why and how much?), too, will make it easier for us to commit to the competition. As a matter of course, the decision-making procedure should be transparent, the selection should be fair, and the jury should be competent and mentioned by name.

If you are unsure, whether your competition meets the requirements and codes of ethics for design competitions, please refer to the German Architectural Association (Architektenkammer) or the Association of Exhibition Designers VerA for further information.