A brand with an iconic packaging that every child in Germany recognises also deserves an iconic event location and the appropriate staging in the room. We took up the geometry of the famous Bahlsen biscuit packaging and reflected it in the choice of location and the appropriate spatial implementation of the conference.
The SANAA building chosen for the conference has been considered a renowned architectural masterpiece since its construction in 2006 and has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, the world’s highest award for architecture, among other prizes. Since 2010, it has been part of the Folkwang University of the Arts, which has located parts of its campus with the study programmes Photography, Industrial Design and Communication Design on the Zollverein World Heritage Site in Essen.
By breaking through the former industrial buildings, the SANAA building combines the historical with the modern – the ideal setting for the traditional company Bahlsen to present new products and marketing strategies of the food company to an internal target group.
We took up the typical square shapes of the SANAA building, which extend from the building’s base in a square to the 134 window openings, for the event staging in the form of furniture and specially produced shelf walls. The modular shelving elements were in the design of the Bahlsen brand world and played with the contrast of white and the striking corporate colours. In the purist architectural and colour environment, the brand messages were particularly visually effective.
After the content-rich conference programme, the evening event focused on relaxation, team building and entertainment. During a team costume competition at the historic Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, the employees were able to create a visually opulent counterbalance to the minimalist staging of the day.
