Frank Neulichedl - Frankie - Innovating Design Workshop

Website Gasser Design

2010-07-09T09:31:00Z

Briefing

It’s always a honor to do design for a fellow graphic designer. The basic need was to go from a business card website to a portfolio site where potential clients could see the work made by Norbert Gasser. An easy administration and the possibility to update the contents was a must.

Solution

This was achieved through a wordpress website and an adaption of a premiun theme to the needs of Gasser Design and its corporate design. Since the client is a graphic designer, updating the portfolio on it’s own was easy after only a few hours of introduction to the cms. The response of clients of Gasser Design and partners was immediate after the launch and with the integration of Facebook and other social media, the reach of Gasser Design has improved considerably.

Corporate Publishing dissected: Tecnogramma

2010-01-16T12:42:57Z

I’m art directing the corporate magazine Tecnogramma since Nr. 1 and I wanted to give a completer overview. Corporate publishing is more than just some corporate news together and see for yourself why.

What is it?

Tecnogramma is the corporate news magazine of Maico. The focus of the magazine is everything around the technology of windows – the single articles talk about the products of Maico, but mostly about technology, actual trends, legislation etc. in the window, doors, sliding window and window shutter market. Every issue has interviews with experts or new solutions developed by partners to give inspiration to the readers.

Corporate Publishing? Why?

Maico has chosen this media to get an own direct channel to its clients (producers and vendors of windows and window fittings), to planners and architects and other players in the market. The main objective of Tecnogramma is to transfer knowledge, inspire ideas, engage and stimulate the interests of its readers. In the end the goal is to transmit an image of a Maico, as a competent, up-to-date and present company of the window fitting market.

Backstage

The editorial staff is composed by product managers, department managers and members of the marketing department (aka inhouse angeny). The product managers and department managers give suggestions for articles and topics to talk about and are responsible for the content of the articles if approved. The whole editorial staff discusses in various meetings (on fixed schedules) about the direction of the issue and after the articles have been written by dedicated authors they are layouted and recorded.

My main role as an art director is to give inputs about how the single topics relate to each other and what the “guiding theme” of the issue could be. After the texts are completed and approved the main job for me is to organize the photo shootings, prepare the illustration and photographic materials, do the creative transformation of the text into an appealing storytelling and the production of the audio version of the issue. More about the creative transformation can be found in the article I wrote in my blog called “Corporate Publishing doesn’t need to be boring”.

How is it made?

Every issue has one main topic or theme which connects all articles. This “guiding theme” makes its first appearance in the cover and is explained in the editorial. On the cover of Tecnogramma 17 (October 2009), for example, the title is “Quality pays off. Working the right way gives its fruits”. This theme is recurring in all articles. From the article about the right installation of windows to minimize energy losses, right to the article about the performance of sliding windows (sash windows). To get an insight into the cover designs of Tecnogramma have a look at the article “The secret behind appealing magazine covers” in my blog.

The single articles have a structure to aid the reader to grasp the content immediately, even before he starts reading the whole piece. The main points to help the reader are:

The subdivision in Title, Subtitle, paragraphs with title
Images, tables, graphs and illustrations
Single phrases in highlighted in boxes with large type
A box at the end of the article with an abstract

Often the concept of the article is not just enforced by the graphical layout, but also with special print techniques (embossing, press cut) as you can see from the images.

One? Three!

Since 2004, the year the magazine started with its new layout and editorial concept, Tecnogramma has evolved into new forms and media to enlarge the audience and make the contents more accessible. The newest flavor is the audio version launched in 2009. At the moment Tecnogramma is available as:

Print edition – available through a free subscription
Online edition – through the dedicated website www.tecnogramma.it or www.issue.com/maicosrl, where the magazine is available for download and online viewing
Audio version – available as normal Audio-CD from Maico or as downloadable and streaming version on the Tecnogramma website. Tecnogramma da ascoltare (which means “to listen”) is also available as podcast as RSS-Feed or in iTunes.

The audio version is intended for people who don’t have time to read the entire magazine or for people who want to “read” Tecnogramma while the are travelling in their cars.

And how much is it?

The members of the editorial staff and the speakers of the audio version are staff of Maico plus external free lancers. The cost including print, postage and cd mastering is about 20.000 Euros for every issue – a relatively low cost for professional corporate publishing like Tecnogramma is.

Results. Results. Results.

Tecnogramma has become an important voice in the market of window fittings and Maico gets telephone calls from subscribers if the mail service fails to deliver the magazine on time. The subscriptions are on a constant rise without massive advertising campaigns and the audio version has hit a specific need and was a massive success.

In the end, Tecnogramma has become the most important communication channel of Maico to the market they are in.

Details

Format: A4 with about 50 pages each issue

Circulation: 12.000 copies, 10.000 subscribers and 2.000 for manual distribution

Schedule: every 3 monthPrice: free

Target: window producers and vendors, window fitting vendors, planners, construction sector and architects

Distribution: on paper, online as pdf and audio

Finally the new portfolio site is online

2010-01-13T12:14:45Z

Hello to new visitors and welcome back to returning ones. After some busy years I found finally the time to rebuild my portfolio site. Walker, Ziggy and Zaggy have been a great success and are sold out. They are now part of the my projects archive – and this archive will be populated with the best projects I made and will grow in the next weeks with more corporate design, corporate publishing, logo design and branding projects.

If you have any questions about the realization of the single projects feel free to contact me or comment on the project page.

And forget my blog “Become an art director” where you can get free lessons to become an art director.

Revolutionary Zipper-Mailing

2010-01-16T13:49:38Z

Briefing

Ready for a revolution? The campaign issued by Maico for their new electronic window opening and control components was aimed at the big players of their market, leaders in the window producing sector in Italy. The market for windows is unevenly developed thorough Europe and Italy is one of the medium evolved markets. Technology does not spread as fast as in countries like the UK and Germany and the new components are a giant leap forward.

The client asked for a magazine ad and a mailing.

The Zipper

The Zipper was a similar revolution (technically speaking) and is now part of our everyday life. No one really thinks of it as something “high tech” anymore. A perfect choice to make an ad where we compare the revolutionizing power of the zipper with the revolutionizing features of the components sold by Maico.

The magazine ad was quite easy to make and next to the visuals the headline and copy text played the role of explaining what the ad is all about.

The mailing on the other side has gone even further with the idea and we closed the mailing with a zipper. A real zipper sewed into the paper of the mailing. This visuals are taken again from the same photographs for the ad and the sewing was made by professional tailors by hand.

Images

Details

Client: Maico (Visit site)

Agency: Conzepta

Format: Closed A4, open A3

Pages: 6

Color: 4/4 (CMYK)

Paper: Magno Matt Satin 300 gr/m2

Special Treatment: Zipper sewed on the mailing

A wallet full of free money

2010-01-08T12:55:09Z

Briefing

Sparkasse, the biggest local bank in South Tyrol, asked for a mailing to send to potential subscribers to their pension plan products. The mailing was aimed at customers of the bank and was focused on how much their clients can save in tax spending by subscribing to their pension fund. In fact the government is subsidizing the pension fund but the bank want to push the idea of money for free.

A wallet full of money

Have you ever found a wallet on the street? Do you remember how happy you were? This mailing builds on this idea. Once you open the idea you find a wallet full of money. Actually it is a paper replica of a real wallet with a check book. The copy on the checks give sample calculations based on the annual income and the copy on the various sides of the wallet explain the details of the fund.

Images

Details

Client: Südtiroler Sparkasse (Bank) (Visit site)
Agency: Conzepta
Format: Closed A5
Pages: Cover of Mailing 4, Wallet 8
Color: 4/4 (CMYK)
Paper: Magno Matt Satin 300 gr/m2
Special Treatment: Wallet glued with detachable glue

Zaggy: couch table with knock-knees

2010-01-08T12:57:03Z

Zaggy is Ziggy’s best friend. Zaggy acts a litlle coy, but believe me, it’s just because of it’s knock-knees. But exactly these give him his character and make him charming in a irresistible way. His design gives him lightness, elegance and a robust functionality which will not only be appreciated by the couch table chair Ziggy. Also aesthetes who are looking for wilful characters and unconventional vitality will enjoy him.

Images

Details

Material : made complete of 3 cm Beech Multiplex, waxed
Measures (WxHxT in inch) : 28 x 18 x 56

Ziggy: Hock around the Clock

2010-01-08T12:57:57Z

Ziggy is the buddy of Zaggy. It is a couch table chair who is big in design, despite he’s only 8 inch tall. Ziggy represents not only a new form, but also a new way of sitting. The trapezoid design combined with sharply bounded lines gives him a dynamic, which let other seats go green with envy. And even more will the couch, when it discovers that Ziggy is not only good for sitting on it. Discover for example how pleasant it could be to eat in front of your television, when you combine Ziggy with Zaggy.

Images

Details

Material : made completely of 3 cm Beech Multiplex, waxed
Measures (WxHxT in inch) : 20 x 8 x 8

Walker – The walking lamp

2010-01-08T12:58:26Z

Ok, I could have named the lamp „Wally“, but Walker just gets the point. Walker is not only an enlightening example for independent design, but he goes his way through life. Literally speaking: He will not fall down if you kick him – he will run away.

He runs obviously just as long the fabric coated cable will let him. It is a perfect partner for cosy moments, in either modern or traditional living spaces, which brings you moving moments.

Images

Awards

Technical data

Use: for atmospheric indoor lighting
Measures: 30 x 30 x 90H cm approx.
Material: Iron, cable coated with cotton, electrical parts are PE (according to CE-Norms)
Production: Made completely by hand in small batches
Lamp: Spotone Reflectorlamp 30° – 40 W
ELectrical connection: 110/230V 50/60Hz – 40W consumption
Peculiarity: walks away when it‘s kicked

Download

Walker Product Brochure

EWO Book Two

2010-01-08T12:58:50Z

Briefing

Ewo has had an amazing result with the first book, which was printed in a very limited number and has become a collector’s item. The following year they wanted to update the book and separate the technical part completely from the “book”. While the first book was an art book with technical content and was structured based on the product lines, the new approach was open for something completely different.

Book 2

The new structure of the book was based one topic: “Light” Not lighting as you might suppose. What happens when you have no lighting (the title night blind shows this concept) and what does light do when there is light.

The resulting chapters where: Color, Form, Room and Character. No color, no form, no room and no character without light.

The book shows the projects and locations where Ewo Lights have been employed. The single projects where aligned to the four chapters and the images often have been retouched creatively to emphasize the intention of the lighting. Every project had at least two pages and many had fold-out pages to enrich the experience.

Silver is king

In this book printed in CMYK + Silver. The silver color is not only used to highlight some small parts on a page, but it’s often used as a main color for photographs. Often times designers are limited to think in CMYK, B/W and DuoTone – this time I wanted to break the common rules and show or hide the lamp on a page by using the silver color.

Glowing in the dark

Again as in book one; the cover was an important part of the whole product. While the first book was bright and shiny, the second one is dark and black. The paper used was thick and rough and the title is cut-out on the front. On the first page of the book a special color was printed to let the book glow in the dark. Just like the watches, the book’s title glows and gives the book a magic aura. So in the end, while you think this black book has nothing to do with light, it surprises you by being a light itself.

Images

Details

Client: Ewo GmbH (Visit site)
Agency: Conzepta
Format: 21×28 cm
Pages: 116
Color: 5 (CMYK+Silver)
Paper: Cover – Sirio Pearl 300 gr, Inside – Magno Matt Satin 115 gr/m2
Special Treatment: Hotfoil, Embossing

EWO Book One

2010-01-16T13:46:04Z

Briefing

The client wanted a “catalog” for his main audience – architects and urban planners – which was not the usual book filled with technical details and some nice drawings. They wanted to go a step further and to inspire the reader. Ewo produces a wide range of high tech lighting, mostly for outdoors.

The book

To go further I needed to make an art book, not a catalog. An inspiring new mix of good photography and the right amount of technical info. The layout was executed in the style of an art book, large pictures and white space. Some of the photographs did not show the lamps but the light and the atmosphere the lamp created, some did show the lamp in bright daylight, turned off. The use of an additional color (silver) gives furthermore a stylish and high quality look.

The cover

A great amount of work went into the design of the cover. The technical difficulty of this was to find the right partner to print this book and the cover. The cover mimics the mirrors used by Ewo in its indirect lighting lamps. The tricky part was, that I wanted the cover not only to have the silver hotfoil shaped like the mirrors on the cover, but also to emboss this mirrors in order to have a physical representation of the mirrors. To complicate it even more I wanted the mirrors to go over the bleed. It took several tests to get to this result and this finish makes a great product amazing.

Images

Details

Client: Ewo GmbH (Visit site)
Agency: Conzepta
Format: 21×28 cm
Pages: 116
Colour: 5 (CMYK+Silver)
Paper: Cover – Sirio Pearl 300 gr, Inside – Magno Matt Satin 115 gr/m2
Special Treatment: Hotfoil, Embossing