Visual research for the 'techno tourist' guide

 Visual research for the 'techno tourist' guide 

Julia Von Dorpp

I decided to look at examples of curated publications for rave/ electronic music flyers, as I feel like it could be interesting to use a curated approach to educating non Berlin locals/ techno tourists on the culture of the Berlin techno scene. This publication by graphic designer Julia Von Dorpp looks at English rave flyers from the 90's and has the perspective of viewing them as cultural phenomenons. Julia looks at 99 flyers from her own personal collection; playing with super cropping the images and looking closer at symbols, maps, logos and illustrations, the book serves as a platform to celebrate the UK's rave culture. 

What I like about the design of this publication is that it focuses entirely on the culture and visual language of the rave scene; although I'm focusing primarily on the Berlin techno scene, it would be interesting to use the same approach as creating a curated collection of cultural artifacts. Also, this links to my responsibility and role as the designer, as I want the publication to be an educational tool for techno tourists on how to respect the culture; I think by over designing the publication with my own style, it would take away from the intentions of the project. 

I also really like the visual technique of super cropping images and creating a visual collage of the scene, as this would relate really well to the idea of censorship and secrecy within Berlin's techno scene. For example, I could keep the images super vague and abstracted, to inform the audience on the element of protecting the culture by not oversharing. In regards to the distribution of the publication, it could be interesting to take inspiration from how techno flyers in Berlin were just dotted around and were super vague. 

ARCHIVO by Never Sleep

ARCHIVO is a series of publications by Never Sleep focused on exploring the curation of visual artefacts, memorabilia, graphics within rave club culture and youth subcultures. The first issue was made in lockdown consisting of a collection of scanned rave records, advertisements, graphics and illustrations from rave fanzines from the early 90s. The visual language is very pure and rough, serving as a visual tool/ guide to the subcultures of the rave scene. What I found interesting is how the publication is packaged in a plastic bag, reflecting the DIY nature of fanzines and the idea of reusing and recycling old visual language. This definitely inspires me to look outside of the box in terms of the packaging of my publication, as I could explore themes of censorship that relate to the Berlin techno scene and the secrecy that is ingrained into their culture. 

Similar to the previous publication by Julia Von Dorpp, ARCHIVO is mainly a curation of different visual artefacts, which again could be an interesting approach in showcasing the culture of Berlin techno without being explicit. I don't want the techno tourist guide to be super explicit, as that would take away from the protection of the community; I need to find some sort of balance between educating my audience without spoon feeding them; maybe the format could serve as some kind of treasure hunt, where the audience has to proactively uncover information. I could maybe play around with secret codes, and hide elements of text in playful ways? 

Club 10's by Wendy Keriven 

Club 10's is a fanzine made by Wendy Keriven consisting of pictures taken during parties over three years in Paris. The whole book is entirely photographic, but I just really like the cover in particular as it kind of aligns with my playful style. What I liked about the concept of this publication is that its really personal and feels quite intimate, which related to the sense of community within Berlin's techno scene. As I said before, I want this to be a key focus within my outcome, as because I'm an outsider, I need to be respectful and choose carefully what I do with the imagery in order to protect and celebrate the culture instead of viewing the Berlin techno scene as a cultural object of curiosity. 

Dizonord

Dizonord is a record store based in Paris. I came across these acrylic business cards on their Instagram and just thought they were a super fun and interesting format. In regards to my research into the Berlin techno scene, one part of info that stuck out to me was that there were often symbols and secret messages that people would use in order to find the techno parties of that night (such as holding a rose). I thought that maybe in response to this, I could create some kind of techno tourist key/ pass that would serve as a message of respect. Also, I want to start to experiment more with formats so it could be cool to have an acrylic key as part of the publication. 

Virgile Flores

Designer Virgil Flores created this publication look book for Maison Margiela; playing with cut out paper and embossing, the layout and design is super interesting as it distorts elements of the image and hides sections with overlaying paper. What I like about the practical element of the design is how it could relate to the idea of censorship I want to explore within the techno tourist guide; I definitely want to design the publication in a way that celebrates the secrecy and exclusivity of the Berlin techno scene. Conceptually, I want the outcome to somewhat go against the values of sharing information on social media, as the internet has become a massive issue in oversharing and exposing the community within Berlin. I could possibly take inspiration from this by hiding elements of the book, and focusing on censorship and illegibility. 

Jonathan Castro

Graphic designer Jonathan Castro worked on this project with Mannequin records, consisting of a poster series for the Berghain Panorama bar. I found it super interesting as promotional material for Berghain is very rare, mainly down to the exclusivity of the club, and protecting itself from techno tourists. What works well with Castro's concept is that is focuses predominantly on abstract shapes and maximalist design; this provides a somewhat mysterious and not fully explicit design, which again relates to the exclusivity and secrecy within Berlin's club culture. The shapes and metallic textures of the poster series definitely align with the industrial and futuristic landscape of Berghain, and in a way are reminiscent of the idea of creating other worldly spaces within the techno scene and club nights. In terms of the very maximalist and chaotic tone of the posters, you can definitely see the inspiration taken from design associated with the Berlin techno scene, such as the overcrowded layout design of Frontpage fanzine. I'm definitely inspired by this design approach to Berlin's techno scene, as it looks at censorship and exclusivity in a more fun and abstract way; creating posters that have very little information on them to maintain a super mysterious tone. This approach to respecting the Berlin techno scene kind of contrasts with the idea of super minimal design to keep things secret; I could visually go down the avenue of manipulating imagery and creating some really chaotic and maximalist designs in order to censor things within my response? It could be interesting to play around with abstracting existing imagery in order to provide that element of protection of the techno scene; my only worry is that I would need to find a balance of doing so in order to keep the guide/ publication educational; the aim of the project is to still inform techno tourists on the culture and dos and don'ts in Berlin, so some aspects need to be clear. 

Format considerations

In regards to the packaging and format of the potential outcome, I looked at some examples of cassette design as it related to the research into Berlin techno; the cassette format explored the idea that East Berlin got into the techno scene through listening to mixtapes, as their strict regime meant that techno parties that were common in the West were not allowed. In light of this, a cassette format could be interesting in creating a visual language that represented this unification between the East and West, as techno music and the community within it celebrated the reunification by bringing both sides together. 

Possible ideas for this could be to create a series of posters or a publication that are packaged and distributed in cassette cases, which would generate some interesting layout considerations.