Zeichen & Wunder im HOW Magazine – “Made in Germany”
Design firms worth watching (and maybe envying a little, too).
München, 25. Februar 2013. The second thing to make you jealous of everyone who works at Zeichen & Wunder is probably the office. Designers work in a light-flooded former ballroom tucked inside a building within Munich’s old town, and we hear there’s a spacious open kitchen in the center of the office, too, where everyone cooks. But let’s not forget the first thing about the firm that might turn you green with envy: a portfolio packed with thoughtful branding work. There’s the re-repositioning of the retailer Sport Münzinger, that transformed the brand into a temple to soccer. The project encompassed everything from magazine ads and outdoor advertising to bags, mailers and signage – all done in a fun, engaging way that brought the store’s “Fans United” tagline to life. An identity for the family-run Zöttl bakery instantly made us crave fresh-baked pretzels and breads, while a trade fair display for SAP seemed to lend the b-to-b brand elegance. Other clients include big global names like BMW Group and Adidas. So what’s the firm’s secret for doing great work for so many different clients? “We’re always looking for real substance,” managing partners Irmgard Hesse and Marcus von Hausen say. “You can find it in every company. But it’s almost never tangible. To carve out this substance and make it shine is an exciting process every time.” The pair founded the firm back in 1995, and today they head a team of 35 employees, who the partners collectively describe as perfectionists. In fact, it’s that attention to detail that helps set this branding shop apart. “We don’t stop at 100%,” Hesse says. “We want more, we want to find an add-on, to create a surprise factor. We want to do more than is usually expected.”
