Hamburg-based studio Karl Anders wishes you a Heavy Birthday

I don’t know how much of it can be attributed to the wonders of Google translate, but the “About” paragraph for Karl Anders’ new issue of Der Zirkel, der macht is a hoot. “The worst party of the city follows naturally an equally weighty magazine,” it states. “Divided into the categories of ‘cake, card, candles,’ we penetrate horrible-beautiful and forgotten photo albums of the nineties.”

So what exactly is Der Zirkel, der macht and why is the new issue called Heavy Birthday? Well in short, it’s a document of all the non-client-based work Karl Anders does, in one handy magazine-shaped publication. Wildly colourful print patterns, shots of abstract birthday cakes and some ingenious product photography later and you have it, a birthday-party-turned-magazine courtesy of the studio.

Understandably, we wanted to find out more, so we spoke to founder Lars about what makes Der Zirkel, der macht so special. Here he is!

Can you tell us a bit about Der Zirkel, der macht? What does it mean, and what does it do?  

Thanks for asking. Der Zirkel, der macht is our label for every activity from us which is not client related. We do events, magazines, cinema evenings, performances, exhibitions, art, DJ sets and a lot more, it could be anything.

As a result, we chose a name, Der Zirkel, der macht, based on a wordplay (which is therefore irritating). When you only hear the name you cannot be sure whether it is meant as “the circle of power” or “the circle that is doing something.” (macht (verb) = making, Macht (noun) = power)

What are the events like?

The core thing of Der Zirkel, der macht is the combination of event and magazine. So we have one main topic, and a curious name, like previous issues Timeless Fitness, Bon Visage or Heavy Birthday.

During the evening we have drinks, dance and decadence. We invite bands or DJs and we always have one big performance round the topic. After that event we go deeper into the theme and start to work on the magazine. With illustrations, images, collaborations, articles, interviews and all that stuff.

What were your key references while you were designing the third issue? 

The third issue focusses on the topic Heavy Birthday. While discussing possible content for the magazine, one of our colleagues came up with the beautiful story of a photo album in which she and her siblings collected photographs of all the birthday cakes their grandma baked for them over the years. When we saw that album we fell in love with it immediately. So we came up with the idea of not only showing pictures out of it, but going for a book sized layout and grid placed in the actual magazine format.

On top of that, we analysed birthday cards according to their patterns and made our own camouflage patterns out of it. And we used the shapes of paper doilies for the layout for example. Everything in the layout is connected to celebrating birthdays.

What do you have in mind for issue four?

Issue four will be about what we call “life experts” (elderly people). About quitting and continuing.