Trio with creative ideas

Once upon a time, it was 1977, an unknown Giel boarded the train to Zurich in Bern. His goal: a job in a cool advertising agency. His weapons: a diploma as a graphic designer, acquired at the Kunsti Bern, and a head full of ideas. His courage was rewarded with a job at the advertising agency Gisler & Gisler. And numerous exciting assignments.

He has long since ceased to be a nameless figure in the industry. Felix Zimmermann, now 57 years old, sits in front of his Mac. There are three other workstations in the room, which is open on one side. Two of them are occupied. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, everything is modern. The furnishings: sparse, but carefully selected. The office is located in a renovated industrial building at Förrlibuckstrasse 110 in Zurich. It is located in the back of a huge hall. The rest of the space belongs to the Station Internet agency. Since September 2011, graphic work made by ID Idee Design Felix Zimmermann has been created at this address in Zurich West. The company itself has been active since last June. Once again, Zimmermann has dared to make a new start.

Nevertheless, much has remained the same. The cast, for example. Felix Zimmermann has been working with Fabian Iseli and Philipp Stern for five and three years respectively. The seasoned advertiser has also known clients like Migros and its children's marketing program Lilibiggs for over eight years. And yet he is now starring in a different film.

Separate locations and names

Flashback: After ten years at Gisler & Gisler, Zimmermann joined Impuls Werbung in Zurich as AD in 1987. After two years, he moved on to Farner Publicis, where he served as AD and member of the extended management board for six and a half years. In 1995, he returns to Impuls as CD, which at that time is domiciled in Küsnacht and Bern. Together with Daniel Bürgi, head of the Bern branch, the father of four founded the advertising agency Z.B. Zimmermann Bürgi in Zurich and Bern in 1998. Three years later, Bürgi leaves as a partner and Denis Jeitziner joins. From then on, the agency operates under the name Z.B. Werbung and sticks to its two locations. Until 2011: "Z.B.'s motto has always been to advertise in Switzerland's two capitals. But after twelve years of following this credo, we realized that this no longer interested customers," explains Felix Zimmermann. So the question for the two owners was: Quo vadis Z.B. Advertising? "We discussed all possible variants and in the end decided to continue the locations and the names separately." While Z.B. Werbung in Bern continues to position itself as a classic advertising agency, Zimmermann, Iseli and Stern are now focusing on just one genre with the new company: the graphic implementation of creative ideas. And what has changed for the three protagonists as a result?

Felix Zimmermann: "I'm doing a lot more administration at the moment."

Fabian Iseli: "The processes have changed. We now only work with external copywriters and consultants."

Felix Zimmermann: "This also has the advantage that we can call in a specialist, especially in the text area, depending on the job. Because not everyone is strong in all areas."

Fabian Iseli: "And we do less classic advertising. The focus is on graphics."

Philipp Stern: "Since we are all designers, we have a similar understanding of the work. That makes a lot of things easier. For me, it feels smaller with ID Idee Design, but also more dynamic."

Although the age difference between the agency owner and his employees is over 30 thirty years, the three of them have a lot in common. On the one hand, there is the joy of design. It was always clear to all of them that they wanted to become graphic designers. Fabian Iseli, who already glued together booklets as a small boy and started his first attempts at layout on the PC, graduated from the graphic design class at the School of Design in St. Gallen. His colleague Philipp Stern decided to become a graphic designer as early as the sixth grade and later completed a vocational apprenticeship. And Felix Zimmermann could not have imagined any other profession anyway. Even though each has his own personal style, the trio agrees: less is more. "We'd rather leave something out than do something too much," says Zimmermann. And then there's one big passion that always gets people talking: movies. With this in mind, it's no surprise that visitors to the www.idee-design.ch homepage look under "Team" into the eyes of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, Charles Bronson and Jack Nicholson in the role of the crazed Jack Torrance. But anyone who suspects that the ID heroes have deliberately chosen their respective "doubles" will be disappointed.

Philip Stern (Jack Nicholson): "I love to run around with an axe and chop everything up. All joking aside, I like playfulness. In the movie Shining, there's a scene where you see what Jack is writing all the time. It's always the same sentence, but created with the simple means of the typewriter in various ways. That reflects some of our work."

Fabian Iseli (Charles Bronson): "It was just a gimmick where we all found each other because we keep discussing movies together."

Felix Zimmermann (Terminator): "The focus was on the visuals. With the chosen actors, we are connected more by a film direction than a character trait. For example, I think Arnold Schwarzenegger is a puke."

Parallels or not, the unusual appearance caused positive reactions among the customers and that is the most important thing. Because these also play the main role in the everyday life of ID Idee Design. Among them are big names like the Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund, with the Lilibiggs program and the Kulturprozent. But also smaller companies, such as the Patrik Fröhlich Gallery or the Evangelische Mittelschule Schiers. "We have a customer structure that is adapted to our size," says Zimmermann. Accordingly, ID Idee Design wants to establish itself wherever a small graphics company is also in demand. That's not always easy, Zimmermann continues, "Often small companies that would actually be in very good hands with us hire big agencies because they think they'd do it better." He is convinced that the very size of his company is also its strength. They can listen to the client, he says, and are also very flexible. Since the separation from Z.B. Werbung Bern also eliminated in-house consulting, the ID trio relies on cooperation with small agencies that, for their part, do not have their own creative department. One of these is Alborghetti Communication, with whom Zimmermann and his team work especially for the Lilibiggs assignments. With 36 years of professional experience in various agencies, Felix Zimmermann can provide his clients with competent advice. But it's precisely his experience that sometimes gets in his way: "Sometimes I'm too classic. Then Fabian and Philipp come up with young, fresh ideas. We have the perfect mix." An optimal line-up, a fresh new name and a state-of-the-art location: nothing stands in the way of ID Idee Design Felix Zimmermann's breakthrough.
Simone Fankhauser

Film fans among themselves: Fabian Iseli, Felix Zimmermann and Philipp Stern
(from left).