Leica Camera
In 1998, Achim Heine's product design capabilities were called upon for Leica’s new cameras and binoculars. Since then, Heine/Lenz/Zizka have revitalized the myth with the company’s international presence: From brand positioning to advertising slogan, corporate design, brochures, and catalogues to campaigns, Internet presence, microsites, mailings, point of sale actions, etc. In ten years of collaboration, the Leica brand has become substantially more visible and distinctive.
Corporate design, brochures, and products (cameras, binoculars by Achim Heine) have won awards at numerous national competitions, including DDC Grand Prix “Das gute Netzwerk,” ADC Deutschland, iF communication design award, iF product award, and red dot award.
Slogan
The slogan we developed, “my point of view”, captures the photographer’s love for his or her camera in the truest sense.
In a very special way, a Leica enables photographers to document their highly personal views of the world. It asks a lot of them in the process, but it gives it back to them many times over. But the slogan doesn’t just describe the connection between the photographer and the camera; it also describes the relationship between the individual and the world, which is constantly spinning.
Only with a Leica, however, can the photographer stop this world for a moment, because only a Leica enables him or her to focus on what’s essential – his or her viewpoint.
Testimonial Campaign
Campaign
A celebrity photo campaign for Leica that doesn’t lose sight of the brand core – a complex task. We conceived a set of photographs designed around the tag line “my point of view” that could be produced very quickly anywhere in the world, and it led to highly personal statements and results. In it, the photographer’s hands become the authentic, unvarnished expressions of his or her identity, while the camera becomes an emotional interface.
Product Packaging
Packaging Design
Camera Design, Digilux 1
Product Design
Leica’s first digital camera, positioned beyond the compact class, defined a design language all the company’s own. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called it a “black magnesium brick”, a description that landed right in the black, since the design’s conceptual basis was a computer black box bracketed by an attachment combining optical recording and playback functions. The camera’s sales exceeded the company’s forecast by a factor of three.
Camera Design, D-Lux 1
Product Design
Leica’s first compact digital camera, with a metal body built in-house, is a successful balancing act between tradition and innovation. The Leica D-Lux 1 has the same dimensions and geometric elements as the Leica 0-series, one of the pillars of Leica’s success story. In addition, the high-quality all-metal body set new standards for quality in the digital compact class.
Brochures
Editorial Design
Wim Wenders – M8
Film
Wim Wenders and the digital Leica M8 – the director and his tool, instrument, and partner come together for a highly personal cinematic journey. In his inimitable way, Wenders describes in words and pictures his own emotional connection with the Leica M – “a camera as eye, hand, and heart.”
We produced the spot especially for Photokina 2008.
