Next week Dunja will have her last days before her maternity leave.
Approximately mid November Gaia will have a little brother or sister…

There are 800 german brands who produce and sell mineral water. We’ve asked all brands to send us samples of these products so that we can exhibit the diversity of german water brands in the German Pavilion. BUT: water isn’t just water! See David testing some weirdo looking water… BEFORE…

and AFTER!

For those who still don’t know: Totems is appointed to design the German Pavilion… and here are the to main heads who are responsible for the architecture: Uli (drawing) and Karl (computing). Under these circumstances you may lean back and relax: like you can see… everything is under control!

You probably won’t believe it, but Ingrid (Florian’s wife) celebrated her 50th birthday with us! She still looks adorable and sometime we ask ourselves: “What the heck does she want with that Florian guy?!” He must have some really good arguments and definetly knows the rules of true love!!! Anyway… we felt very honoured that Ingrid wanted to clink glasses with us. Ingrid: we love you – and keep an eye on your boys.

Last wednesday Florian was invited to hold a keynote at the aed (council for architecture, engineering & design) in Stuttgart. He was joined by Johannes Milla (Milla & Partner) and Prof. Uwe Brückner (Atelier Brückner). They were asked to talk about environmental design. While Mr. Brückner and Mr. Milla mainly promoted their studios with some kind of arrogance – Florian gave insights into the Totems way of thinking and how this influences the Totems work. In an understandable and likable way. In the end he even presented the Totems team, saying that these are the people who stand behind his company and are the core of all success!
To put this straight: We highly appreciate the work of Milla and Brückner. Their work is outstanding and brilliant! BUT we noticed that Florian is not a conceited presenter of his company. He is part of the Totems team, and that’s what makes Totems different and more unique than other competitors. Well done, Florian!

Achim came up with the idea that Totems should to take part in an soccer tournament, just for architects and/or environmental design studios. Steffen, a passionate soccer maniac, agreed and took over the captains role. TURBINE TOTEMS was born and a team of crazy Totems individuals was lined up.

Steffen = captain and inventor of Turbine Totems

Bernd = “Jean-Marie (Pfaff)”, goalkeeper

Nicolai and his buddy Tim (not on the pic) = secret weapons

Cüneyit = broke his leg

Substitutes.

Cheerleader = Louisa, Paulina + “Hampelmann” = Chris

Final picture. Turbine Totems won the silver medal. In the Finals they were beaten by KTP Architects. Score 1:4. Well, too bad.
But we recognize that silver is a great success for a first time tournament. A special thanx is to our fans. They did an outstanding job and pushed us to our limits. This shows the Totems team spirit! Unfortunately other studios weren’t so lucky with their fans. Some were left alone, which is very sad and doesn’t underline the company’s culture! Anyway, if you guys need some advice – in team spirit – come to Totems | Communication & Architecture, Ludwigstr, 59, Stuttgart, Germany. Always welcome!

September it’s ARS tiime! The Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. The leading and most important Festival for Art, Technology and Society, worldwide. This time I could persuade some Totems pals to join me: Achim, Bernd, Uli and his sons Louis and Paul went to Linz. The festival is most inspiring for the work we do. Fortunately nobody knows it. This is great. DON’T GO THERE. Leave the inspiration to us!

This is Chris at some strange interactive art orbject labled “the converstaion of intimacy”! To be honest: I didn’t understand the clue of this installation… too bad!

Achim and Chris taking a portrait picture of themselves at the “Pixelspaces Exhibition”

Tested by professionals. Louis and Paul were the only ones who understood the gaming stuff right away. In fact: they actually tough us how to use it. The boys were also very excited about the festival and wanna come back next year. Pixel on!

All of Linz becomes a hotel. The Pixelhotel’s rooms are dispersed all over town.
During the Capital of Culture year in 2009, guests will be introduced to Linz in a new and unusual way: their accommodations might be situated in factories, stores, rental apartments or even public buildings. As a “trial run,” a prototype hotel room set up on Marienstraße in Second City will be occupied during the 2007 Ars Electronica Festival.
A project by Linz 2009 European Cultural Capital

This is the amount of Ritter Sport chocolate used for ONE shooting! Paula and Maria went up to Hamburg to supervise the job. The pictures are for the new website which will be created by ‘Fork Unstable Media’. But what the hell has Totems to do with Webdesign? Nothing! But Paula was asked to support Fork with her longtime chocolate experience and therefor acts as a creative consultant. Paula: we love the company (Ritter Sport) you work for and we love you! Enjoy your vacation…

Mission accomplished: Conway Lloyd Morgan published the TOTEMS book! Time for us to invite family, friends and clients to give them a preview. Have drinks and have chats with everyone.


Florian presented the book and gave the audience nice, interesting and amusing insights of how Totems thinks.

Bye bye!