NORDISK – how it all began
Words by Frank Lottermann, Managing Director | Creative Director
NORDISK – how it all began
Words by Frank Lottermann, Managing Director | Creative Director
What we tell our clients’ purchasing departments...
Lorenzo Bizzi, a business graduate, and Frank Lottermann, a design graduate, met whilst at university. They soon discovered their shared passion for design and events – and founded the agency Nordisk Büro in 1996.
Today, the full-service agency – with over 30 staff and offices in Frankfurt and Hamburg – specialises in strategic brand communication with a keen eye for presentation. It has received numerous international awards for its work.
... and how it really was
Lorenzo and Frank met in the late 1980s. They became friends – and stagehands. At the Offenbach Theatre, later at trade fairs, somewhere between cable reels and backdrops.
After completing their studies, they briefly tried the conventional career path:
Frank went to MetaDesign in Berlin, Lorenzo to Accenture in Frankfurt.
After finishing their degrees, they briefly tried out the conventional career path:
Frank went to MetaDesign in Berlin, Lorenzo to Accenture in Frankfurt.
That lasted exactly until Lorenzo rang Frank:
“Mate, come back to Frankfurt – we’re doing something awesome.”
The financial basis for this idea was modest at first. In other words: parties.
They rented a vacant building with a 600-square-metre warehouse next to the freight station. They told Deutsche Bahn they would be “storing event equipment” there. Deutsche Bahn believed them. They were given keys, a contract – and, remarkably, never a rent invoice. Perhaps that explains Deutsche Bahn’s empty coffers.
What we tell our clients’ purchasing departments…
Lorenzo Bizzi, a business graduate, and Frank Lottermann, a design graduate, met whilst at university. They soon discovered their shared passion for design and events – and founded the agency Nordisk Büro in 1996.
Today, the full-service agency – with over 30 staff and offices in Frankfurt and Hamburg – specialises in strategic brand communication with a keen eye for presentation. It has received numerous international awards for its work.
… and how it really was
Lorenzo and Frank met in the late 1980s. They became friends – and stagehands. At the Offenbach Theatre, later at trade fairs, somewhere between cable reels and backdrops.
After completing their studies, they briefly tried the conventional career path:
Frank went to MetaDesign in Berlin, Lorenzo to Accenture in Frankfurt.
After finishing their degrees, they briefly tried out the conventional career path:
Frank went to MetaDesign in Berlin, Lorenzo to Accenture in Frankfurt.
That lasted exactly until Lorenzo rang Frank:
“Mate, come back to Frankfurt – we’re doing something awesome.”
The financial basis for this idea was modest at first. In other words: parties.
They rented a vacant building with a 600-square-metre warehouse next to the freight station. They told Deutsche Bahn they would be “storing event equipment” there. Deutsche Bahn believed them. They were given keys, a contract – and, remarkably, never a rent invoice. Perhaps that explains Deutsche Bahn’s empty coffers.
What we tell our clients’ purchasing departments…
Lorenzo Bizzi, a business graduate, and Frank Lottermann, a design graduate, met whilst at university. They soon discovered their shared passion for design and events – and founded the agency Nordisk Büro in 1996.
Today, the full-service agency – with over 30 staff and offices in Frankfurt and Hamburg – specialises in strategic brand communication with a keen eye for presentation. It has received numerous international awards for its work.
… and how it really was
Lorenzo and Frank met in the late 1980s. They became friends – and stagehands. At the Offenbach Theatre, later at trade fairs, somewhere between cable reels and backdrops.
After completing their studies, they briefly tried the conventional career path:
Frank went to MetaDesign in Berlin, Lorenzo to Accenture in Frankfurt.
After finishing their degrees, they briefly tried out the conventional career path:
Frank went to MetaDesign in Berlin, Lorenzo to Accenture in Frankfurt.
That lasted exactly until Lorenzo rang Frank:
“Mate, come back to Frankfurt – we’re doing something awesome.”
The financial basis for this idea was modest at first. In other words: parties.
They rented a vacant building with a 600-square-metre warehouse next to the freight station. They told Deutsche Bahn they would be “storing event equipment” there. Deutsche Bahn believed them. They were given keys, a contract – and, remarkably, never a rent invoice. Perhaps that explains Deutsche Bahn’s empty coffers.
The first NORDISK Club opens
The first NORDISK Club opens
In September 1996, the first Nordisk Club opened. Outside the door: two burning oil drums. Back then, ‘corporate design’ was still a very loose concept.
The name? It was simply written on the building: Nordisk Spedition.
The place took off straight away. Good music inside, slightly dodgy goings-on outside. In between, there were flyers that were more like art objects – repackaged Wrigley’s chewing gum, test tubes or sachets of dried herbs for DJ Oli Teba of The Herbalizer – and, because the two got on rather well, plenty of passport photos and pictures of Lorenzo and Frank. The number was strictly limited and they were distributed exclusively by Frank and Lorenzo in person.
Other factors that contributed to the club’s legendary status included regular police raids and a headless corpse on the tracks behind the club. After seven months, it was all over for the time being. Officially, due to the police and the authorities. Unofficially, too, because Lorenzo had tried to charge two plainclothes police officers the entrance fee – and subsequently banned them from the premises.
But things soon got back on track – unsurprisingly, in three decommissioned Deutsche Bahn postal carriages. 200 metres long, two floors, opposite Ostbahnhof.
A flyer from that time sums it up well: “You know that moment when the sun rises over the tracks and the bass kicks in.”
After six weeks – it was all over again. This time – at least politely – shut down by the Federal Border Guard, Customs and the police.
From the club to the office
What remained was demand: for flyers, for concepts, for precisely this blend of chaos and creativity. So – quite logically – they rented a disused backstreet garage (you’ve got to have a bit of a cliché). The first Nordisk office.
The office was kitted out every two weeks:
one party – one printer. Next party – one desk.
The legendary ‘Frankfurt am Main – Luftkurort’ T-shirt also dates from this period. Originally a flyer for a DJ set by Shantel.
Years followed with parties in venues where you’d certainly never get a licence today – though we didn’t have one back then either: derelict industrial sites, high-rises, rehearsal stages, half-finished buildings.
And then things suddenly got serious: the back-yard garage office became a serious, internationally active creative agency – though there were still a few years of parties to come.
In September 1996, the first Nordisk Club opened. Outside the door: two burning oil drums. Back then, ‘corporate design’ was still a very loose concept.
The name? It was simply written on the building: Nordisk Spedition.
The place took off straight away. Good music inside, slightly dodgy goings-on outside. In between, there were flyers that were more like art objects – repackaged Wrigley’s chewing gum, test tubes or sachets of dried herbs for DJ Oli Teba of The Herbalizer – and, because the two got on rather well, plenty of passport photos and pictures of Lorenzo and Frank. The number was strictly limited and they were distributed exclusively by Frank and Lorenzo in person.
Other factors that contributed to the club’s legendary status included regular police raids and a headless corpse on the tracks behind the club. After seven months, it was all over for the time being. Officially, due to the police and the authorities. Unofficially, too, because Lorenzo had tried to charge two plainclothes police officers the entrance fee – and subsequently banned them from the premises.
But things soon got back on track – unsurprisingly, in three decommissioned Deutsche Bahn postal carriages. 200 metres long, two floors, opposite Ostbahnhof.
A flyer from that time sums it up well: “You know that moment when the sun rises over the tracks and the bass kicks in.”
After six weeks – it was all over again. This time – at least politely – shut down by the Federal Border Guard, Customs and the police.
From the club to the office
What remained was demand: for flyers, for concepts, for precisely this blend of chaos and creativity. So – quite logically – they rented a disused backstreet garage (you’ve got to have a bit of a cliché). The first Nordisk office.
The office was kitted out every two weeks:
one party – one printer. Next party – one desk.
The legendary ‘Frankfurt am Main – Luftkurort’ T-shirt also dates from this period. Originally a flyer for a DJ set by Shantel.
Years followed with parties in venues where you’d certainly never get a licence today – though we didn’t have one back then either: derelict industrial sites, high-rises, rehearsal stages, half-finished buildings.
And then things suddenly got serious: the back-yard garage office became a serious, internationally active creative agency – though there were still a few years of parties to come.
to top