Process

To put this thesis methodology to work, I conducted a series of investigations in the form of posters and receipts to create Graphic Reconstructions of Kreuzberg, Berlin which is a graphic identity developed from ephemera (receipts, tickets, posters and flyers) collected from the streets of Kreuzberg, Berlin over a three-week period. This case study provides a vehicle for examining the language of transactions and advertising and what it reveals about a community’s identity.

Community: Kreuzberg, Berlin
The collection of ephemera took place in Kreuzberg, Berlin (near U-Bahn stop Schlesisches Tor). Berlin is a city that has been at the center of continuous change for most of the 1900s and is still a city of movement and flux. Kreuzberg is a West Berlin district that borders the former east districts of Mitte and Friedrichshain. The northeast part of Kreuzberg, also called Wrangelkiez, was considered the “end of the world” in the 70s and 80s because it bordered the wall on two sides and on a third side there was a canal. No area of West Berlin has changed as much since the wall came down. This once isolated pocket found itself recast as desirable real estate, although much of the art scene shifted to Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg districts. Gentrification never really took hold of this district however, because Kreuzberg didn’t experience a mass exodus of its original inhabitants (which include a large Turkish population) after the wall came down, unlike the neighboring east districts of Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg which experienced an influx of students (now professionals) in the early 90s. It is an earthy place full of cafes, bars and clubs. The large amount of foot traffic makes this a neighborhood full of posters and flyers that are often layered on top of one another.

Collection: Looking for Patterns
The collection of artifacts took place during September and October 2006 in the area known as Schlesisches Tor. I spent a total of six weeks in the area, three of which were dedicated to the collection of artifacts. I collected the ephemera from the streets of Kreuzberg by riding my bike in the neighborhood every day, and picking up only what was left on the streets. I didn’t strive to pick up every single piece of ephemera lying on the street, but instead sought to build a more representative collection. For example, if there were many calling card receipts, and only a few lottery tickets, I picked up the amount of each so they remained relative.

Figure F: (Left to right): Photo of visual studies of language used in advertising ephemera.

After I collected the artifacts, I scanned and organized them into several books based on general categories such as events and entertainment, business and receipts. I then conducted a series of visual studies that looked at language use, type of ephemera, graphic devices, images of men vs. women etc.. Overall these visual studies did not provide a great deal of insight into the community’s identity, as I focused too much on the vernacular of the ephemera. There was however, a set of studies, in which I had that pulled out all the English phrases found in the German ephemera. These studies turned my focus towards language, and how media forms and graphic devices influence the way this information is perceived.

Categorization: Transactions and Advertisements
I began to notice several distinctions between transaction-based and advertising-based ephemera.
I divided the ephemera into these two categories and defined them as such:

TRANSACTIONS – Document an activity, a marker of time, an exchange between individuals and business. Examples of transaction-based ephemera include tickets and receipts.

ADVERTISEMENTS – Document events to come, a potential exchange opportunity with their main intention to persuade. Examples of advertising-based ephemera include posters and flyers.

Figure G: Transaction-based ephemera (left) are usually small, little color, dense with information. Advertising-based ephemera (right) are usually larger, colorful, large in size and sparse with information.

Each category demonstrated different qualities with respect to the type of information, amount of text, tone of voice, and visual treatment. For example, the transaction-based ephemera was mostly in German, contained legal text, business language such as “Thank you for your purchase.”, location information, large amounts of data, used little color, and was usually small in scale. Whereas the advertising-based ephemera was mostly in English, contained persuasive and friendly language such as “good day” was large in size with minimal text, designed graphics and bright colors. Once the ephemera was organized into the two final categories, I typed up every single piece of text on the ephemera, had it translated and then entered into a database for further analysis.