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novum plus :
Editorial
Live your dream!
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If you want to build a ship, dont drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.« These wise words, from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, have real relevance for all our lives: a desire to achieve goals, a yearning for love, happiness, fulfilment, for a very special moment, are lifelong companions. Finally reaching eighteen, getting your first apartment, landing that dream job it is not what we have achieved that drives us on, but the vision of it, and the road that takes us to it. A while ago, a wonderful article in Stern magazine set out why Schalke football club ought not to become German champions (the article appeared just before their critical last match): For decades this club had been yearning to finally lifting the winners cup, but if this wish were to be fulfilled, it would mark the end of a wonderful dream. In that sense Schalke can count itself lucky again that things worked out as they did. Now they can carry on dreaming
There is maybe something here that we can learn for corporate design projects: analysing and visualising not only how the company is now, but also its goals. A vision which employees and managing directors can share and which could perhaps also change societys perceptions. On twenty pages in this months novum plus we look at corporate design for companies large and small, including, for example, for the break area in an advertising agency and for purportedly tricky sectors like funeral directors Willmen.
The latter in particular has the potential to bring about change in funeral culture, something we in Europe are not exactly good at. Just going into an undertakers offices, dominated as they are by the colour black, you could almost think you had died yourself. Sober forms await your attention in these places neat little boxes to be ticked: Beech or oak? With or without a cross? The tartan satin for five hundred euros or perhaps the knitted blanket at only half the price? Twenty minutes and youre under the ground faster than disposing of an IKEA cupboard at the recycling centre
Yet, burying our loved ones can also have a lot to do with life, as demonstrated by one creative team featured in our article starting on page 42. When looking at their work, I made a mental note to take more notice of companies that have the courage, through their visual design, to work also on image and content.
Another yearning will be dominating hearts in the weeks to come: the Football World Cup in South Africa. The dream of all participating nations to win the Cup and the desire of the South Africans to present themselves as a welcoming host nation, a goal they have been working very hard towards over the last few years. Our novum plus gives you something of an inside track on this, too.
Enjoy life, and nurture your dreams!
Bettina Schulz
