Volume 62: Frankfurt’s Great Late Gothic Architect and Stonemason Madern Gerthener by Gerhard Ringshausen
ISBN 978-3-943407-35-8


Volume 61: Municipal Youth Welfare in Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar Republic by Kristina Matron
ISBN 978-3-921606-97-1


Over the years, the Studies on Frankfurt’s History have been issued in co-operation with different publishing houses.

Volume 60: Stockfish and Turnip by Christoph Regulski
ISBN 978-3-86539-680-8

Volume 59: Architecture of the 1950s in Frankfurt am Main by Almut Gehebe-Gerhardt
ISBN 978-3-8653-9675-4

I redesigned the well-established book series in 2007 for the Waldemar Kramer publishing house by commission of manager Dr Henriette Kramer. The focus of the Kramer publishing programme was on the cultural history of the city of Frankfurt am Main. The Studienreihe look features multi-coloured bands with a section of Kramer’s striped letter K logo (original logo design by master typographer Joachim Romann, 1916—1996).

Volume 56: Paintings from St. Katharinen’s Gallery Parapets by Joachim Proescholdt
ISBN 978-3-7829-0569-5

Volume 55: Money Powers Culture by Gudrun-Christine Schimpf
ISBN 978-3-7829-0568-8

Volume 58: Administered Lust by Fritz Koch
ISBN 978-3-8653-9672-3

Volume 57: Modern municipal image-building in Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden und Offenbach by Torben Giese
ISBN 978-3-8653-9671-6

The original concept also included a layout without any image on the frontpage and one with a full-format upright image.

In Summer 2008, the Studienreihe design was shown in Bremen’s Neues Museum Weserburg in the exhibition Ein X für ein U, presenting 25 years of typography deriving from Bremen University of Arts. The exhibition was organized in association with the 23rd Forum Typography conference.

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said “the traditional book series now has a new face. The cover design is as fresh as the approach of editor Evelyn Brockhoff.”

TITLE: Studienreihe
SHORT INFO: Book cover design
CLIENT: Institute for City History Frankfurt am Main
DIRECTOR: Dr Evelyn Brockhoff
AGENCY: Dr Henriette Kramer editorial office
YEAR: 2007 et seq.
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Design, Pre-Press
LINK: https://societaets-verlag.de/


APPENDIX: Full-bleed cover for volume 63 (proposal)

TITLE: 30 Years of Collaboration in European Metrology
SHORT INFO: Anniversary Publication
CLIENT: Euramet e.V.
AGENCY: drossmedia.com
YEAR: 2016/17
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Art Direction, Design
CO-DESIGNER: Maşite Atik
PRINT PRODUCTION: bonneberg.com
LINK: euramet.org

December 2017 II: Snowy Beetle car in Auf der Höhe street, mid-1980s

December 2017 I: Keys for Michaeliskirche church in Wolfsburg-Fallersleben, 1982

November 2017: Neon signage, 1981. – Here’s a little typographical archeology of Wolfsburg:

Six photos from 1981, plus two I have shot in the last days for filling the format. That is, the two are still in the city today, even if none of the businesses any longer exists in its original form.

September 2017: Abstract, 1984

August 2017: VfL stadium at the Elsterweg in rustic lower-league times, 1980s

July 2017: Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) campaigning with Helmut Kohl in Wolfsburg, ca. early 1983

June 2017: Funfair 1984

May 2017: Until the 1980s, the village of Mörse in the Wolfsburg district had a petrol station next to the supermarket. Note that regular fuel was selling for DM 1,35 (EUR 0,67)! The petrol station building with various small stores on the other side was torn down, and the spot is now part of a larger parking space for a new supermarket.

Luckily, Mörse’s old half-timbered blacksmith’s shop in the background was renovated and today houses the medical practice of Hartmann and Riemer.

Mörse petrol station, 1980s

April 2017: Easter is coming, and this photo is relatively new. But it is already retro in two aspects: the Eighties experienced a great 50s and 60s revival (today celebrated under the Mid-century Modern motto). In addition, there presently is no such photo position, because there is a large area fenced in for a new kindergarten building. Thirdly, this church architecture by Gerhard Langmaack is always a little in the shadow of our beautiful Aalto buildings of that same era. So you only have to imagine the vegetation a bit smaller!

Pauluskirche (1960), 2016

March 2017: The city received a planetarium as part of a swap between the then two German states. In the background the artists‘ dressing rooms and administration wing of the Wolfsburg theatre at Klieversberg hill can be seen.

Planetarium Wolfsburg construction site, 1982

February 2017: “High heels are back” – Changing the window display/Reflections of southern end of Porsche Street, 1984

January 2017: Ice skating on lake Detmeroder Teich, early 1984

TITLE: Wolfsburg Eighties
SHORT INFO: in-house project
YEAR: 1980s
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Photography, Design

Higher resolution on request.

Volume 78 now available: Collected, Traded, Stolen – Art in Frankfurt and the region between 1933 and 1945 published by Evelyn Brockhoff and Franziska Kiermeier

From 1933 onwards, the National Socialists put an abrupt end to a period of prosperity for the city’s art and cultural scene. The Nazi regime created a new art business that radically marginalized Jewish artists, collectors, and dealers, thus creating a gap for profiteers – the cover design features stickers on the backside of a Flemish painting from the 1600s.
ISBN: 978-3-95542-314-8

Frankfurt women making history.

Fourteen remarkable biographical contributions from the 17th to the 20th century bear witness to their unusual actions, their resistance and their daring transgressions.
ISBN: 978-3-95542-275-2

From Stone Age to the Present Day – 8,000 years of urban development in Frankfurt am Main.

The cover page features a museum model of a Neolithic long house blending into an aerial view of the financial district.
ISBN: 978-3-95542-157-1

My AFGK volume 75 cover features an atmospheric 1928 photo of a group of entrepreneurs around architect Martin Elsässer in the Frankfurt warehouse area.

An interesting detail is the signage in – back then brandnew – Futura constructivist type style in the background of the photo. The book presents four introductory essays and about 150 individual biographies of known and unknown catalysts of progress in the city of Frankfurt during the Weimar Republic.
ISBN: 978-3-95542-160-1

AFGK volume 73 features an early 1920ies photo with Frankfurt’s City Government and Friedrich Ebert, then President of Weimar Germany on the Römer balcony.
ISBN: 978-3-942921-66-4

Another proposal was the „pure art“ concept for the book series. The AFGK series will from now on be released by the Societäsverlag publishing house.

Hardcover previewPreceding volumesDas ‘neue’ Frankfurt (The ‘New’ Frankfurt) is the title of volume number 72 and my second cover design for the established AFGK Archive for Frankfurt’s History and Art book series. The cover features a 17th century decorative painting by Jacob Marrel in constrast to the modern skyline on the back cover.

‘New’ stands for innovations in Frankfurt art from the Middle Ages to today.
ISBN: 978-3-86539-673-0

TITLE: AFGK book cover designs
CLIENT: Institute for City History Frankfurt am Main
DIRECTOR: Dr Evelyn Brockhoff
AGENCY: Dr Henriette Kramer editorial office
YEAR: 2008 et seq.
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Design, Pre-Press
LINKS: http://www.stadtgeschichte-ffm.de/
BUY ONLINE: http://www.societaets-verlag.de/buecher/

Idea of a a semi-transparent blue square over the existing steel wall sculpture focussing on PTB’s new corporate design.

Update 2011: Aluminium 3D lettering and vinyl lettering applied to the wall accompanying the Algorithmia steel sculpture.

The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) is the national metrology institute of Germany. The basis of all measurements also is the basis of PTB’s work: almost everything revolves about the seven SI base units. In 2008 I was commissioned to layout a showcase of the SI base units for visitors of the Central Division.

Each SI base unit is represented by two photos, a large screened-back photo and a small one in full colour mounted behind 25 mm perspex blocks, and by prototypes from the corresponding PTB laboratory. The foyer lettering was realised in high-performance signage film in cyan blue, white and bronze colour.

The PTB foyer also features the Timeline, a portrait gallery of PTB’s founders and former Presidents dating back to the year of 1871. Matching the existing materials of the interior, I provided A4 size photo mounts in an open glass and aluminum design.

In an earlier project stage I proposed a decorative mobile of reflecting, transparent and open-worked materials in different colours to mark the “here and now” in playful effects of light.

TITLE: PTB Foyer
SHORT INFO: Showcase and portrait gallery
CLIENT: PTB
AGENCY: drossmedia.com
YEAR: 2008/2011
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Art Direction, Design, Production Co-ordination
FLOOR PLAN and FURNITURE LAYOUT: PTB et al.
PHOTOGRAPHER (showcase motifs): Marc Steinmetz, in association with GEO magazine
LINK: http://www.ptb.de/

December 2016: Powered by Selima.

November 2016: Michael’s handwriting powered by Elastic.

October 2016: Dada Gold

September 2016: Michael’s handwriting (Hommage à Octavo).

August 2016: Michael’s handwriting (featuring POWDR by Ian Barnard).

July 2016: Michael’s handwriting (spatula technique).
Click image for a 1800×2546 px version.

The Making of July in stop-motion animation on Vimeo.

Things similar to the July style could be done entirely in Photoshop with the new Liquify Tool or the awesome Mixer Brush.
Liquify tool on Youtube
Mixer Brush on Youtube

June 2016: Michael’s handwriting powered by Arabella Script.

May 2016: Brusher and M+ fonts powered by Michael’s handwriting.

April 2016: Michael’s handwriting powered by Amatic SC font.

March 2016: Michael’s handwriting modified.

February 2016: Michael’s handwriting modified.

January 2016: Michael’s handwriting powered by Brusher.

TITLE: 2016 Hand Lettering Calendar
SHORT INFO: in-house project
YEAR: 2016
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Design

Higher resolution available on request.

TITLE: 2004.mov
SHORT INFO: Experimental piece in Cinema 4D and After Effects
CLIENT: self-promotional
YEAR: 2004
DROSSMEDIA’S ROLE: Design, Modeling, Animation
SOUND LOOP: Enigmated 1 pop by Asim Khan

Poster designs for a public event regularly held at the Leiferde species protection centre. This facility is run by NABU, the respected Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union in Germany.

Pen marking by numbers (above: detail of the outlines)

TITLE: Stork Festival
SHORT INFO: Poster with date in felt marker
CLIENT: Leiferde species protection centre
AGENCY: http://www.bonneberg.com/
YEAR: 2015
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Graphic Design
LINK: http://www.nabuzentrum-leiferde.de/

TITLE: Doorbell plate
SHORT INFO: Engraved family name plate with integrated bell button
CLIENT: Private commission
AGENCY: drossmedia.com
YEAR: 2015
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Design

During the 28-hour hackathon competition held in various locations all over Germany, our multi-talented team of seven discussed the self-set task, researched for existing and future technologies, built in some “social karma” and finally designed, prototyped and presented initial app screens and a simulation server environment.

TITLE: Team up! at codeFest8, Hackathon for the Mobility of the Future
SHORT INFO: Intelligent parking guidance system
TEAM MEMBERS: Michael Drossmann, David D. Duong, Christian Lübke, Michael Reinartz, Enno Röhrig, Tobias Scholz, Sven Torpats
EVENT ORGANIZER: Volkswagen Group IT
LOCATION: Haus der Wissenschaft, Braunschweig
YEAR: 2015
DROSSMEDIA.COM’S ROLE: Screen design

Video from the Braunschweig event on Vimeo