Behind the scenes
We always wanted to combine our talents and passions to shape a world.
The question we very often posed to ourselves was:
What if?
What if there were no rules, what if we could do anything we want?
What if there were no constraints in creating and thinking?
Nothing and no one cutting down our visions…what would be possible?
How far could we go?
Collaborating with many great people, all being passionate about their work, exploring, creating something amazing together, that was our goal.
This project holds everything we love:
Science
Fiction
Art
Graphic Design
Architecture
Movies
Graphic Novels
Photography
Philosophy
and Rock‘n‘Roll.
This page will grow, like every other on here.
For now, a few insights so far…
Grand Echo
The companies in the Minus are a symbol for greatness, charged with religion-like meaning.
Grand Echo is the biggest and most important one.
We wanted the history, progress and process to be somewhat mirrored in their corporate identity and design.
We move through 100 years of history in graphic design, machinery, societal changes and its consequences.
A few samples:
Logo evolution and the final Grand Echo logo.
Grand Echo advertising
THE INVISIBLE WAR IN COLORS
The influence of Grand Echo is inescapable with the company flooding every area of their followers lives with their own products and services.
Everything, be it paper clips or medical supplies, food or technical devices, is provided by Grand Echo.
Colorcodes of some divisions:
Grand Echo billboard
NATURE AND CITY
Grand Echo brings nature into the deprived lower levels that are dominated by advertising space.
We wanted rough, coarse, washed out nature which we found in Fuerteventura & dense, high buildings (New York and Frankfurt).
Grand Echo billboard
Architecture
Since the architecture for the upperclass towers makes up a very big part of the overall look and feel of the uniform city that should stand for all, we reduced the towers to the simplest forms – the square and circle.
We liked the idea of a peacock‘s fan for the facade acquainting its followers with the beauty the company offers.
Generous spaces with elaborate details. Freedom. Heaven.
For the technical organsim supporting the tower we turned to heavy old mechanics for elevators, supply-systems, air conditioning etc…
Researching materials, textures architectural details for tower-facades and lower level architectur in Vienna, Prague, Bangkok and New York.
We wanted the “used look”, that reflects a 100 year history.
Tower design and facade-detail by Maxim Goudin
Grand Wall
Soon after the appearance of the hole, the reigning leaders of the company empires initiated the building of an enormous wall for safety reasons. Divided by technical segments, cantilevers and research stations the wall consists of 24 enormous segments: 240 metres high and 50 metres wide. It takes approximately 6 hours to walk around the wall.
Concept art created by Super+
3d artist: Andi Steiner
Grand Wall tech segment design by Maxim Goudin
Building a megacity
We wanted the city to be the biggest imaginable.
A mix of Shanghai, Tokio, Seoul, New York… all of them thrown together.
Steamy, sticky, foggy and washed out in colors.
Cityshots of Frankfurt and Bratislava
12 million polygons, 39 different main districts and 89 towers.
The city was a huge undertaking, learning by trial and error we have to built and textured the main districts manually since we couldn’t find a 3D tool that works for us.
Exploring the Minus
What is the Minus?
Where did it come from?
How did it occur – and why?
How could it appear from one second to the next without any record of it happening?
Where are the people it swallowed?
How deep is it?
Where and when does it end?
Grand Echo, investigating the hole since it appeared 100 years ago, wasn’t especially successful in retrieving any answers.
But for us – as creators – it meant further questioning.
What is infinity?
How big is the unknown?
What would change if all the unknown of humanity was visible?
What kind of impact would this have on society?
On the individual?
What about gravity in the Minus?
Why does it get colder?
What kind of machinery would be created to descend into infinity instead of shoot into space?
The first probe we created
In the Minus world Grand Echo, having the same function as NASA in our world, developed similiar objects and machines, only that UP means DOWN in our case. Researching aerodynamics and gravity we soon turned to bombs and satelites. The front is heavily inspired by classical russian satelites while the rear is heavily influenced by “fatboy“- the Nagasaki bomb.
You will often find hints & hidden messages. For example 3.14 pointing to π and infinity, 84 …yeah you got that right..George Orwell‘s 1984. Every probe is named after a scientist like HEGEL ONE. You might also find a small hommage to the Ramones with “Hey! Ho! Let‘s go!!!“as a subtext.
The DEMON capsule carries “Straight to Hell“ by The Clash on the side of the exterior.
An early animation test of the Infinity capsule being dropped, which went as far as 240548 km (149469,598 miles).
(Klick image to play movie)
Mission logos and mottos
Art & Science
Man‘s biggest mystery unsolved, mathematically and physically, we can only ask questions.
Besides questioning what such a phenomenon would do to society, the excitement lies in what conditions such a hole would present.
How would sound behave in the hole?
What changes to temperature can be recorded?
How do particles behave exposed to magnetic shifting down there?
How can a perfectly circular hole in such scale come into existence?
How would it affect the geology of the sourrounding land?
What is the geology of the Minus-stone itself?
What effects can infinite space in this context have on a living being traveling deeper and deeper into the abyss, physically and psychologically?
Could the prime numbers play a role in solving the mystery of the Minus?
What could any discoveries look like?
How can they be mapped to get a broader understanding?
Are there any arising patterns?
The infinitely deep hole as counterweight to infinity in space. We approached this mystery by crossing art and science.
Klaudia Medano adressed these questions in paintings and drawings, combining science with art. By mapping measurements recorded by the probes, data sheets about magnetic shifting and the surface, amongst other things, were created and later animated for the chapter “Explore the Minus“.
With the approach of an artist, Klaudia Medano adds a new dimension to information design of a mystery.
Samples of data sheets from inside the Minus exploring magnetic shifting, temperature, sound and the geology in the hole.
Let’s talk about infinity
Weekly meetings with people from various fields – physicists & mathematicians, designers & illustrators, 3D – and concept artists, scriptwriters, dramatic advisors , moviemakers, musicians, sound designers and whoever is interested in exchanging ideas and thoughts.
Super+ in talk with
Matti Mattinen, Valentin Hitz, Klaudia Medano, Kathrin Resetarits, Robert Sammelin, Susanne Thomanek and Paul Pluesh.