Laborrotwang was founded in 2006 as a design group emerging from the Exhibition Design department of Professor Gerhard Diel within the Visual Communication program at UdK Berlin. The group's first trade fair stand was the presentation of the brand MBT – Masai Barefoot Technology – at the Berlin Marathon in September 2006.
Exhibition design was a core area of Laborrotwang’s work, primarily handled by Sven Femerling and Carsten Bauer. This led to successful projects such as the exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the film Das Boot and a showcase on Alien designer H. R. Giger at the German Film Museum.
However, trade fair and shop design quickly became the group's main business. In this field, Carsten Bauer, Pablo Dornhege (now a professor at HTW Berlin), and I, Christoph Franz, were primarily responsible. Thanks to a strong network in the outdoor and sports fashion industry, we secured clients such as Adidas, Atomic, Odlo, Merrell, Chiemsee, and UGG, with whom we worked successfully.
Between 2006 and 2012, the group designed and implemented 50 to 60 trade fair stands of all sizes, as well as numerous shops. Unlike the HVAC and plumbing sector, in which I later worked extensively in trade fairs – where many events occur only every two years – the fashion industry presents a unique challenge: nearly all major trade fairs take place twice a year, each for the Spring-Summer and Fall-Winter collections.
Personally, I was involved in almost all trade fair projects as well as most shop designs. My tasks ranged from initial design concepts and sketches to technical drawings and the creation of large-scale graphics, as well as being on-site during setup – particularly in Italy, due to my language skills.
