Most things we design on the computer. Sitting in front of the big screen, connected via mouse with the creative digital program, you think and click, and click and think, and something develops. Sometimes, however, the solution can also be found on the kitchen table, between bread and butter, brushes, water glass, pen and paper.
Here, Tanja Büsching met the »BRISE splashes«. Small and colourful, and everyone so different from the rest, they were playing around in front of her face. Needless to say that it was not quite that simple. Anyhow: the story of the appearance of the Bremen Initiative for the Strengthening of Early Childhood Development (BRISE) begins in the children’s world, far away from the agency desks. Using a straw, the graphic artist puffed on watercolour splashes and created a small family of beautiful figures. »Through the analogous work, the ›kidding around‹, I was able to get the right feeling about the subject. That was very helpful,« Tanja says. She populated a whole pile of paper with the BRISE splashes that looked different every time. »They are as versatile as the children.«
The design could hardly be closer on the subject. The BRISE project is a long-term study that examines the impact of early childhood support on the development of children. Within a so-called »range of measures«, families and their children receive support offers. They are accompanied by the end of the pregnancy until the schooling of their child. Within selected municipalities in Bremen, the study is aimed at families who have received a child at the beginning of this year or expect a new family member by the end of 2018. The Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Jacobs Foundation, and a large number of scientists from University of Bremen are participating in this project.
One does not recognise these highly official institutions by looking at the BRISE splashes. Strong colours, a watercolour background, and a lot of space determine the design concept. A chief BRISE splash was selected that is accompanied by many more of its kind. Each employee of the project gets an individual figure for the personal business card, on the flyer the figures form a pyramid like the Bremen city musicians, and on the website they present different information about the project in a playful and charming way. »They are friendly, individual, a bit crazy, and not a bit perfect. You never know their destination. Just as children are,« Tanja laughs.