Storydoing in Poland

Coincidence? Within only one month, a creative director and a web developer of Edenspiekermann were invited to design conferences in Poland.

Steven Cook presented his understanding of qualified “Storydoing” at the Graphic Design Fair in Warsaw. It took place on 26/27 October at the Centrum Sztuki Fort Sokolnickiego in Warsaw, assembling “international design luminaries, best Polish designers, business, politics, culture personalities and trend followers”. What is today’s Polish design like? There is obviously more to it than their famous tradition of poster design – and even this tradition has experienced several updates. Impressive performances of Polish designers could be seen at this year’s TYPO Berlin Poland Special – another coincidence?

Warsaw (Warszawa) is actually not that far away from Berlin. Still, until most recently, there has not much design interchange been going on. 

The Graphic Design Fair in Warsaw names itself Poland’s only event “entirely devoted to graphic design”. The organiser, Stowarzyszenie Twórców Grafiki Użytkowej (Association of Polish Graphics Designers) quite philosophically states questions like: Who is a designer? How does design influence the business, public space, image of our society? What are trends? Who needs them? (Good one.)

Visting Warsaw

Steven Cook gave some answers by telling stories on how we “tell stories” at Edenspiekermann. And what we mean by that. Actually he was talking about the role of designers and what role designers will play in the future. Designers should look at the complete picture (regardless of the discipline) – and use story telling throughout all mediums. We believe this is what makes customers come back for more.

Steven illustrated some project examples like our recent, award-winning service design work for ProRail and NS Dutch Railways. We received the Sign Design Award in London with our “Dynamic boarding information above train platforms” (in the category Product Innovation & Technology).

Commenting on reality – and solving problems

Only three weeks later, Harry Keller went to Warsaw as well. He was invited to present his ideas at the Design Debate 2013, calling itself “Design (R)Evolution, a conference within the framework of the Graphic Knowledge Fair 2013”. For them, contemporary design involves “acquiring and spreading knowledge” plus “commenting on reality and solving problems”. Which is exactly what Harry does when lecturing – and every day in our office.

Jumping on stage first at Creative Mornings Berlin, then at TYPO Berlin 2013, Harry reinforced his pledge to the design world – if there still is some kind of separate design world: to please work closely together with developers. Digital desperately needs designers (and vice versa). This is our every-day and every-project experience at Edenspiekermann.

Sorry, no videos available of those lectures in Poland. Please contact Steven and Harry for further information. Follow @SBerlinCook, @harryfk and @edenspiekermann on Twitter. View Harry’s lecture at Creative Mornings on video (“Welcome to the Era of Excellence”).

German readers will be pleased to find an interview with Steven Cook. Currently Steven is writing a series of blog posts on the future of retail – bitte lesen Sie „Zukunft des Handels“, Teil 4.