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