design Archives - Page 9 of 12 - understand-culture

Rights Read by the Purpose

A photographer, designer or programmer in Germany who lets a client use a work grants no more than the contract names or its purpose requires. Section 31 of the Copyright Act sets the rule. If the types of use are not listed one by one, the purpose of the contract decides which uses are covered.

Lawyers call this the Zweckübertragungslehre, the doctrine of transfer by purpose. An IT law firm explains its effect. Rights of use die Tendenz haben, am Urheber zu kleben, tend to stick to the author. In case of doubt, each grant is read so eng wie möglich, as narrowly as possible.

Judged by Number, Not by Name

In a German public architecture competition run under the federal Guideline for Planning Competitions of 2013, the jury does not know whose design it is judging. Under the guideline, each participant marks every part of the entry only with a Kennzahl, a code number.

The entries stay anonymous until the jury has decided. The jury assesses the shortlisted designs in writing, and the decision is recorded in minutes. Afterwards all entries are exhibited in public with the authors’ names, together with the minutes.

The Button in the Ear

In 1904 Franz Steiff, nephew of the toymaker Margarete Steiff, designed the Knopf im Ohr, the button in the ear. It was meant to set the company’s high-quality toys apart from cheap competitors. The mark was registered with the patent office in 1905.

In 2014 the General Court of the European Union refused to protect the button with its tag as an EU trademark. The court found that it lacked distinctiveness.

From the Sofa Cushion to the City

In 1907 the Deutscher Werkbund was founded in Munich at the instigation of Hermann Muthesius. Peter Behrens and Richard Riemerschmid were among its founders. Its motto was Vom Sofakissen zum Städtebau, from the sofa cushion to city building.

The Werkbund wanted good design for everyday products. A 2014 exhibition at the Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge in Berlin described the aim. Good design would make Made in Germany a seal of quality and raise the export power of the German Empire.

The Good Form

The German cabinetmakers’ trade holds a federal design competition for young journeymen called Die Gute Form, the good form. Each entry is a Gesellenstück, the piece a cabinetmaker builds for the journeyman’s exam. In 2009, for example, every piece in the federal final had already won a prize at state level.

The jury looked for ein zeitgemäßer Entwurf, die eigenständige Idee, gutes Design, a contemporary design, an original idea, good design. The 2021 winner, Beatrice Borggreve from North Rhine-Westphalia, built a side table of maple. The jury praised it as a moderne Interpretation eines klassischen Gesellenstücks, a modern interpretation of a classic journeyman’s piece.

One Square Meter, Halved

German office paper follows a standard set in 1922. Walter Porstmann proposed it, and the standards committee founded in 1917 adopted it. Size A0 is exactly one square meter. The sides stand in the ratio of 1 to the square root of 2.

Every smaller size comes from halving the one before, so a sheet of A4 is one sixteenth of a square meter. In everyday German, DIN A4 simply means an ordinary sheet of paper. The German standard later became the basis of the international standard ISO 216.

Sixty Years of the 911

The first Porsche 911 was presented on 12 September 1963 at the motor show in Frankfurt. It still has its engine at the rear, a six-cylinder boxer. Its generations carry their own names: original model, G model, 964, 993, 996, 997, 991 and 992. German Wikipedia sums up its history in one sentence: the 911 was kontinuierlich weiterentwickelt, continuously developed.

The 996, from model year 1998, was the first 911 with a water-cooled engine. It also shared many parts, such as headlights and fenders, with the Boxster. This brought the new 996 a lot of criticism, above all because it could be mistaken for a Boxster. People called its headlights Spiegeleier, fried eggs. They were replaced in 2002.

How a Business Letter Is Laid Out

Every German who learns to write a business letter meets DIN 5008. The standard sets rules for writing and layout. It deliberately does not regulate content or spelling. It goes back to rules for business mail and typing that an office association published around 1930.

In April 1949 the German standards committee took these rules over as DIN 5008. Until 1996 the standard dealt only with the typewriter. From 1996 it also covered word processing on a computer. The 2020 edition describes electronic correspondence in more detail. It no longer mentions the typewriter at all.

Munich 1972, Designed Throughout

In 1966, the designer Otl Aicher was asked to lead the design of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. His guidelines covered everything von der Kleidung für Mitarbeitende über Möbel bis hin zu den Eintrittskarten, from the clothing of the staff to the furniture to the tickets.

Red, gold and black were not allowed. His pictograms for the sports are still used around the world. The dachshund Waldi was the first Olympic mascot of all.

The Leitz Binder

Louis Leitz, a mechanic in Stuttgart, developed the mechanism of the lever-arch binder in the 1890s. The sources differ on the year. The Deutsche Biographie gives 1893, and the Württemberg State Museum gives 1896.

In 1911 the binder got the finger hole in its spine. The brand name became the general German word for a lever-arch file, the Leitz-Ordner. The Deutsche Biographie says that Leitz revolutionized the management of written records.