Event

Background

…and nobody is happy. Well, usually I would agree. but for the last few days it seems like everybody is happy. One main reason: the weather. People are in a good mood. After this “winter” and especially without a whole summer in 2011, it feels pretty great to run around in your tees, shades and spent life outside. And all this in March.

Yesterday Kai and I went to Darmstadt. We drove 2hrs 15mins back and forth to see Ólafur Arnalds. Nils Frahm was playing with him. At first he had a set of three or four songs and and then Ólafur came on stage. It is tough to describe it. It was definitely the most beautiful concert I have every been to. And “beautiful” is the best word to describe it. Ólafur’s songs seem to be perfect. Himself on the piano (and sometimes some echoes, loops and electric beats), a man on the violin and a woman playing the cello (I can’t find the right names). Ólafur is really entertaining and seems to be a nice guy. He made some jokes about people from Dresden having no musical talent. And he mentioned that he actually wrote the song Ljósið for a bath tub commercial.

If you like his music, you should watch the documentary The Sky May Be Falling… But The Stars Look Good On You (part I, II and III). There you can find out more about that musical genius Ólafur Arnalds.

Next week I will go to Berlin for a few days. One reason is to see The Shins live. Luckily I made a good deal on eBay and got a ticket after the show was sold out. Looking forward to see another musical genius, James Mercer with his band.

Well, I think I am writing the last end-of-year-review But it is a good way. The year is over and I can write it with some reflective distance. Johannes, Igor, Marcel, Martin, Steffen, and Clemens wrote their reviews already, also Instagram, The Madbury Club wrote interesting reviews. For me the year year was good, very good. Jobwise, personally and in any other way. My review is not ordered chronically, I decided to order it in different topics.

Food

What a foodie year! I carried my love for sandwiches to extremes. The year started with a completely self-made Burger. And could have only been topped by a sandwich filled with steaks and flattened with self-brewed beer: The Shooter Sandwich. These two posts have also been my most successful posts so far. The Burger has 114 likes and the Shooter 415 likes on facebook. In Copenhagen I found my most favorite not-self-made sandwich: a pulled duck sandwich. I found it at the food market hall Torvehallerne KBH.

Besides sandwiches I also learned a crazy way to make pizza. My neighbor (the same one with whom I made the Shooter Sandwich) had the great idea to put a cast-iron pan upside-down into the oven and bake the pizza on top of it. The result was amazing. And it was the reason to get a pizza stone.I haven’t used it yet, but I will, SOON!

And I became a huge coffee fan. I fell in love with the black gold and want to know more about this delicious little bean. I just ordered the Aeropress and I am looking forward to prepare my first coffee with it.

Tools

I reported about the brilliance of QUOTE.fm and SoundCloud already. But there are several other tools I am using every day and I don’t want to miss them anymore. For example svpply. With svpply you can easily create visual wish lists of things you find in the internet. You go to a shop, love a shirt, would like to have it but don’t want (or can’t) order it right away, press the browser plugin, add some information and save it to your svpply list. I have a lot of stuff already in my list. I created different sets. A good thing is also that you can create private sets, that can’t be seen by others – so you can create a list of birthday ideas for others. Love it!

Another tool is instagram. I use it with such a pleasure it is hard to describe. People moan, that is has nothing to do with photogrpahy or even art. EXACTLY! For me, it has nothing to do with art. It is a way to share moments visually with others. And the even better thing is to be able to see moments of others from all over the world. A DJ touring through the world. A street art gallery owner, who visits the studios of world’s famous artists. A chef who takes photos of food. A designer running through the streets of NYC, and much more. Thereby I am connected to things and places I love, get inspiration and glimpses of other lives.

A tool that improved a lot during the year 2011 is foursquare. The location based service becomes more and more the tool I was looking for in summer last year. The possibility to add locations to different lists is awesome. But there are still things missing. For example not being able to take notes to locations.

One of my favorite tools is Path. It is the first tool, I use mostly for myself. It is not about connecting with others, it is great to see what others are doing but there are several other platforms for that. For me Path is more like a diary. I collect things I am doing. Sometimes I share it with other platforms as well, mostly not. I just added people to Path, I know well or at least like. People I feel good about that they read my stuff.

Music

A little disappointing this year. I didn’t see so many live acts. I thought moving to Sweden would make it possible to see a lot of Scandinavian bands and artists, but in fact I didn’t go to one concert. In summer I went to the Open Source Festival with Malte and Jan, and we saw Jamie XX live. That was more less it. A good reason for a change this year! Any recommendations already? A new album by The Shins is coming out and the second album by The XX. I hope both of them are going on tour in Germany or at least anywhere in Europe.

Travels

I travelled a lot last year but mostly within Germany. Early last year I made a two week trip to New York (cooking) with my girlfriend, which was incredible. Then in August we moved to Sweden. I love it. Sweden and especially Lund is an oasis for the soul.

During the rest of the year I travelled to Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Hochgurgl, Como, and I had an awesome trip with Malte during Heimplanet’s Cave Away Tour.

Purchases

I am a materialist person, you can say that. Last year I bought some stuff I am really happy to own. Every time I use them, it makes me happy. One of the biggest projects last year was my bike. I still love this beauty and every mile I ride on it makes me smile.

I also purchased a weekender bag of QWSTION. Travelling makes you want to have good stuff, which makes travelling easier and enjoyable. This bag makes me enjoy travelling a lot. A blog post about this bag is following soon (I think).

Early December I got my new iPhone 4S. A device that makes life easier. Better? Well hard to answer, but I love this tool – so yes, it makes my life better. I love its camera, which is a huge thing for me. And with my iPhone I use many tools I mentioned above.

The secret behind my sandwiches: a contact grill by Tefal. This definitely makes my life better!

Random Stuff

In February I was part of the Cognitive Cities Conference in Berlin. It was a great experience to work together with Igor, Johannes and Peter of Third Wave, Edial, Kamiel, Floris and Guido of Yourneighbours, Axel, Martin, Fabian. Awesome people, awesome event.

In July I finally got a complete make-over: BETTER __ THAN __ was born. I am still more than happy and so thankful for the outstanding work of Open Studio. and I am addicted of using my stickers all over the world. And seing the response of the people when I give them a business card is always a pleasure.

I started playing Rugby and fell in love with this game. Sport makes me better!

Got in contact with very cool and interesting people. One example is Taj Reid of wejetset. Looking forward to meet him in real life any time this year.

The most surprising and at the same time most important phone call came by Markus Albers. I can’t say more about it by now, but soon enough you will know why!

2012?

For sure, I forgot about 200 different things, but who cares? Well, I wish you all an amazing 2012! Hope to stay in contact with you and finally meet some of you in real life this year. Take care!

You can see that Chimero is someone who loves what he is doing. Hearing him talking about writing, design and sharing makes me happy. He is the fish to my rice. And I am glad that he is sharing his fish with others, with me.
And he just gave me a huge gift: a personal story about how he sees his job and what he is doing. And his view about digital gift-giving is just overwhelming. He speaks what I think, what I am trying to tell you so often within this blog. Basically that is the reason why this blog exists.

And now head over to Frank Chimero and watch his talk!

(But Frank Chimero gave me also more gifts. Via his blog I stumbled upon David Chang, chef at Momofuku. David Chang also edits a food magazine called Lucky Peach. And I definitely want to visit that restaurant now and get that magazine!)

Malte Müller, aka Electricgecko, is a graphic and web designer based in Hamburg. I don’t know him very well, just via twitter, his blog and met him two or three times on the streets of Hamburg. He recently founded the design studio We Are Fellows together with Andreas Lexa, aka Frontplayer. I am totally impressed by the way Malte and Andreas present themselves. The website, a visual appealing collection of photos presenting the development of their studio. Almost every item shown on these pictures visualizes their love of design.

Photo by Sarah Bernhard

The logo and the covering Corporate Design is just beautiful: sleek, cut to the chase, sexy. I would say geometry and symmetry plays a big role in Malte’s designs. And I like that, it makes the visual appearance automatically organized and neat. It doesn’t make it boring at all. It somehow guides you. And I guess somehow design is supposed to do that.

Photo by We Are Fellows

In my opinion We Are Fellows is a good example of how design should be: it is consistent. All the single pieces of We Are Fellows you see, bring together a harmonious picture of the whole thing.

Photo by We Are Fellows

If you think now: “Man, you are just a fanboy!” Well, then let it be. I wish I had the design skills to bring together such a thing. I only have the ideas in mind but need to fall back on people who have these skills. I don’t know if BETTER __ THAN __ is now such a harmonious whole, I guess not since I am not a designer, but I am very happy how the blog, and everything around it, is developing and forms me.

Hypermarché

Food, design, beer, party, coffee, lifestyle… Do I need to say more? These, among others, are words that describe Hypermarché.

We Are Fellows just announced their work for Hypermarché. Hypermarché (on FB) is a project by HERE WE GO, a creative event agency, which is also based in Hamburg. The idea behind Hypermarché is brilliant: “a temporary warehouse, café, bar, stage and platform. And most of all a good place in the the pre-Christmas season”. The place will be open from December 1st till the 24th. Open 24 hours a day, for 24 days. The place will include a shop with chosen products from fashion, lifestyle, interior, books, magazines, design, art.

Photo by Hyermarché

I hope I will be able to see the final store. Right now, I am following the development via their facebook page.

Two weeks ago I was once again invited by Mercedes. You might ask yourself why I always do that? Because it’s freakin’ awesome (and interesting). Since my first impression in April 2010 my picture of Mercedes-Benz didn’t loose a tiny bit of glance. The events are always perfectly organized and I always feel more than welcome. By now I am even friends with some of the team, which always take care of us (bloggers, journalists, editors).

The reason why I wrote this? The blog post The Good Life. Or: Why I should have become Lifestyle Blogger by Gerald made me thinking, I don’t want to have that kind of prostitution blog, where I get money for what I write. Well, I don’t get money, but travels, spending nights in amazing hotels, but most importantly I have a good time. Often with people from all over the world. And I guess that is something very different. I am able to enjoy something what I usually would not enjoy, and mainly I write about these experiences and not the big brand itself. Well enough said, now I want to report about a lovely day in Vienna.

Well, two weeks ago Malte and I went to Vienna. Mercedes invited us to make some test drives with their new B-Class. We drove: nice, fast, on road, off road, and mostly with some loud music. Malte and I had fun, for sure. The car is nice. I don’t know anything about the B-Class. I am not even a big car fan, but it was very interesting to see the developments of automobile engineering.

Basically Malte and I just cruised around the country side of Vienna. Here and there we mentioned different things and then we discussed about them. What could be the target group for such a car? What is their design purpose? But we also talked about details. A big issue was safety. I was impressed what kind of support you get in a brand new car. Here is an interesting picture by Mercedes summarizing all the “new” assistance and safety systems:

I didn’t know about the Lane Keeping Assist until I crossed the lane and felt a little vibration in the steering wheel. Great, but there was one thing that really amazed me. It is called the Blind Spot Assist. The idea is quite easy, the system checks if someone is in your blind spot, and if so, the exterior rear-view mirror shows you a tiny red alert (as you can see in the picture below). And when you are thinking about switching the lanes or want to overtake another car, AND someone is in your blind spot, you will be warned. As soon as you activate the indicator, a little alert sound warns you that someone is in your way. We tested it and it was great to see that driving can actually be really more effective or safe with these things.

Another thing was the media system. We were lucky all the test modells had a Harman Kardon sound system, once again we heard some nice electronic beats and hit the roads. But the system was impressive you were able to adjust the sound with a nice interface.

And besides all that technical stuff, we also enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Austria. On some pictures you can find a car, I won’t tell you where.

After the cruising and reviewing we had dinner on the 18th floor above Vienna. Malte and I talked to Jan Wiese, the Product Manager of the B-Class. We talked about things we couldn’t understand, asked questions about the design and talked about other stuff besides cars. Wolfgang Würth, responsible for Social Media Communications, is always a great guy to talk to. We share different passions, one is food. And I love talking about food when you sit in a nice restaurant above Vienna with a magical glass of wine, that never gets empty. Thank you for this great trip.

To touch

Above you see a tiny little detail you would rarely see from a normal angle. It is a door opener. During the stage “touch” we experienced that materials not always feel the way you think they are. This door opener looked really light but it was massive and really heavy. On the inside it had this tiny little detail engraved: a Mercedes star. I like things like that. When will you actually be able to see that this detail exists? Very rarely, but it exists and when I see it, it makes me happy, just because someone thought about putting a tiny Mercedes star into the back of this door opener. It is more than just putting your name on a thing. It makes a tiny little part – a door opener – of a huge technological thing – the car – very special. When you sit in a premium car, you want to feel like your sitting in a premium car, so everything has to be taken care of. The seats, the handles and especially the steering wheel, it should feel comfortable for a very long time. Something not quite perfect, like the stitching on the inside of the steering wheel, can be very important when you sit in a car for hours.

To see

The same applies to the other senses, for example seeing. When you sit in your car and your instruments are not organized the right way, you feel disoriented the first time. When I went to the Motor Show in Frankfurt, I took a seat in almost every car I passed by, I want to experience the way the car pleases me. You sit down, close the door, try to make yourself comfortable and then you look around “What do I have here?”. The control panel of the media system is now the most complex system within a car. It is interesting how the different car manufacturers worked on the problem that you still need to operate such a complex system while driving.

To listen

One of the most impressive things was the workshop for the sense listening. When you sit in a car you hear many different sounds: the street, the engine, the media system, every button you press, and sometimes even the windshield wiper. But I never thought about that a sound expert sits inside the car and tests every single possible sound for every single model. When you change one noise in a car you experience every other sound completely different. So, if Mercedes decides to produce the same C-Class with this and that engine, they need to make new sound testings. And they make these sound testings in such a giant room you can see on the picture above. The room is completely silent and when you test one noise you can only hear this one noise. Sometimes sound designer also need to invent noises, like the sound the indicator makes inside a car. Normally, you couldn’t hear that ticking sound but they needed to develop a sound that symbolizes the ticking of that little light bulb, turning on and off.

To smell

Another impressive thing was the smelling part. Usually you can only regulate the smell of a car by choosing the right materials and components. But in an unique car like the Maybach, Daimler wanted to create something brand new: a scent just developed for the Maybach. After nine months of cooperating with perfume experts, developing and testing scents, they created two fragrances. But the car and the scent vaporizer were also build in a way that the Maybach won’t smell like the fragrance when you decide to switch the scent after driving the car for two years.

To taste

During the workshop we also had a little lunch break, where I experienced my first molecular food. I wrote about this topic a while ago and I can still say that it is not really my kind of food. It was great to see that you have the impression that something tastes different only because you change the consistency or the way it looks. For example the orange little balls on the picture above are melon caviar. It had nothing to do with fish, it was only fruit. But after the workshop we went to the Wiesn – the October Fest in Munich. And we had a great time with delicious German beer (Sorry, but I need to. The beer in Sweden is ok, but nothing compared to good German beer). And we had potato dumplings, mashed potato, gravy, and a lot of meat: sausages, chicken, and most important sucking-pig. Now, THAT is the food I love! Take a look at Jean’s food report: molecular, Octoberfest.

Conclusion

Sometimes you take technology for granted. But especially design is something you don’t realize in every situation. And that is a good thing. Good design should work, it should make using technology easier. For example such a complex technological system like the car: you should sit down, start the engine and be able to drive the car (if you have a driving license). And it is very important that the design pleases every four senses (see, hear, smell, touch) and work perfectly together. Here is another quote by Charles Eames, which comes straight to the point: “Eventually, everything connects [...] the quality of the connections is the key to quality per se”.

If you understand German be sure to read Philipp’s blog post about the workshop at Studio 5555 (or the English version via the help of google translate).

Last week I was in Frankfurt for the International Motor Show. As I learned (and I learned a lot during that trip) the Motor Show in Frankfurt is one of the biggest car fairs. It was quite cool seeing so many IAA shuttles driving through the city, many people with badges around their necks, mostly press people. It felt like New York during Fashion Week. Well, the people are not dressed as good and Frankfurt is not New York.

Hmm..what can I say? I am not a car guy. I like technology and I like the idea of mobility and independent way of travelling but I don’t care about horse power, or anything like this. But I can tell if a car (or concept of mobility) pleases me or not. The design of a car got more and more important during the last years, not only the visual appearance of the car but more the usability and interface of a car. By now cars are stuffed with more technology than ever before. A car is no longer just mechanical, it’s not just pistons, barrels, and drive shift. When you get into a new car, it feels like you are sitting in a very comfy chair with thousands of buttons and operator controls.

But there are also a bunch of other developments within the concept of mobility right now. First of all the there is the big question of the energy. Oil is running out, that is for sure. And the research and developments in future energy (electric or hydrogen or even something else) is really fascinating. But it is also fascinating to see how far the developments are already. There are cars which run with electricity and cars that basically run with hydrogen. Like Dieter Zetsche, Head of Mercedes-Benz, said during his welcome speech, it is a very exciting time now, there are so many changes going on within the world of mobility.

For example the new concept car of Mercedes-Benz. The F125 runs with hydrogen. The distance it reaches is approximately 1000 km. The design is not really my kind but that is not important. What is important is the fact that this car is a new milestone if you compare it to the last 125 years of car development. It is still a research car but without research cars we would not be at the state where we are now.

I also like the other concept cars, all of them have an electric engine. For example the smart forspeed, smart eScooter, VW Nils, or AUDI Urban. All vehicles for the urban area and driving with electricity.

But there aren’t only visions for the future, at the IAA the car manufacturers also presented some cool new stuff. And not only cars but more new mobility concepts. Like the smart electric bike. A nice design, with the ability to support your cycling with electric energy. A 20k ride to work would not be a problem then. You can control it with your smartphone. And the perfect combination would be a smart Electric Drive cabrio with an eBike on the back. Like the one below but electric!

AUDI presented a navigation system where you could not only search for streets, POIs, but also for certain things, like “Design Hotel” or in my case “Supermarket” and the navigation system searches with google for results and shows them on the map. It worked quite well. I tested it with different terms.

I also liked that almost every car manufacturer offered their newest cars also with an alternative engine. For example VW just launched the Up. At first I thought the car is quite ugly (online it looked like the old Renault Twingo), but when I saw it in real life, the car looked good. It is small, but has a lot of space insight. It is much more attractive than the Lupo. The eUp could be a cool car for the city, especially when you want to drive with more than two people.

My most favorite car though was the Mercedes-Benz ML 350 BlueTEC. It is a huge Benz with lots of power, incredibly comfortable but still very efficient.

I stole the picture from Teymur Madjderey

If you want to see more visual input of the IAA, take a look at Teymur’s photos. And if you are interested in reading what I have to say about mobility and cars in general, take a look at the IAAblog (English by Google Translate). I was interviewed by Thomas Gigold.

I am interested in design as you know but I am also interested in urban living. So here comes a documentary combining these two fields: Urbanized. I stumbled upon the movie poster at Notcot. The posters were designed by Build, a London-based graphic design agency.

The film is actually the third part of design film trilogy, joining Helvetica and Objectified, by Gary Hustwit. If you haven’t seen these documentaries, watch them!

About Urbanized:

Urbanized is a feature-length documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers. Over half the world’s population now lives in an urban area, and 75% will call a city home by 2050. But while some cities are experiencing explosive growth, others are shrinking. The challenges of balancing housing, mobility, public space, civic engagement, economic development, and environmental policy are fast becoming universal concerns. Yet much of the dialogue on these issues is disconnected from the public domain. (via urbanizedfilm.com)

I think the film looks amazing. Can’t wait until it comes to Europe. The screening just starts today in Toronto. After the world premiere there will be screenings all across the US. If you are around, try to get a ticket but most of the screenings are already sold out. On the website they suggest to follow Gary Huswit on twitter in order to get news. I just did, because I want to notice when the movie comes to Europe.

Do you remember my post about SoundCloud? I also recommended a befriended musician called Hello Piedpiper. Fabio is going on tour through September, starting tomorrow. He will support the US-American Singer Justin Sane (Anti-Flag). Later in September he will support Audra Mae. I don’t really care for Justin Sane or Audra Mae but Hello Piedpiper is amazing. Perfect sound for the soon arriving fall. And the tour starts tomorrow in Basel, Switzerland. You can find the complete tour list below. I would definitely watch him play but unfortunately he is not coming to Sweden!

Good news are also that Hello Piedpiper will publish his first album tomorrow on tour as well. It is DIY, no label, all well-chosen and self-recorded. The name: Birdsongs = Warsounds. And you can download 4 songs of this album on his facebook profile for free.

Here are the tour dates:

09.09. Basel – Sommercasino / Justin Sane Tour
10.09. Frankfurt – Feinstaub / Justin Sane Tour
11.09. Stuttgart – Zwölfzehn / Justin Sane Tour
12.09. München – Kafe Marat / Justin Sane Tour
13.09. Göttingen – Keller-Club (+Nothington) / Justin Sane Tour
14.09. Berlin – Frannz Club / Justin Sane Tour
15.09. Hannover – Bei Chez Heinz / Justin Sane Tour
16.09. Hamburg – Grüner Jäger / Justin Sane Tour
17.09. Münster – Skate Aid Night @ Skaters Palace (ca 19 Uhr)
17.09. Münster – Sputnikhalle (ca 21 Uhr) / Justin Sane Tour
18.09. Bonn – Bla , Festival / Justin Sane Tour
19.09. Trier – Exhaus / Justin Sane Tour
21.09. München- Ampere / Audra Mae Tour
22.09. Berlin – White Trash / Audra Mae Tour
23.09. Frankfurt – Brotfabrik / Audra Mae Tour
26.09. Köln – Bahnhof Ehrenfeld / Audra Mae Tour

Birdsongs = Warsounds Download 4 Songs for free on Facebook ; ) by HelloPiedpiper