These days we are doing an Urban Safari in Berlin with students from the KaosPilots in Switzerland. They are here to get inspired, to develop new (business) ideas, to meet people, to explore Berlin, and to be together with their class mates. We arrange and facilitate parts of their week-long journey in the streets of Berlin.
Right now in this minute they are working in the Lower East Lab on, what if I can start my dream business here in Berlin; what would it be, who would be involved, and who would be my clients.
Here is a few impressions from the days – more to come.
Chaotische Überflieger
A fine reportage from our friends KaosPilots Switzerland. Published in the Austrian version of Forbes Magazine. Also showing up in the article is “Der vom dänischen Kommunikationsdesigner und externen Lektor Jørgen Smidstrup“ from Lower East.
Enjoy reading if your German is not too bad…
Attached as a pdf here Kaospiloten_01_17.
Last week we had a 4 days communication workshop with the students from KaosPilot Switzerland team 3 and team 5 in Bern. We had very fine, creative and fruitful days working on ’how to communicate your project – your new and fresh business idea’. The students were developing communication ideas at the same time as they are developing their projects.
We worked on with presentations, the basic communication needs and platforms, business strips, how to make your written report ’fly and land’ – and finally designing a communication strategy; folding out the plan for how to proceed, how to create interest for your future business, how to get in contact with new project partners and new clients. We also had the time to dig into talks about “creativity is not a talent, it’s a way of operating“. Thanks to the students for wonderful days. Wish you all the best for your future businesses!
You can read more about the KaosPilots Switzerland on their website.
Impressions from the days in Bern:
all photos from the workshop ©lowereast
bring your best ideasNew Business is a module based mastery training program over a year for entrepreneurs with ideas and dreams of new businesses. The training is offered by changels and lower east – and done in collaboration with the KaosPilots Switzerland. Main trainers are Matti Straub-Fischer (head of changels and KaosPilots Switzerland) and Jørgen Smidstrup (communication designer and project maker in Lower East and Lower East Lab).
Now we introduce: NEW BUSINESS COACHING CORNERS.
We offer an introduction to the program & you can bring your business idea(s) and your questions to our coaching corners. We are your coaches, guides and sparring partners to bring your ideas to the next level.
Dates for coaching corners
Thursday, 27th October 2016, 18-20h
Thursday, 24th November 2016, 18-20h
Thursday, 26th January 2017, 18-20h
Wednesday, 1st March, 2017, 18-20h
The corners takes place in Innovationsdorf Bern, Wylerringstrasse 36, CH-3014 Bern, Switzerland.
More info? Check the blog of New Business.
Questions? You are very welcome to get in contact via js@lowereastlab.de
Learning from Berlin #2
Lower East Lab arrange and host intense inspiration tours in our city Berlin, named Urban Safari Berlin. We focus mainly on new business, the startup scene, creative spaces – and on food, architecture and design.
Berlin is for us a wonderful spot to explore, think of new ideas, rethink the old ones, wonder about how funny & ’edgy’ some projects can be. We have experienced, that just a couple of days in this city, can be a good solid boost of energy and a very welcome creative break from the daily routines for our guests.
When travelling the city, we carefully have in mind to not only ’take’ from the city and its people, but also ’give’ something back. We don’t want to behave as stupid tourists, only using and receiving, we have a deep wish to leave the places and people we visit and talk with, enriched, inspired and with a feeling of ’Oh! How good that we invited these guys to our place’.
At our safari last week, we among many other places visited Kühlhaus Berlin, an impressive place in Kreuzberg where arts exhibitions, fashion fairs, concerts and hundreds of other funky things happens. After a very inspiring guided tour on all 6 floors, we held a creative brainstorm with our participants (students from KaosPilots Switzerland and friends), and presented a lively selected list of “what we would love to see happen in the house“. Our ideas and input was very welcomed by Kühlhaus Berlin.
Our next safaris will be in September and October, excact dates not fixed yet. If interested, please reach out for more info.
Want to check out Kühlhaus Berlin?
Become a KaosPilot?
The KaosPilots Switzerland are right now looking for new students for their Team #5. Maybe you could see yourself as a part of the team? Or maybe you know a person who could be interested. It’s time to apply!
If you want to check out the school and the people behind you can show up to Open Doors on March 17th in Bern, Switzerland.
The KaosPilots Switzerland is school where creative leaders, responsible entrepreneurs and change makers meet and learn, practice and have fun and work together in teams.
For more info, and if any questions you can always ask Lower East, we do know a lot! And we do also work closely together with the KaosPilots.
You can of course go to the source itself:
www.kaospilots.ch
Meet the new ones
We love to have trainees in the house, they add to the picture, they come with open minds, tons of questions and tons of good ideas and loads of good energy. We have stuff to share, we have the space, and we can add to their education and fill out any lacks and gaps they might have in their learnings and trainings.
In Lower East/Lower East Lab we have right now Hejdi Pattey, she’s already been here for more than two months, and we are happy that we can keep her with us until around May 1th. She studies graphic design at School of Visual Communication in Denmark and will finish her education this summer. Just a week ago, Viktoria Litzén joined the force and will stay here for 3 months. She studies at the KaosPilots Switzerland, she will also finish her studies this summer.
Hejdi is for the moment focusing on both a larger school task and is playing a part on the graphic design jobs we have right now in the company. Viktoria has thrown her energy on some of the many projects we have in the pipeline, and ideas on interior, lightning, identity, tote bags and a lot more seem to jump from her brains.
We are looking forward to a very creative and lively spring in Lower East!
Working with the students
These days we are working with the students from KaosPilots Switzerland Team 4 on HOW TO COMMUNICATE YOUR (UNFINISHED) PROJECT. They create communication strategies, visual identities and other good communication stuff on four different projects; a big markethall with food & art, a big restaurant & community kitchen, a big co-working space combined with art and music, and a totally new hotel concept.
They will present what they have come up with later today, Thursday December 10th in Bern. You are very welcome to come by, listen, enjoy, get inspired, give feedback!
Impression from the last days work & a lot of fun.
Impressions from working with the students. Team SUI4. KaosPilots Switzerland ©lowereast
what’s new 2015-2016
Fresh from the printers. what’s new? newspaper from the Innovationsdorf Bern, KaosPilots Switzerland, changels & friends. Designed by Lower East.
24 pages, #3 – first issue in December 2014, second one February 2015, and now we have reached #3.
You can get the paper issue at the Innovationsdorf and at the KaosPilots Switzerland in Bern. And as soon as we get a stack of the newspapers to the Lower East Lab in Berlin, you can come by to grab your sample.
Until then – here we show some of the pages from the newspaper, and you can check out what’s new on this link.
New business #2 – 2016
New Business for entrepreneurs in progress. Would you like to start your own business in a sustainable and inspiring way? Do you want to make a difference in your own life? Do you want to see how ancient wisdom can help us create sustainable business structures and services?
Then New Business #2 could be your next move. First step is the info event Thursday December 1th – 7pm-8pm – Innovationsdorf Bern, Wylerringstrasse 36, Bern, Switzerland.
The next step and maybe a great choice could then be the changels-mastery training program of 9 x 3 days over a year.
Join the info event and get to know the program, how we work and who the main trainers Matti Straub-Fischer (head of changels and KaosPilots Switzerland) and Jørgen Smidstrup (communication designer and project maker in Lower East and Lower East Lab) are.
This training is done in collaboration with the KaosPilots Switzerland who serve as business coaches for the participants.
The intro-module of 3 days will take place in February 2016 – from 3rd to 5th of February in Bern at the Innovationsdorf Bern. And the full programme starts April 6th 2016.
More info at the new business blog
Impressions from New Business #1 2014-15 © lower east
Impressions from New Business #1 2014-15 © Jakob Kristoffersen
Impressions from New Business #1 2014-15 © Rahel Krabichler
Impressions from New Business #1 2014-15 © Rahel Krabichler
Impressions from New Business #1 2014-15 © Rahel Krabichler
Impressions from New Business #1 2014-15 © Jakob Kristoffersen
How to communicate your unfinished business
Working with the students
Last week the Lower East teaching task force went to Bern, Switzerland to teach, talk – and work with the students from KaosPilots Switzerland Team SUI2. They are now on their 3rd, and last year at the school, and will be working mainly at their final project until next summer.
A part of my task was to help each student to have clarity of:
– how the student can communicate his or her research and learning journey.
– how the student can communicate his or her unfinished final project.
– a strategy of how the student can reach out into his or her various communities with the leading questions and the vision of their dream projects, so people can respond to their projects.
– how to use their communication strategy to earn money and/or to get to potential sponsors and partners.
– how to be honest with where they are at with their project development right now – and be able to speak about the dream and the high ambitions that are linked to their projects, inviting other people to join them as partners or supporters at this early stage.
We were discussing and looking at pro and cons with the known tools/media/platforms like websites, blogs, facebook, twitter, email, newsletters, the good old printed stuff like business cards, business stripes, postcards, flyers – and trying to get nearer what can move and communicate my project, what can be that special ‘thing’ that creates special awareness and interest of my (still) unfinished business?
We were putting focus on how to at the same time, develop your new project (and future business) and start the process of reaching out, of communicating, of getting the first clients and partners in sight. Most likely with a very small budget…
All that stuff in only three days, including 15 minutes speed coaching with each student. The days were intense, funny, cosy and challenging in the best way. The students did a very, very fine ‘job’! Now on better track with their new businesses, with power and a good portion of energy.
Keep an eye on them – you will meet them out there in the future!
You can follow the school at the schools website and at their blog – and of course on facebook.
What’s going on in the lab?
What’s going on in the Lower East Lab? These mid of July days are somehow calm. We are still working on 3-4 graphic design projects and trying to finish stuff by the end of the week – and we are getting closer and closer to a long-awaited holiday break.
We are really, really happy with our lab here in Berlin! The last 2-3 months we have had so many sweet, cool, funny, talented, interesting and interested people in the lab, for many different reasons and purposes. Thanks for that!
Just to mention some of the arrangements and events that has happened in the Lower East Lab:
• in May we had 15 architects from the Danish company, Mejeriet, on an Urban Safari – cruising Berlin on bikes with us, getting inspired and checking out “transformations“ in this wonderful city. The group of architects finished the evening, co-creating with us a delicious dinner, Camillo’s Paladar, in the lab.
• also in May we arranged a day-long Food Safari, for a group of (around 20) students, studying global nutrition and health at the Copenhagen-based school Metropol. After a introduction in the lab, we met with people, checked out new and inspiring food projects, visited food markets and tested delicious stuff ’unterwegs’. All day on bikes, daring to end the day with a tasting of german white wines…
• later in May we had an even larger group in the lab, attending Hack the City to discuss THE FUTURE OF WORK. The workshop was arranged by the Swedish city of Sundbyberg and was facilitated by the Stockholm-and-Malmö based innovation company Shuhuu.
• we have our monthly dinner in the lab; Camillo’s Cafeteria, where up to 20 people from the Berlin ’international scene’ show up, meet, talk, eat and drink a glass of wine (or two). We will be back with the cafeterias from August on. We also held three successful Camillo’s Chef’s Table, private dinnners in the lab during the spring.
• we managed to include a gastro teambuilding in the program; a group of 9 leaders from a pension fund showed up in the lab and under guidance from Chef Camillo, the group created a three course lunch dinner with three house favorites; potato-rosemary pizza, white asparagus and a asparagus-leeks-parmesan risotto. The process and teambuilding went very well. The food was delicious and the atmosphere fantastic.
• in June, a group of KaosPilot students from Switzerland joined our two day Urban Safari Berlin. On bikes, we checked out the inspiring start-up scene in the city, met and talked with creative and lively people. During the safari days the lab worked as a ’class room’ for sharing and reflecting. The safari turned out as planned and was very succesful. We are really happy with our urban safari concept!
• besides all this, we have managed to do a lot of good work during spring with our main ’thing’; the graphic design and communication. With great help from two trainees, Casper from Denmark and Amanda from Sweden, we, among other things, designed a book for Glasmuseum Ebeltoft, a brand new website for another art client – Hempel Glasmuseum, a visual identity for a swiss consultant, a series of posters for the KaosPilots Switzerland, a new website for a Berlin client – a big old factory which has developed into a cultural art and event space, one for a Swiss client and right now deeply in the design process with a new book for a Danish client, the book will come out this autumn.
Have a fantastic summer out there!
Impressions from the lab life:
Sometimes you do get a second chance!
If you want to be a KaosPilot in Switzerland, you actually still have a chance to apply. They have extended their application deadline, and welcome you to send in your application as soon as possible or latest until April 15th, 2015.
Read about the school and the surrounding environment in this damn fine newspaper (by the way designed by Lower East) and/or check the KaosPilots Switzerland website (surprise, surprise, also designed by Lower East).
Have a fine weekend out there!
what’s new from innovationsdorf bern, from kaospilots switzerland, from changels, from new business and bits and pieces from urban safari berlin, quiet days and lower east. We did the design of this fine newspaper, 32 pages, filled with thoughts, questions, information, pictures…
You can check out and read the entire newspaper on this link to ISSUU.
And you can require your own personal printed newspaper, by contacting us.
See some of the pages from what’s new? here:
Posters for KaosPilots SwitzerlandVoila! A new series of posters for the KaosPilots Switzerland.
Design by Lower East and very fine photos by Rahel Krabichler. With short text portraits of students from the school, an insight in their motivations and reasons to attend the three year education and information on the school. And a reminder that deadline for application for the new team starting in September 2015 are coming up very soon. March 18th.
You can of course get much more info at the schools website KaosPilots Switzerland.
Follow your dreamsEver dreamt about becoming a KaosPilot? Now could be the time!
There is a kaospilot school in Denmark and one in Switzerland.
They will be forming new teams very soon.
Application deadline in Denmark is already on March 2nd, and in Switzerland the date is March 18th.
Open Doors in Bern, Switzerland on March 13th. And an info-arrangement is going on in Aarhus, Denmark on February 26th.
Check it out on webpages, look into facebooks and even search at blogs.
www.kaospilots.ch
www.kaospilot.dk
We did this poster for the school in Bern.
How to communicate your projectLower East had this week the pleasure to work with the first year students from Team #3 at the KaosPilots Switzerland – we had four creative, hectic and funny days, where we focused on ‘how do we communicate our project(s)’, ‘how to communicate your business’ and ‘how to communicate your unfinished business’. How do we get people on board in your project, where do we find the first client, and the next, and the next…. What’s the thing with the importance of having a cool visual identity, how high a priority has the logo (nowadays), what’s a business strip, what’s a mood board, how old fashioned is a flyer, what’s the communication strategy behind and what’s the extra spice in what we are doing?
The students closed the week with wonderful presentations of their work. The future looks bright; there is a lot of good ideas and untamed creativity going on out there.
When the student is ready the teacher (dis)appears 😉
Pictures from the work in progress at the KaosPilots in Bern.
Report from an Urban Safari
In the last days of May Lower East held an Urban Safari in Berlin – a group of 17 very berlin-curious students and team-leaders from KaosPilots Switzerland, toured the streets, backyards, urban gardens and cool places of Berlin. Under our guidance we together explored the lively city for two days – most of the time on bikes. On our list were: Lower East Lab, MarkthalleNeun, Kantine, Our Berlin, Tempelhofer Freiheit, Agora Collective, Martin Gropius Bau & David Bowie, Maselli, Modulor, Prinzessinnen Gärten and much, much more.
The safari was very successful – beautiful smiles on all safari participants and the sun was shining (almost all the time).
New safaris in Berlin coming up in the late summer and in the autumn – dates will be announced soon.
Check out these impressions from our tour.
KaosPilots Info-Event in BerlinThe KaosPilots Switzerland will come by the Lower East Lab this Thursday February 6th.
Are you curious about the KaosPilot education? In 90 minutes you will learn what this inspiring training for creative leaders, responsible entrepreneurs and changemakers in Bern and Aarhus is all about. Matti Straub-Fischer, Headmaster of the KaosPilots in Bern, will be there for you.
Info-event at Lower East Lab
Waldemarstrasse 38, 10999 Berlin.
From 5pm to 6:30 pm.
You are very welcome to show up – you can sign up for the event at facebook.
More info: KaosPilots Switzerland, Lower East Lab
newspaper: changels newsWe are happy to show and share the changels news!
An idea for a newspaper we at Lower East came up with some months ago together with the people from changels. In the very last days before Christmas we finished the design of the newspaper and it was immediately sent of to the printer in Switzerland. Now the 32-page newspaper is living it’s own life, spreading info and good news from the changels universe in Bern & Switzerland & the rest of the world.
changels is a coaching and consultant company from Bern, Switzerland (and a Lower East partner), and to explain the paper we bring a short extract from the welcome word:
“… it is time to share some good news with you and the rest of the world. We enjoy working with companies, teams and communities as well as with individuals from all areas of life. And we co-create our own inspirations, too: Launching the KaosPilots Switzerland here in Bern in October 2012, now already with 2 teams of international students learning to become creative leaders, responsible entrepreneurs and changemakers. Or initiating our Innovationsdorf here in Bern, an innovation village to bring cross-sectorial know how together to create new solutions. Creating a network of sustainable schools and communities. Designing Urban Safaris in Berlin, Bern and Cape Town. And offering trainings to really create New Business that feels right for us humans and uplifting for this entire planet Earth.“
Happy reading! Check out the pictures below – and/or read the full newspaper here:
http://issuu.com/lowereast/docs/changels_news-final_version_light