The old power sta­tion in the cen­tre of Berlin is to­day one of the most fa­mous event lo­ca­tions in the city, and also pro­vides of­fice space for large con­fer­ences. These dif­fer­ent uses – by day and by night, for se­ri­ous meet­ings as well as for glam­orous par­ties – is re­flected in the de­sign of the ori­en­ta­tion sys­tem. Based on the themes of “elec­tric­ity”, “light” and “cir­cuit boards”, Moni­teurs de­vel­oped a font rem­i­nis­cent of the repet­i­tive con­tours typ­i­cal of neon signs. En­graved on yel­low acrylic plates, the let­ter­ing en­hances the self-light­ing as­pects of the ma­te­r­ial. At the same time, the de­sign is so min­i­mal­ist that it also works in the con­fer­ence rooms of the ew­erk – and un­der­lines the spe­cial at­mos­phere of the in­dus­trial ar­chi­tec­ture.

The new building of the Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung is located on the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam, one of the historically and internationally important science locations. The building was designed by architects BHBVT, who designed it to blend harmoniously into the forest. It consists solely of flowing forms, with a circular atrium connecting the three round components. 200 scientists from all over the world have been conducting research here since October 2015. Moniteurs has taken up the color concept of the architecture, the coding of the three components with different bright colors in the signage system and reinforced it with an associative nomenclature. The iconic floor plan extends across all floors and serves as a color marker, which is an essential point of reference for orientation in the symmetrical space.

Two large com­pa­nies have their head­quar­ters at Auf­bau Haus: the Auf­bau Ver­lag Pub­lish­ing House and Mod­u­lor, a ma­te­ri­al's provider which, as Planet Mod­u­lor, pro­vides ad­di­tional ser­vices to the cre­ative and craft in­dus­tries in the build­ing. The ar­eas of ac­tiv­ity of the two main ten­ants – writ­ing and ma­te­ri­als – pro­vided the start­ing points for the de­sign of the ori­en­ta­tion sys­tem. Moni­teurs’ idea was that the ar­ti­sans of Planet Mod­u­lor should be in­volved in the cre­ation process.