AWARDS, FESTIVALS, EXHIBITIONS
PRESS REVIEWS
[Influences] gift is in allowing an unexpected journey, for instance, from ‘making silk flowers’ to ‘Wittgenstein’, and it is in showcasing theses unpredictable connections that the authors try to reflect the nature of the creative process itself, which is rarely a clear path to a eureka moment.
[Colin Davies in “Print”, US]
... so eröffnet “Influences” ein spannendes Panorama der visuellen Kultur des Jahrtausendanfangs und der Kräfte, die sie prägen – auch jenseits des Tellerrands von Grafikdesign. Inspiration für den Leser fällt dabei massenweise ab.
[Page]
We bought “Influences” and we love it! One of the most interesting projects on graphic design for a long time.
[mail by: Catherine and Pierre di Sciullo]
“Influences” is one of the best graphic design books I have ever seen. The concept is really strong, and
I can already see myself stealing/copying/adapting and adopting it
for projects I might be working on.
[Adam Eeuwens, editor of “34 magazine”]
“19,99 - a commercial shift!” is a terrific issue. I often thought about
doing an issue of Emigre like that, but was never able to pull it off. You
did a great job!
[quote by: Rudy van der Lans, Emigre]
“Greetings from Beirut” is a project that pins down a vision of Beirut that doesn‘t pander to clichés about the region and its associations with terrorist activity. It‘s a view from inside the culture that amounts to a bucket of cold water over what you thought Beirut was like.
[Grafik, UK]
“Greetings from Beirut” would neither encapsulate the city in sweeping generalizations nor retread the same territory of magazines that have come before it.
[Kaelen Wilson-Goldie in “Daily Star”, Lebanon]
Shift!‘s art director, Anja Lutz, hopes the issue will encourage readers to question the power and influence of advertising. It‘s a sentiment with which one can hardly disagree and any effort to foster a more critical view of advertising deserves plenty of support. Is it the magazine‘s assumption, though, that its regular readers are unaware of this power? If they are aware, then the exercise seems pointless. Why not continue to offer, as Shift! has until now, an advertising-free alternative to advertising-dominated youth culture? (Style magazines, complacently slick with advertising, are the worst offenders of all.)
[Rick Poynor on “19,99 - a commercial shift!” in his online critique on www.eyemagazine.com]
Like some kind of rocking capsule in a parallel universe, Shift! offers its readers a break from the regular templated world.
[Deborah Burnstone in “Eye”, UK]
...Jede Ausgabe ist einzigartig...
[Motion]
There are many different examples of magazine sizes and formats, but Shift! (Germany) takes experiment to its extreme, assuming a different form for each issue.
[Jeremy Leslie in “Issues: New Magazine Design”]
Shift! aficionados tend to be like the people who make the publication: designers and artists who get a kick out of possessing an object which has so clearly been made - not in the sense that it is shoddy or home-made, but in the sense that it is something that has been thought about in new and different ways. Shift! takes familiar cultural signs and puts them together in upbeat, offbeat configurations. It is located in a space that is both outside but at the same time part of the world of image consumption.
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[Deborah Burnstone in “Eye”]
In the Shift! universe, play is paramount and objects don‘t need to be defined and processed according to the play-safe dictates of the market. Getting Shift! through the mail is like ordering a little blast of fresh creativity. It takes us to a place we all need to keep visiting - one that shifts our reality into another gear so we remember that things don‘t always have to be the same.
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[Deborah Burnstone in “Eye”]
...Die „Fleisch“ Ausgabe des Design Magazin „shift!“ beeindruckte die Juroren [des europäischen Adobe Design Preises] mit seinem humorvollen „physischen“ Ansatz.
[Adobe Magazine]
Shift! ist ein Kunstmagazin der ganz besonderen Art. Das Ganze erinnert mich an eine wunderbar bunte Galerie für erstklassige Fotos, Grafiken und Design, perfekt aufgemacht, mit einem Schuß dadaistischer Extravaganz, mehreren Tropfen Professionalität und der Idee von einem Gesamtkunstwerk. Überhaupt die Idee: davon hat eine Ausgabe von „shift!“ so viele, daß andere davon zwei Jahre leben könnten und trotzdem hat man es nicht mit einem Sammelsurium zu tun - nein, da ist so ein feiner roter Faden, der unaufdringlich eindringlich dafür sorgt, daß „shift!“ in die Top-Seven meiner Lieblingszeitschriften aufgestiegen ist. Jede Seite ist eine Überraschung in ihrer Konzeption und in ihrem Umgang mit dem Thema. [...] Ein tolles Heft, daß man wenigstens mal in der Hand gehabt haben sollte. Aber Achtung: Suchtgefahr!
[Impressum. Periodikum für AutorInnen und VerlegerInnen]
...ausgefeiltes Layout und grafische Raffinesse...
[Prinz]
...Even though “shift!” is a far-left-of-center publishing venture, it provides proof of what is possible. Combine invention and technology with a range of distribution networks, and communication via print on paper needn‘t stagnate or loose out to new media...
[Liz Farrelly in “Print” magazine]
...one of the most innovative magazines launched in recent times is “shift!”...
[Graphics International]
Shift!, a Berlin-based arts and graphic design project, flirts with offbeat concepts to create covetable treasures, each with a unique element of surprise and personality. Predictable only in its unpredictability the variable-format magazine follows up playing cards, poetic recipes and multi-exposed global friendships with “Lichtbildvortrag” (Slide show), its 12th publication and an exciting mix of media on VHS: structured collaborations of selected artists from the fields of text, video, sound and music result in ten short films, meeting the given challenge with sensitivity and a generous portion of casual fun.
[Die Gestalten]
Wäre shift! ein Lokal, man koennte seine Wohnung aufgeben und dortgelassen den Rest seiner Tage zubringen - eine bessere Welt findest du nicht.
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[Junge Welt]
Das spannende an shift! ist, dass es niemanden kaltlässt. Egal ob die Leser die Beiträge eklig oder schön finden - sie reden darueber, und das ist es worum es eigentlich geht: Leute zusammenzubringen, Kommunikation anzuregen, Austausch zu ermoeglichen. Nur so kann ein Produkt entstehen, das sich selbst ständig neu erschafft.
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[Allegra]
...Prinzipiell kann sich jeder beteiligen - was bei “shift!” im Gegensatz zu anderen Mitmachprojekten keineswegs zu einem Qualitätsverlust geführt hat. Mit den eingesandten Arbeiten vollbringen die verantwortlichen Grafikerinnen [...] jedesmal wieder ein kleines Wunderwerk. Dessen Professionalität wurde gerade bei der Image Design Competition des Software Herstellers Adobe ausgezeichnet ...
[FAZ Magazin]