You already saw me getting a short interview of The Kaiser, aka Franz Beckenbauer. Here now some more pics from the trip. I was invited to check out adidas Campus. The main purpose was the official launch of the Worldcup Final ball. Beckenbauer and the complete South African soccer team attended the event.

I have to admit that even though I am into soccer, it is not a sport that I follow all that much. Therefore the campus tour and especially the Walk Of Fame were far more interesting for me. Seeing the beginnings of a company with so much heritage and especially for once getting a full picture was really impressive. The Walk of Fame shows you everything from the first to the last adidas innovation, accumulated making it very overwhelming.

While adidas is a very modern company, I was actually quite surprised of how privincial the atmosphere was at the headquarter. Situated in the South of Germany the campus is all green, cafeteria with plenty of terrasse space, basketball, soccer and tennis facilities and much more. One could almost call it cosy. I always ask myself how a company like adidas or a company like Diesel (they also sit in the middle of nowhere in Italy) can be in such a business while having their headquarters sitting in the countryside. Interestingly it does not seem to have too much influence on the innovation of a company if set up the right way.

Tom, Annie and AK took really good care of me (as usual) and even though it was a quick visit, it was lots of fun.

Take a look at the campus in more detail here below!

This past weekend we were invited by Absolut Vodka to attend the celebration of the Absolut Art Collection in Stockholm, Sweden. Having been an active fan (!) of the brand for some years now, we could of course not decline the invitation.

Friday started with a presentation by Absolut. We were given a brief history of the brand. Absolut is 30 years old and was until very recently state owned, which made their approach to design and advertising only more impressive. It was also nice to see the comparison of the bottle with competitors 30 years ago and today, which made you realize how timeless that design really is, or maybe how progressive it was at the time.

Then a nice gathering and lunch followed. The whole event took place at the Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm, a super nice design hotel. We can only suggest it for your next stay in the city.

After the lunch we came to the actual topics of the trip – The Absolut Art Collection. In the last 30 years Absolut amassed over 800 artworks done by artists from all around the globe for them. They started with Warhol and continued with Haring and the list only continues as impressive. For the event in Stockholm they invited some of their artist collaborators, including David Shrigley, Silvie Fleury and others. A panel discussion about Commissioned Art – Career Boost or Sell Out took place. It was great hearing some actual artists address the topic. Funnily it does not seem to be a problem for most of them, as long as they can keep their artistic freedom.

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to have longer conversations with David Shrigley and Silvie Fleury. More on that soon!

After checking out the IAA in Frankfurt last week, we made it over to London this morning. A really relaxed 7 am flight and then an even more pleasant 2 hour cab ride to the hotel. Staying at the Sanderson, which so far seems like a really nice place. More on the reason for this short trip (leaving tomorrow again) later this week….