When you walk around Berlin, the first thing you notice is the amount of open space and its vastness. The impressive and often imposing architecture has room to breathe and people can move around freely. The city has freed itself from the shackles of its past and earned a reputation as one of the coolest places to live and work – with an economy based on high-tech firms, service sectors and creative media.
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For co-founder and ‘sheet metal glasses salesman’ Ralph Anderl, the ic! berlin philosophy has very much been inspired by the nature of the city – both in the past and in the present. ‘Many years ago the spirit of Berlin was about being mobile. The music and illegal rave scene had to move all the time to avoid the police. This meant that the concept of the clubs at the time was very simple and pure – offer the best music, the best drinks and the best drugs. All of the focus went on those things – not making beautiful bars and spaces.’
This concept of simplicity is very much at the heart of the ic! berlin ethos, says Anderl. ‘Our hinge design is very pure and the way the business works is very much the same – focused.’
But it wasn’t just the city’s architecture and spirit that helped the company in the early stages. ‘The cost of living is much cheaper than other German cities and business rates are also lower. This took the financial pressure off us in the early stages and allowed us to explore our true creativity for ourselves. If we needed to find investors early on, I don’t think the company would have the same identity.’
The company’s roots can be traced back to 1996, when two design students, Philipp Haffmans and Harald Gottschling worked with Anderl to market and develop a sheet metal spectacle design. Initially, the company struggled to find its feet, failing to secure a manufacturer. Undeterred, the trio continued to work on designs and found a German sheet metal producer in the automotive sector that suited their needs. In 1998, the company won its first Silmo D’Or award and the following year, formally established the first ic! berlin incarnation.
In 2003, Haffmans and Gottschling left the company acrimoniously and created Mykita, leaving Anderl as the sole managing director.
Optician asked Anderl how the eyewear industry has changed during his time at the helm of the company. ‘There are a lot more ic! berlin lookalikes now. Many companies try to produce frames that look the same without infringing on design patents,’ he says. ‘Before the company was formed, sheet metal wasn’t really thought of as a material to make glasses from.’
Home from home
Located in a former bakery near Mitte, the open plan ic! berlin offices are bright and airy. Many of the features of the bakery have been retained to create a certain feel to the space, but the design is very simple and encourages interaction between staff – of which there are now over 200. Interaction and camaraderie is very important to the company – and every week staff come together for a home-cooked meal. The offices are open to public tours, which show everyone from students to members of the public how the company goes about its business. Famous German musician and artist Friedrich Liechtenstein even used the premises as his home for a year.
The majority of the manufacturing process takes place within the building. Acetate manufacturing takes place off-site, but its metal collection, which forms the majority of the product portfolio, is produced in-house. It wasn’t always the case, but in the early stages Anderl wanted to have more control over the manufacturing process and increase the quality and quantity.
Ideas for frames come from a variety of sources, from the architecture to fashions around the world. Ideas are collected on mood boards in the design department before designers create basic sketches on paper. Well-received designs are then turned into technical drawings before a prototype frame is created on a 3D printer. The concepts are discussed as a group, who will thrash out aspects such as sizing amendments and colour options.
Metal frames begin life in large sheets before being laser cut. The steel frames and temples are removed from the sheet like an Airfix model before being rolled by hand using special tooling. The addition of coatings, colouring and the tumbling process takes place off site by a partner firm. Once the frames return, they are assembled and subjected to stringent quality checks according to the designer’s original technical drawings. Over 200,000 frames are produced each year.
One of the main focal points of any ic! berlin frame is the screwless interlocking hinge. The front and temple are mated together without the use of any bonding and can be taken apart without any dedicated tooling. Over the years, the design has been refined to allow for the adjustment of pantoscopic angles by up to three degrees.
Recently the company has launched its first 3D printed collection, Plotic, which has fused the in-vogue selective laser sintering process with the company’s iconic hinge.
Creation of Mykita
When you have experience with designing and producing eyewear using sheet metal, it makes sense to stick with what you know when setting up a new company.
The history of Mykita lies very much within the story of ic! berlin. When Philipp Haffmans and Harald Gottschling parted company with Ralph Anderl, they needed to use their expertise, but at the same time establish a new identity.
Along with Haffmans’ brother Daniel and Moritz Krueger, the four created Mykita in 2003, and focused on construction and product innovation instead of style and marketing. The Mykita name derives from the company’s first premises, an old day nursery. In Germany, Kindertagesstätte is generally abbreviated to ‘kita’ and ‘my’ refers to the space that they worked in.
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Mykita press officer Lisa Thamm believes that the link with Berlin is more functional than inspirational. ‘Berlin is somewhere we live and work – it doesn’t really serve as inspiration for us because Mykita has been a very international company from the very beginning.
‘What Berlin allows us to find is the best people work with. The Haus is a fun place to work and Mykita is a cool company, so staff are skilled and dedicated to the company.’
Mykita’s first range (Collection No 1), launched in 2004, was designed around the concept of origami – using folding and bending to create eyewear. The onus was on doing away with the two traditional weak points of a spectacle frame, the welds and the screws. Sheet metal could be cut, bent and then interlocked to create a screw-less hinge.
Over the years the collections have evolved organically. In 2006, the company introduced its first acetate line, Collection No 2. The acetate styles were something of a departure in terms of their aesthetic, but the innovative DNA of the company was evident in the sunken screw-less hinge. Variants followed, including the Lite collection, which took the minimal sheet metal concept one step further with thinner temples and silhouettes.
One the most important launches for the company was the Mylon collection, debuted in 2011 after three years of research. In what the company believes was a first for the eyewear industry, frames in the Mylon collection were produced using selective laser sintering, similar to 3D printing. The collection began as a sport’s inspired line thanks to the lightweight properties of the polyamide material, but has grown into a full range of optical and sunglass styles, which also use the signature Mykita sunken hinge. The production process is also more environmentally friendly too, as wastage at the start of the sintering process can be reused.
The evolution of the collections has coincided with the evolution of the company. Over 220 staff work in different locations around the world, but the new headquarters is in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Similar in nature to London’s Shoreditch, the area is very much a creative hub and a melting pot of cultures and ideas.
The 5,000sqm Mykita Haus serves as a base for much of the production, along with design, marketing, customer service and logistics. The five storey premises was built by architect Kurt Berndt, who also designed the Hackesche Höfe in Berlin’s Mitte. Over 100 years ago, the building was used as a metal goods factory, so it’s fitting that Mykita, with its roots in metal manufacturing, now resides there.
The atmosphere in the building is laid back but focused. As Optician toured the production areas where base curvature was added, some staff were practising their stretches in preparation for a football match.
Metal frames arrive at the Haus pre-etched by Mykita’s production partner in Italy ahead of on-site assembly, bending and laser etching. The company’s acetate frames are manufactured in Germany at a factory that Mykita acquired in effort to exert more control over production and costs. Colourings and coatings are also carried out off-site by a company that was established to work exclusively with Mykita – ensuring that the company can benefit from new treatments and finishes before anyone else.
Alongside supporting over 3,000 practices around the world, own-brand retail is an increasing part of its business and its worldwide store count stands at nine – although this will increase in 2015. The stores serve to promote the Mykita brand and feature a clinical white design that features reconditioned flight trolleys and modular shelving systems that also feature on the exhibition stands. Partnerships with manufacturers such as Carl Zeiss ensure that lenses and equipment match the quality of the frames.
New kids on the block
Some of the eyewear residing in Kuboraum’s avant-garde showroom can make even the most adventurous eyewear brands look conservative.
As you walk through the door you are greeted with sculptures of melted candle wax and a large eyeglass chainmail – this isn’t your usual eyewear practice. Move into the main space and the first thing you notice is the use of light. Walls are painted black and matching floor tiles mean that the spot lighting used highlights the nine towers – each of different sizes and inspired by the buildings that form the Berlin skyline.
Founded by anthropologist Sergio Eusebi and designer and artist Livio Graziottin, Kuboraum made its debut at the Mido trade fair in Milan in 2012 and presented its concept of frames that explored the anthropology of masks. Graziottin is a former Belstaff designers and has over 20 years of experience within the fashion sector and Eusebi is a former magazine editor and stylist. The pair met through mutual contacts and quickly began to share ideas.
Eusebi says that he thinks of the company’s frames, which have obvious heft, as masks for the wearer to allow them to be someone different. ‘They are real sculptures and pieces of art for faces, we do not start from the concept that they are a pair of glasses or a medical device,’ he says.
The inspiration for these masks comes very much from Berlin. ‘For us, the city is really part of the identity of Kuboraum and the start of our inspiration. It is a cold looking city with lots of space but with a skyline constructed from blocks. The space means people are free to express themselves and this really where what inspires us,’ says Eusebi.
Frames are designed in Berlin and manufactured in Italy before heading back to the company’s headquarters which lies between the popular Mitte area and the creative Kreuzberg district. It is here where the company begins to work on creating textures and finishes – which is why the company inscribes ‘Dreamed in Berlin’ on the inside of every frame.
Silhouettes are geometric and avant-garde. Intricate milling and bevelling give even the most conventional of shapes deep three-dimensional structures and some styles feature small metal silhouettes mated to chunky acetate. Full acetate styles often play with juxtapositions of thick and thin material – such as thin eyewires and hefty brows. This aesthetic carries over into a collection of buffalo horn styles and a sunglass range.
It’s the finishes that really catch the attention, though. The company remains understandably coy about how these finishes are achieved in-house, but did expand on its burnt finishes. The acetate frames are burnt (how remains a secret) by hand to give completely unique textures. Taking this process to the next level is the addition of 24-carat Venetian gold jewellery within the freshly burnt acetate.
‘We don’t want people to try on our glasses and think to themselves “do these look okay,” we want them to put them on and feel a change in themselves – like they are an icon,’ says Eusebi.
