Plans for next year’s Munich Creative Business Week (MCBW) are well underway and the presentation of Anette Lenz’s new key visual represents a major milestone. Guided by the theme Moving Horizons, MCBW 2022 is organized by bayern design and will take place from May 14 to 22. An assortment of workshops, conferences, symposiums, webinars, exhibitions, and streams will be offered at various locations throughout the city. Companies and individuals interested in joining MCBW as program partners can register now.
Moving Horizons – desire meets design The year 2020 was shaped by desire – desire for normalcy, for balance, and first and foremost, for solutions to a multitude of challenges facing society. Climate change, sustainability, and equal rights are omnipresent topics that have manifested in the public discourse. In all of this, design is society’s mirror – driving change and inspiring trends. “Designers take people’s desires on as a task, discover surprising gateways and turn them into experiences. MCBW 2022 focuses on the topics that stir our society today and will continue to do so tomorrow. The event looks beyond the horizon. It fuses desire and design and opens up space for innovative solutions,” says Nadine Vicentini, the new managing director of bayern design. The focal theme Moving Horizons was selected to highlight MCBW 2022 as a platform for places of longing that set out to expand, challenge, and shift horizons through design and to discover and rediscover.
Key visual – Anette Lenz visualizes MCBW 2022 The MCBW 2022 key visual was penned by German graphic designer Anette Lenz, one of the most influential designers of our time. Lenz, who lives in Paris, has made a name for herself through her unique play with typography and color and her representations of a new form of visual communication in public spaces. Her interpretation of Moving Horizons transfers society’s desire for change into visual elements: altering notions of lettering, delicate details gaining strength, heavy sections dissolving into graceful ones, letters stretching horizontally. New gateways, interspaces, and opportunities become visible. Vertical planes structure the space and add rhythm. The multi-colored system was designed to be complementary; the variable overlay ensures tangible depths and stark contrasts that enter into dialog rather than opposing each other. Lenz explains: “The intention behind the new MCBW key visual was to envision transformation and emotion through graphic means and to portray a type of new beginning following the motto Back to Basics. This way, text can turn into picture and unite color, structure, and lines.” Depending on the channel, the key visual will be integrated in an animated form so its organic nature and versatile dynamics can unfurl.
Successful introduction of hybrid events Because it was MCBW’s tenth anniversary and due to the COVID-19 situation, in 2020 the event took place in both digital and analog forms for the first time. The program themed Shaping futures by Design was comprised of a variety of creative concepts for web streaming, virtual exhibitions, and design walks available to visitors up close and remotely. For the largest design event of its kind in Germany, this step meant navigating uncharted territory. Lisa Braun, director of MCBW, values the developments as positive: “We went through an extensive change process over the past year that included redesigning events and restructuring our MCBW team. Inspired by the favorable experiences we had during MCBW 2020, we now look forward to the upcoming event which will direct our attention to new horizons and beyond.” Digital event formats will remain key parts of MCBW in the future.
New program partners wanted Despite the pandemic, MCBW 2021 offered a wealth of content and appeal. More than 90 partners and their events, exhibitions, and activities were essential to MCBW and guaranteed diversity in action. MCBW is a network, a platform, and a multiplier bringing together companies, agencies, and creative people in the fields of design, marketing and architecture and enabling them, among many other benefits, to become part of the program. Companies and individuals interested in joining us as a program partner in 2022 can select from among a number of packages and are welcome to apply by February 11, 2022. Details about benefits and registration are available here and on the MCBW website.