Communication munich creative business week

Brand design for Germany’s largest design event: mcbw

Quick Read

For the second year in a row, we had the opportunity to help shape the munich creative business week (mcbw) – Germany’s largest design event – both in terms of content and design: by developing a communicative, socially relevant theme and four corresponding key topics, as well as by further evolving the visual identity we created the previous year. It quickly became clear what needed to be at the heart of it all: people and their relationship with nature – or rather, creative approaches to fostering better coexistence through a holistic understanding of design.

Customer Challenge

We are living in what is known as the Anthropocene, an era in which humans have become one of the most significant drivers of the Earth's biological, geological, and atmospheric processes. The mass produced by human activity already outweighs the naturally formed and accumulated mass. This means the human factor is crucial not only for the survival of the Earth itself, but also for our own. It is therefore high time that we began working more closely with nature again, instead of trying to dominate it—as has so often been the case in the past. After all, nature itself is essentially a creator, a generative force. It was on this basis that we defined the theme for mcbw 2024.

Solution

The visual identity of mcbw 2023 was characterised by the geometric basic shapes of circle, square and triangle, which were arranged flexibly in bold colours to create a versatile layout toolkit. In 2024, we developed this visual principle further: the shapes no longer acted as boundaries but interacted “cooperatively” and even merged in places, an effect further emphasised by colour gradients. The base colours reflected the spectrum of nature and humanity. In this way, a striking, highly recognisable look emerged that significantly evolved the 2023 appearance and translated the motto into a strong visual language. As a result, mcbw 2024 achieved greater visibility both in Munich’s urban environment and in the digital sphere, even though no greater number of measures was implemented.

Insight & Impact

For the conceptual development of mcbw 2024, we created four thematic clusters that translated the overarching motto into key focus areas:
Re-Learn! (design solutions inspired by nature),
Re-Generate! (design solutions for the benefit of both nature and humankind),
Co-Work! (design solutions in collaboration with nature), and
Un-Limit! (design solutions that interweave nature and technology).

These four clusters not only structured the programme of the munich creative business week – including talks, exhibitions, workshops and more – but also shaped the content of the mcbw magazine. Across 144 pages, contributions from programme partners, along with independent editorial articles, were organised within one of the four chapters.

A total of 188 organisers, 230 events and 65,000 visitors are clear evidence of both the demand for and the success of mcbw. We are proud and delighted to be part of this achievement!