"Designing Desire"

Today we had a technical visit to KISKA Design in Salzburg.  This is probably going to be one of our most colorful visits as far at the organization and company meetings go.  KISKA Design focuses on “Designing Desire” and the first thing you notice walking in is the very white showroom, mostly made of hard concrete, is their KTM car right up front.  Our visit started with a presentation with the COO, an engaging Englishman named Steve.  He took us through his company and their idea of design and what differentiates them from other design companies.  The advantage with KISKA Design is their integrated design process.  They have six departments, such as engineering, design, and communication, that all collaborate together to form one overall brand for a company.

After our presentation and question session, we signed confidentiality contracts and received visitor passes to tour the center.  It was a creative atmosphere with many of their designs on display in the center of the room for constant influence as well as to be played with by the designer to get a feel of the material they work with.  The designers all sat at their computers with decorations around their desks and many had large headphones in order to listen to their choice of music.  It appeared as though much of the work was done originally on post-it notes.  These post-it notes were then stuck together on a board and the designs were revamped from there.

This would be someplace I could definitely see myself working at.  As someone who originally studied Fine Arts in college, the creativity of this place intrigued me.  However, it was interesting to find that KISKA has a high employee turnover with their designers.  I guess it’s a field where those who are in it often get bored fast and need to move on to a new place and country.  But at KISKA, if a designer stays for at least three years, which doesn’t happen too often, they receive a 6 month sabbatical to travel for inspiration.  How amazing is that?

Overall, KISKA is a company based on three elements:  excellence, integrity, and curiosity.  They strive to be more than just a design company or consultancy, but actually reach out to be a trusted adviser for their clients dealing past just the design of the brand, but actual branding of the person.   For more information you can check out their site here. KISKA

Crowbars with Veal

As I posted earlier, today started out in Switzerland with breakfast and then it was onto a coach at 7:30 this morning.  From Zurich, we went straight over to Munich, Germany.  For the group to get there, the coach drove through the Alps.  I’ve seen quite a few mountains, but none quite like the snow capped highlands we went through today.  Once we finally got to Munich, it was about a 6 hour drive, we did a little sightseeing and then ate lunch at Ratskellar in the town’s square.  The restaurant was in a Gothic style building that used to be the town hall and the food (pork, sausage, potato salad, and an apple fritter) was absolutely delicious.  After that we walked around once again.  What else are you going to do in a foreign country? In the square I picked up some very nice Euro sunglasses… ok, they look absolutely stupid and are full of rhinestones, but they get a good laugh.  Also, I got a new camera so I can starting getting some pictures to post.  After wandering around Munich it was back to the coach and off Salzburg, Austria. 

We arrived in Salzburg this evening and are staying at a Best Western.  It’s a nice place, but for some reason they find it necessary to have very small rooms with the two smaller than twin sized beds pushed next to each other.  So, my roommate and I are going to get a little closer than we expected.  All is well though.

Here in Salzburg we haven’t had much time for anything too out there yet.  Our first mission was to find dinner, and so we headed downtown to see what was there.  We got a nice welcome: the first experience was seeing a man walk up to a BMW with a crowbar going down the road, stop it, starting yelling at the car in German, kick three people out and push the driver over to the side and drive off.  It was a nice warm hello from the city, and we figured we would head back to the hotel for dinner.  I got a nice scalloped veal with parsley potatoes and everyone else also had time to enjoy some homemade Austrian dishes.


After dinner, it was back up to our hotel room for a little rest and trying to get some work done.  As for right now, my travel roommate Brandon and I just got back from a small local bar.  We decided to walk around a bit and see what was out there.  One thing that's odd from my American perspective is that they tend to mix beer with sprite, lemonade, or Fanta.  It is also the cheapest drink to get. Tomorrow is another technical visit and then a formal city tour.  Until then, Zum Wohl!