Summary 2012

Probably we make a tradition out of it - it's the last day of this year and just like one year ago, we look back on the highlights of 2012, which was a year of many changes and new beginnings for us. It was the first year of Drache&Bär in Berlin, after moving from Cracow to Berlin in the end of 2011, we started curiously and full of projects in our heads. Some of them we were able to realize - though much is still to come!

In the very beginning of the year, we started to adapt to the space of our new studio in Berlin Charlottenburg and to settle in for our work - quite exciting and many projects ahead.
See more photos of our studio here.
               

In the following months, Grzegorz created the corporate identity for Drache&Bär and its products and packages - all low budget, raugh but elegant, minimalistic but personal: every item sold by Drache&Bär comes with a number, the signature of the designer and our stamp.

The first product that came to life in our new studio were the twin candleholders Alex&Axel. Grzegorz was inspired by the east Berlin television tower.
They are produced in the workshop of Jan Bik near Cracow, where Jan turns them out of limewood.
Get to know more here and buy them here.

In march, Lena had installed herself in the atelier downstairs and started working on a new cycle of works, called Aupa. See more on the work in progress here.
Grzegorz gave the first prototypes of the Toll'sToy series in production.

Finally! In may the very brandnew Kvadratts arrived from our new producer in Szczecin. We were so excited - Kvadratt is now at its best quality!
See Kvadratt in action here at the bookshop Buchbund in Berlin.
If you are interested in buying Kvadratt, do it easily and safely here.

In june, our studio turned into an exhibition space for our presentation at the DMY Designfestival. We were hosting as a satellite gallery and had a fantastic evening and many inspiring meetings.
Read the opening speech here and see how wildly the evening developed here. More photos of our presentation here.

For quite some time this project was kept on paper and in mind only - in this july the first prototypes of bedsheets with our own textiles came to life. The textiles are based on Lenas drawings.
More info and pictures of Miss and Mrs Holle here and if you are interested in buying visit our shop here.

In august, Toll'sToy were ready: we are happy to cooperate with the workshop of Szymon Szymanski in Cracow for manufacturing our toys. In the same time in Berlin, we developed the packaging and identity for this classical trio. Especially on this project, we were glad to have our first intern Annika with us.
More on Toll'sToy's production here, its package here and products here.                            

In september, Grzegorz was invited for a Designers Talk with the title 'Design after capitalism' to the Bunkier Sztuki, the main contemporary art gallery in Cracow. As a part of the following workshop, Grzegorz showed how to build his 'Koles', a bench made out of paletts. More info on this project here and here.

Another of Grzegorz's projects, the pricewinning glassbowl 'Patera', travelled with the prestigeuos polish design exhibition 'Unpolished' to Seoul, more info here.

The Designplatform Monoqi, based in Berlin, published a portrait about us. 

Read it here.

This autumn, Lena had a solo exhibition titled 'Fabelweiss' at the gallery of the German Consulate in Cracow and there was published a catalogue created by us with texts by Lothar Quinkenstein and Andreas Fecht.
More on the exhibition here and a documentation of the catalogue here.
In the same time, the production of the Drache&Bär film started. See the work behind the scenes here and here.
Besides these big october events, we took part in several festivals, Kvadratt was invited for Lodz Design Festival, Toll'sToy went with the 'afilii- gute Gestaltung für Kinder' show to the Designer's Open in Leipzig. We ourselves followed the invitation of the Funkhaus Europa for an interview by Adam Gusowski.

In november, Lena's book Nocturne was presented in the german-polish bookstore Buchbund in a performance evening. We showed an animation of one of the drawings and the texts were read by two wonderful actresses, accompanied by a piece of music that was created especially for this night. We were so glad to see Nocturne story come to life. Klick here for more info.
On goethe.de was published an article about tradition in modern design for children and Toll'sToy.
Read the nice article here.
And, a great step for us and a reason for much joy, we went online with our homepage and shop.
Welcome to the world of Drache&Bär: www.dracheundbaer.com

Last but not least, a portrait of us and our work was created by the Anamorphic filmstudio based in London and went online in december. We are so excited about this beautiful film telling a part of our story.
Klick here to watch it on Vimeo.
Also in december, the RBB Radio Kultur published a portrait about our studio, which was very nice and there is more to come soon.

Thank you all for staying with us, for your interest and support.
If you don't do it yet, keep yourself updated with more info and join us on Facebook!

We wish you a fantastic new year for you and your loved ones.

Lena & Grzegorz

Drache&Bär - Der Film

We are so happy to present you the Drache&Bär Film on this third Advent sunday!

Our great thanks goes to the whole crew who created this film:

Cinematography: Łukasz Cholewiak & Tomasz Gotfryd
Graphics: Hektor Kowalski

Sound Design: Manuel Belgrano
The master of this film for Direction & Editing: Łukasz Cholewiak
And also we thank very much the brothers Jan and Wojtek Bik for their appearance.

The film is produced by Anamorphic Studio/London.

New Kingdom

We are happy to invite you to our very new website & shop, where you have an overview over our studio and our products and where you can shop directly through Drache&Bär.

www.dracheundbaer.com

If you like it, tell us on facebook and spread the news!

And it became night...

Last night was a new experience for all of us. Lenas book Nocturne was presented in the Buchbund bookstore in an experimental way with an installation of the original drawings and one animation. During the performance the texts from the book were read by Katarzyna Makowska-Schumacher and Corinne Halter continuously and simultaneously in German and Polish. The reading was accompanied by music and sound that was created for this evening by Saam Schlamminger.
It was a very precious and long evening, we met many new people and were glad that our first animation found its fans, and the texts as well as the performance arose all kind of reflections.
A bit sad that it's over, though some of the drawings are to be seen in Buchbund for some time.

Nocturne performance and exhibition

Toll's Toy in Leipzig

This weekend our Toll'sToy series will be presented by the platform afilii on the Designer's Open in Leipzig.
Afilii is a new born project that promotes good and creative, regional and ecologically produced design for children beyond mass market products. The Designer's Open is its first presentation and we're happy to be on board from the first minute on. In the market place of the Designer's Open, Toll'sToy cannot only be tested but also bought.
So, Leipzig calling!

Kvadratt and Ufo at Lodz Design Festival

And the word was made flesh. Today Kvadratt went on tour. Together with another of Grzegorzs projects, the table Ufo, Kvadratt was invited to be exhibited at the Łódź Design Festival in Poland. Between the 18-th and 28-th October these two products will take part in the exhibition called 'Design for children'.

Poster and catalog Fabelweiss

Lena's latest exhibition Fabelweiss was accompanied by a german/polish publication of the same name, published in a small edition by the German Consulate in Cracow. For this occasion, dr Lothar Quinkenstein wrote an interesting text called 'Orbis pictus' analizing Lena's work in the context of german romanticism and Bruno Schulzes reflection on the frightening independance of the matter itself.
The second text was written by the art historian Andreas Fecht which gives an inside view and interpretation of the book Nocturne, which Lena created one year ago.
We decided to concentrate on the two brilliant texts and to give them much space, so we show only some pictures of Lenas objects and drawings and the book Nocturne.
24 pages, edition of 120

Fabelweiss in Cracow

Recently, less than two weeks ago, ended Lena's temporary exhibition Fabelweiss organized by the Consul Dr. Werner Köhler, in the gallery of the German Consulate in Cracow. Lenas drawings, objects and installations were spread in four halls of the original gothic underground gallery. The visitors could wander around in these historic walls and give themselves to Lenas narrations. Not only were shown the large dragons and other objects from the year 2011, but also some drawings and the book Nocturne. There was published a catalogue created by Drache&Bär, which we will show soon, as well.

The Finissage was a festive event opened by Dr. Köhler with many guests and our Cracow friends, which we unfortunately don't see so often at the moment.

A small report on the evening you find on our facebook page.

Behind the scenes

After our return from the beautiful indian summer in Cracow, we show you a little sneak preview from behind the scenes of the Drache&Bär film. The last days we spent shooting with the filmmakers Lukasz Cholewiak and Tomasz Gotfryd in the countryside near Cracow at the wood workshop of Jan Bik. More to come soon.

Buchbund feat. Kvadratt

For those who know Berlin, know that the district Neukölln is a place, that doesn't sleep. And in the middle of it exists a polish-german bookstore, that invites for a coffee and a still time with a book or two.
Run by a young polish-german couple, the bookstore Buchbund is something special.
Besides their wide range of profound literature, there are held readings of polish and german poets, panel discussions, exhibitions, lectures and film showings.
Kvadratt is filling its part here, as a presentation shelf, a side table and 'a thing to climb on to get a book from the top of the shelf'.
Pleased to see.

You find the Buchbund in Sanderstr.8 in Neukölln and on facebook.

Summer sale

Drache&Bär on sale now.
Until our online shop is ready, please contact us via dracheundbaer@gmx.de for orders and more information on prices and shipping conditions.

Alex&Axel, Kvadratt, our handtied notebooks and Toll'sToy are waiting for you!

If you are in Berlin and want to touch and try, come and visit our studio and showroom in Berlin Charlottenburg.

Out the box

Toll'sToy's packaging and identification, raw from the outside and fine from within.

Every item of this series of toys is sold numbered and with the designers, in this case Grzegorzs, signature. Grzegorz developed this identity for Toll'sToy, which consists of a banderole and a label prepared and stamped in our Berlin studio.

Coming fresh from the workshop near Cracow (shown in the post below), every piece goes through our hands and is sealed in its box, ready to be broken by the new owner.

And yes, from today on we will write in english – something we were wondering about for some time - though just now, greeting many new readers from abroad, the time has come.

Welcome!

For more photos visit us on facebook.