Swiss German - A Helpful Introduction

Willkumm i de Schwiiz! :)



I bet there are many of you out there who have the idea that they speak good German and get totally frustrated when they come to the German part of Switzerland, wondering two things "What is happening here?'' and ''Why don't I get anything even when I listen to the clearly spoken news on the radio??''.

I was in this situation in the first months of my arrival in Switzerland and having in mind the difficulties I had trying to find information online about the Swiss German, I thought it is a good idea to put some of the most common words/phrases that I have come across in this part of the world.

Note: Even within the German part of Switzerland you can find many dialects and often people from Bern do not have a clue what a Zürcher is talking about. In my introduction I will talk about Züritüütsch (Zürich Deutsch). It is spoken for sure in the regions Zurich (ZH) and Aargau (AG). and maybe some other nearby cantons.
To some of the words, I will also add some comments, which might help you reading and pronouncing them (hopefully). I will abbreviate Zürich Deutsch with ZD.

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Common expressions:

Grüezi! - the most common formal greeting. Guten Tag (in German).
Probably coming from Grüss dich.

Grüezi mitenand! - formal greeting when you meet two or more people.
Probably coming from Grüezi miteinander.

Sali, Krisa! - an informal greeting between friends. Hi!
Probably coming from French influence: Salute - 'Hi' in French.

Hoi! - an informal greeting between friends. Hi!
Hoi zäme! - an informal greeting when you meet more than one friend.
Probably coming from Hoi zusammen.

Adie (often pronounced as Adee)! - Byee (formal and informal)
Adieu = Good bye in French.

Uf Wiiderluege - Aufwiedersehen.
AU in ZD is pronouced U: Aus - uus, Haus - Huus...
luege = sehen. In ZD infinitives of the verbs are spoken out without N at the end.

En Guete! = Guten Appetit.
In ZD U is often pronounced as UE.

Gueten Aabig! = Guten Abend.
In ZD words ending in -ung are pronounced with -ig at the end: Stimmung, Heizung, Buchhandlung = Stimmig, Heizig, Buechhandlig.

Merci vilmal! = Danke schön
French influence once again:)

Wie gaat s Ine? = Wie geht es Ihnen?
Again the N at the end is not spoken.

Häsch guet gschlaffe? = Hast du gut geschlafen.
Note: in ZD the use of 'du' in the sentence is not necessary like in High German.

Häsch scho es Velo? = Hast du schon ein Fahrrad?

Wo wonsch? = Wo wohnst du?

Wo gaasch ane? = Wohin gehst du?

..... wäisch? = similar to 'You know?' in English, when you tell as story to somebody. Weisst du? - in German.

Mini Mueterspraach isch Bulgarisch. Und dini?
Mini/dini = mein/deine

Töörfs na öppis sii? = Darf es noch etwas sein? (you might be asked when shopping)

Zmorge, Znüni, Zmittag, Zvieri, Zabendässe = all the different meals during the day

Gääl = right?, ok?, very often used in the end of the sentences.
Das isch schöön, gääl?

Tomäätli, Wörtli - this makes the nouns smaller, like '-chen' in Hoch Deutsch

Numbers:

1 eeis, es
2 zweei
3 drüü
4 vieri
5 föif
6 saachs
7 sieebe
8 acht, ächt
9 nüün
10 zää
15 föifzah
20 zwanzg
23 drüüzwanzg
30 drisg
1000 tuusig

Saying the time of the clock:

Wie spaat isch es? = Wie spät ist es?
Wivil Ziit isch?
S'isch eis, zwei, drüü, vieri, föifi, sachsi, siebni, achti, nüüni, zää, elfi, zwölfi
Note: it is common while saying the time to put -i after the number.
Halbi nüüni = 8.30h
Zää ab achti = 8.10h
föif vor halbi Sibni = 7.25h



Days of the week:

Wuchetääg = Wochentage
Wuche = Woche

Meentig = Montag
Zeehnsschtig = Diennstag
Mittwuch = Mittwoch
Doonschtig = Donnerstag
Friitig = Freitag
Samschtig = Samstag
Sonntig = Sonntag


Conjugations of the most common verbs - to be, to have, to go:

sii = sein in German
gsii = gewesen (3rd form)

ich bi
du bisch
er/si/es isch
mir sind
ir sind
si/Si sind

simer = sind wir

Note:
mir = wir in German
ir sind =/= ihr seid in German. The three conjugations in plural in ZD are always same.

haa = haben
ghaa = gehabt (3rd form)

ich haa
du häsch
er/si/es hät
mir/ir/si/Si händ

haämmer = haben wir

gaa = gehen
ggange = gegangen (3rd form)

ich gaan(e)
du gaasch
er/si/es gaat
mir/ir/si/Si gönd

gömmer = gehen wir

Some important vocabulary:

I schaffe zBade. = Ich arbeite in Baden.
Schaffe = arbeiten
z..... = in some place

... uf Züri? = ... nach Zürich?

Gaasch mit dem Bus go poschte? = Gehst du mit dem Bus einkaufen?
Gaasch always goes together with go.
poschte = einkaufen, shopping

Gisch mer en Franke? = Gibst du mir ein Frank?

Was gits bim Metzger? = Was gibt's beim Metzger?
Was chauft me bim Beck? = Was kauft man beim Becker?
Was bruucht me susch na hüüfig i de Chuchi? = Was braucht man sonst noch heufig in der Küche?

Das gits mir z dänke. = Das wundert mich.

Gits ächt...? = Gibt es viellecht ...?

übercho = bekommen
Wienacht = Weihnachten
Samichlaus = Sankt Nicolaus
Guetzli, Mailänderli, Bräunli = different kinds of Christmas cookies
Bueb, Burscht = Junge
Mätli, Meiteli = Mädchen
Dä = der
s = das, it is read connected with the word after it, 'sMeiteli'
öppis = etwas
öpper = jemand
öppe = etwa, ungefähr
es bizeli, echli = ein bisschen
nachli = noch ein wenig
es manglet = es fehlt
hüt = heute
Lüt = Leute
tüür = teuer
nöd = nicht
susch = sonst
Gmües = Gemüse
Schuel = Schule
näi = nein
odrr = usually put at the end of most sentences, while explaining something, similar to 'Right?'
widrr = wieder
sueche = suchen
parat = bereit
sowiit = soweit
gits au = es gibt auch
nu = nur
häi = heim
Lose mal! = Hör mal!
na, gna = nehmen, genommen
la, gla = lassen, gelassen
elei = allein
zerscht = zuerst
die Stube = Wohnzimmer
rütschen = etwas bereit zum Kochen machen
Süessmoscht = Saft
brüle = weinen
de Psuech = der Besuch
Güggeli = Hähnchen
Anke = Butter
furtrühre = wegwerfen
es Biispili = ein Beispiel


Some fruits and vegetables you probably wouldn't guess the meaning of if you knew High German.

Rüebli = Karroten (Carrot)
Chnobli = Knoblauch (Garlick)
Herdöpfel = Kartoffel (Potatoe)
Guggumere = Gurke (Cucumber)
Epeeri = Erdbeer (Strawberries)
Peperoni = Paprika (not hot pepper); Paprika is only used for spice in ZD

Some connected/shortened words:

devoo = davon
nanig = noch nicht
zumene = zum eine
wämene = wenn man
durenand = durcheinander
nahdinah = nach und nach
nu no = nur noch
en = eine
nümme = nicht mehr
dinne = drinnen
use = draussen, aus
deet = dort
me = man
verbi, debi = vorbei, dabei
niemer = niemand
nienet = nirgends
dethi = dorthin
bissoguet... = bitte, sei es so freundlich...

Die Fälle - Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ, Genitiv:

In ZD Nominativ and Akkusativ have THE SAME endings:

When the word starts with a consonant:
bestimmte Artkeln: de Maa, dFrau, sChind = der Mann, die Frau, das Kind
unbestimmte Artikeln: en Maa, e Frau, es Chind = einen Mann, eine Frau, ein Kind

When the word starts with a vowel:
bestimmte Artiklen: der Aff, dAmsle, sAffli = der Affe, die Amsle, das Affli
unbestimmte Artikeln: en Aff, en Amsle, es Affli = einen Affe, eine Amsle, ein Affli

bestimmte Artkeln Plural: dMane/Affe, dFraue/Amsle, dChind/Affli
unbestimmte Artikeln Plural: Mane, Fraue, Chind

Dativ:

bestimmte Artkeln: em Maa, de(r) Frau, em Chind = dem Mann, der Frau, dem Kind
unbestimmte Artikeln: eme Maa, ere Frau, eme Chind = einem Mann, einer Frau, einem Kind

When the word starts with a vowel:
bestimmte Artiklen: em Aff, der Amsle, em Affli = dem Affe, der Amsle, dem Affli
unbestimmte Artikeln: emen Aff, eneren Amsle, emen Affli = einem Affe, einer Amsle, einem Affli

Plural before consonant: de Mane, de Fraue, de Chinde
Plural before vowel: den Affe, den Amsle, den Affli


This post is regularly updated.

Poll 3: What made Mr Obama the next US president?

Inspired by the outcome of the US presidential elections, I was curious to see which were the biggest advantages of Sen. Barack Obama's campaign. My visitors were able to choose one or more of the following answers:

a) His charisma and skin color
b) The current economic situation
c) His intention to make education more accessible
d) His intention to create reduce the jobs outsourcing tendency
e) His choice for running mate, Joe Badin
f) John McCain's choice for running mate, Sarah Palin

Answers b) and c) were equally chosen the most. Here is my interpretation: The current economic situation obviously showed to people the inability of the current government to deal with the situation, which made US citizens look for and believe in other promises and solutions. The choice for running mate Joe Badin was also an immensely important step due to the significant political experience of Joe Badin. This was suited perfectly Mr Obama's profile because he has been discussed to be not experienced enough in foreign policy. Together they made a really strong candidacy, especially targeted for middle class Americans. Together they seem to be able to get things done. People believed that CHANGE CAN HAPPEN!

Read more online: http://www.barackobama.com

Poll 2: Which way of shopping do you prefer?

This was my second poll question, running in Oct-Nov 2008.
Again visitors were allowed to choose one or more than one answer of the following:

a) Online
b) Stores
c) Catalogue

Most answers were b) and only 10% would select option a). Surprisingly, not even one person selected Catalogue as a preferable shopping way. I, personally, became quite comfortable with catalogue shopping thanks to the English cosmetics company Avon. The Swedish cosmetics company Oriflame has exactly the same sales strategy. And it should be there, because people really prefer it.

Their remarkable marketing strategy has numerous advantages for the buyer:

Firstly, you can shop while sitting at home and watching a movie.
Secondly, you can any time consult your own distributor for advice, because Avon took their time and money to train them so that they can help their own customers in almost all cases. Third, you can always ask your distributor for samples, if you don't know which color of lipstick you need, for example.
Fourth, if you don't like the product (for a convincing reason) you can return it right away and you certainly get all your money back.
Fifth, you have all the time you need to go over and over through the 150-paged catalogue and investigate all the promotions and combined offers, which you wouldn't really be able to know so fast in a store.
Sixth, you pay when you hold the product in your hands. Who wouldn't love that?
Seventh, (only for perfumes) you can actually smell the newest perfumes on the specially scented page.
Eight, you are often given instructions how to use the products for the best results.

Of course, a disadvantage is that you need to calculate a couple of days until you get what you ordered. Sometimes it also happens that the colorful pictures and smooth silky skin of the models makes you buy a product you wouldn't need. This is probably the biggest danger. Still, I consider this a very convenient shopping method, once you have built trust in the catalogue's products and the expertise of your distributor.

Poll 1: What is your little contribution against global warming?

This was first poll question I made for my blog visitors, which was running in Oct 2008.
People could select one or more of the following answers:

a) I ride a bike or walk, instead of using my car
b) I take quick showers
c) I plant trees
d) I pay for my carbon footprints

As expected most of my visitors selected a). This is perhaps the most common way to clear your conscience (at least that is what helps me the most). For me only option a) is the answer.

What are Kiva loans?

I read about the Kiva loans some years ago in Business Week. Today I stumbled upon their websites and I got reminded of this remarkable initiative.

Kiva loans are directed to entrepreneurs around the world, with very good potential and in a real need of finance. The curious thing about these loans is that they can be as small as 25 USD. It turns out, when given to the right person they can really make a difference :)

Check out Kiva online, and get inspired to help :)

Some more solar power insights

I really like one specific sales technique - when you explain to the customer what your product is worth, by describing it in units and words that have an obvious meaning for everybody, regardless of their knowledge.
See here 10 important reasons, which the company Solel Solar Systems gives, explaining why power from the sun makes sense to invest in.

Here is one product you would need if you want to build a solar power plant - highly reflective foil:


Solar Energy has always been there. Hence, using it for heat production is not completely new idea. It has been there for a while and has been put into implementation.
Here are some examples of CSP plants:

Kramer Junction, California, USA:





Solar One, Nevada, USA
This power plants uses parabolic troughs as thermal solar concentrators.





Solar Two, Barstow, California, USA:
This power plant uses mirrors, which move tracking the sun light, similarly to plants :)



Seville, Spain:
All the heat from the sun's radiation is concentrated in the top of the tower (Receiver), where the working fluid is heated to become steam. The following process is the same as in most electricity power plants - the so called Rankine cycle.





And the world's largest solar plant, Mojave Desert, Israel:



And here is how they remove desert dust from the huge mirrors:)



The main question in an engineer's mind about production of electricity is on first place: 'How to generate heat?'. One obvious answer is there, staring at us :) The sun's radiation is our perfect completely renewable source of heat, if we only want to use it. And, one more green point, completely CO₂ free :)

Sun, wind, water, geo - which has biggest potential?

Recently, I have been growing an interest for renewable technologies for energy production. Therefore, I visited a lecture of Prof. Aldo Steinfeld at Zürich University, entitled: 'Global Potential of Renewable Energy Technologies'. Having a restricted beginner knowledge in this field, I benefited a lot from this presentation. Here I would like just to mention what struck me the most.

Prof. Steinfeld took a scenario (made by the oil company Shell), which predicted a global increase in demand of CO₂ free electricity of ~30 TW. (1TW =10¹²W). Two reasons for that:

* Almost doubled population
* Higher amount of energy per capita

Which technology of renewable energy production has the chance to close the energy gap?

After looking at the practical and theoretical potentials of all possible technologies - wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal and solar - the answer was given: SOLAR!

Solar energy can be the real solution to the expected 30TW gap. Currently the overall energy consumption on Earth is 1.2 x 1014 W. To satisfy that using only solar power, we will need a square area of 500 x 500 km. The theoretical potential of solar power is 120 000 TW, practically 600TW can be achieved. So it is worth discussing.

Prof. Steinfeld presented two main technologies for solar power:

PV - Photovoltaic (Solar Cell) Systems. Through this technology the light (photons) is directly converted into electricity (voltage). Here is a short explanation from http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/: 'Solar cells are made of semiconducting materials similar to those used in computer chips. When sunlight is absorbed by these materials, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity.' Typically, a solar cell has a 15% efficiency, so only 1/6th of the energy that strikes it is converted to electricity. The first solar cell was used in 1950-s and had only 4% efficiency. Today there are also some cells which can reach up to 40% effiiciency. The world growth of PV technology is 34%; European growth - 87%, half of which is in Germany.

CSP - Concentrated Solar Power. Here is a short Wiki Explanation: 'CSP use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated light is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant (Rankine plant - a thermodynamic cycle, which converts heat into work. The heat is supplied externally to a closed loop, which usually uses water as the working fluid.). A wide range of concentrating technologies exists. These methods vary in the way they track the Sun and focus light. In all these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage.
'What happens when the sun sets?' - you might ask. The advantage of CSP systems is that they can use fossil fuel during the night and thus generate electricity 24 hrs. This combined system is possible due to the fact that the solar power plants work on the principle of conventional power plants. The only difference is the method of heat generation.

BUT Solar power is not competitive with other energy production methods. For this reason the governments of some countries provide a feed-in tariff (in Spain it is 0.27 EUR/kWh) for investments in solar energy. This is the estimated cost of producing solar electricity. This makes the investment in this business profitable and attracts more interest.

Important issue to consider for every investment is Energy Pay Back: the number of years that the factory must work in orer to repay the initial investment.
For PV, depending on the cells used, it can be from 1 to 3.5 years.
For CSP, only about 0.5 years.

Sounds good to me :)

Conclusion: with solar power you can claim a sustainable production of energy, which has the potential to close the energy gap between today and the year 2060.

Electrolube Product Poster

Electrolube is a sister company of AF International. It is a manufacturer of cleaning supplies and other chemicals for very specific users - Electronics and Manufacturing Industries. It was tough to make a poster about products that I don't know anything about, but the poster was very needed for an upcoming fair in Romania. Therefore I asked one of the few engineers working in Freckles to enlighten me about the applications of Electrolube chemicals.
He helped me a lot to come up with this poster. If you have seen the AF Product Poster, you will notice some obvious similarities. I wanted to emphasize that both companies are related.



The EL products fall into 6 categories:

• Cleaning - these is the category that resembles a little the AF product range. However, these products are also suitable for much more technical purposes like cleaning motherboards and PCBs.
  
• Conformal Coatings - with these you can make a protective layer on circuitry against environmental attacks from chemicals, moisture and other contaminants.
  
• Resins - they have a similar application as conformal coatings, but their specific feature is that they consist of two liquids (resin and hardener), which when mixed in a correct ratio, react to form a solid according to customer requirements.
  
• Thermal Management - due to the ever-growing complexity of electronic circuits, they generate more heat, which needs to be dissipated so that they function for longer time. This is exactly the purpose of this group of products - they ensure effective operation by dissipating heat away.
  
• Contact Lubrication - simply said, if you want your switch to last longer (3x its usual lifetime), use these products to reduce friction and enhance electrical performance in switches and connectors.
• Maintenance and Service Aids - a wide range of products vital to any service engineer, coming in different packages.
  

It is nice to know some engineering sometimes ;) Therefore, I feel very happy about my involvement with Electrolube.

EnergyDay 08

Das ist mein erstes Blog in Deutsch. Wie alles anders, jeder Anfang ist schwer und es wäre gut, wenn Sie meine Fehler übersehen und der Sinn des Blogs ergreifen :)

Seit 2006 gibt es jedes Jahr einen Anlass in der Schweiz, der Energy Day heisst. Dieses Jahr läuft dieser Tag unter dem Motto 'Abschalten!'.

Man kann überall die Wichtigkeit des Tages fühlen. Die Schweizer Zeitungen widmen viele Seiten dem Energy Day und erzählen ausführlich warum Energie sparen eine grosse Bedeutung für den Staat hat.
Die Zeitungen stellen den Begriff 'Energieeffizienz' vor. Das bringt manchmal ein weitgehendes Missverständnis, dass ich diskutieren möchte. Energieeffizienz bedeutet nicht, dass man den gewohnten Lebensstandard abgeben muss, sondern die gleiche Nützen mit weniger Energieverbrauch erzielen. Das ist durchaus möglich, wenn man eine Reihe von praktischen Tipps folgt. Am Energy Day werden die Schweizer noch ein mal mit diesen Tipps bekannt. Ein dieser Tipps ist der folgende:

'Say Good bye to StandBy'

Wenige von uns erfassen wie viel Elektrizität gespart ist, wenn man die Elektrogeräte abschaltet. Dieser 'Halbschlaf' der Geräte kostet annähernd 130 Millionen Franken pro Jahr!! Aus diesem Hintergrund, bieten verschiedene Geschäfte am Energy Day freie Steckerleisten vor. Damit kann man nur mit einem Knopfdruck viele Elektrogeräte auschalten. Zudem machen die Geschäfte grossen Rabatt von energieeffizienten Haushaltgeräte. Da in jeder Haushalt es ungefähr 15 Elektrogeräte gibt, ist es extrem wichtig an die Zukunft zu denken und sich für die energieeffizienteste Geräte zu entscheiden. Vergessen Sie nicht auch die Licht auszumachen, wenn Sie nicht in dem Zimmer sind. Das alles hilft Ihrem Geldbeutel und auch die Umwelt.

Es gibt noch einen Begriff, den ich hier vorstellen möchte - die EnergieStadt. In der Schweiz gibt es ungefähr 160 Städte, die einer nachhaltige Umwelt-, Transport-, und Energiepolitik führen. Diese Städte sparen jährlich zusammen etwa 74000 Tonnen CO2, 30 Millionen Litre Brennstoff und 68 Millionen Kilowattstunden Strom. (COOP Zeitung, 21 Oktober 2008). 10 von diesr Städten haben auch die European Energy Award GOLD bekommen, unter denen sind Zürich, Basel, Lausanne, Schaffhausen.



Den European EnergyAward® Silber erhalten Gemeinden, wenn sie mindestens die Hälfte der möglichen Maßnahmen umgesetzt haben.
Um den European Energy Award® Gold zu erreichen, müssen in einer Gemeinde mindestens 75 Prozent der möglichen energierelevanten Maßnahmen umgesetzt sein.
(Infoblatt).

Als ich klein war, wurde ich oft von meiner Grossmutter gesagt: 'Lichte aus, Kleines!'. Dann habe ich mir gedacht, 'Ja, vielleicht sagt sie dass, weil sie kein Geld hat den Strom zu bezahlen'. Das war wirklich so. Deshalb habe ich gedacht, es war modern, wenn man so viel Elektrizität verbrauchen kann, wie man will. Ich habe gedacht, dass das ein Zeichen von der fortgeschrittener Welt war. Heute denke ich anders. Heute glaube ich, dass Energieffiezienz sehr nötig für unsere erfolgreiche Zukunft ist. Wir und niemand sonst gestalten die Zukunft. Wir sollen so wenig wie möglich benutzen, um unsere Ziele zu erreichen. Also... noch mal die Botschaft meines erstes Deutschblogs und des EnergyDay 2008: Abschalten!

My favorite Radio Host :)

Retro radio scored a 10 by entrusting the morning show in the hands of this guy :) Here he comes in all his glory - Dimitar Pavlov:



He is the funniest, most original and most sincere host I have heard. There is nothing that can stop him from sharing what he thinks. When Retro Radio was running, I could not imagine more fun from 7 till 11am. He writes his scripts alone. He makes his program alone. He makes people laugh out loud while being stuck in a typical boring Sofia traffic jam. And by no further means than just being himself :)
Dimitar Pavlov is a truly cool person, with a happy heart, whose best quality is that he doesn't take himself too seriously. That is what makes me like him and listen to him daily. When he is given the freedom to talk what he wants, I seriously can't get enough of him.

Here is his Morning Program:

Retro Radio: Mon-Fri
07:00 Wake up song
Sometimes only one song is enough to get you out of bed. Expect the wake-up hit every morning exactly at 7 :)
07:10 Breakfast suggestion
Personal recipes for a healthy start of the day.
08:10 Currency
The only currency information of its kind :) It can freak out representatives of different financial institutions. Listen daily to the adventures of the american dollar, british puns, swiss frank and the euro.
08:30 Office Aerobics
A 'useful' set of exercises for early office arrivers.
09:10 Daily Horoscope
A huge mess of zodiac signs, mentioned with no sense.
09:20 Man of the day
Three nominations, only one award. Listen to the decision of the corrupted jury.10:10 Sport for a peaceful world
10:30 What is happening with your money today
You are better off not knowing about that :)
Specials on Friday:
Honest talk with Engineer Donev (scientific discoveries of Kamen Donev - a Bulgarian actor)
Top 10 (radio version of the TV show)
Useful advice to housewives and young mothers

None of these contains practical information, just extremely funny useless selection of words, which only has for a purpose to make you laugh. But isn't this what all of us want on our way to work?
:):):)

Wallpapers for RetroRadio

For two years I was obsessed with Retro Radio. This was a very cool Bulgarian radio station, which was running from 2001 until 2007. I was so happy it existed, because it gave this fresh, intelligent, funny and smart touch to the radio media.
As every other institution, the success was there thanks to the people working in it. They worked hard to make the program as it was, the sound as it was and the effect as it was. It had a mix of everything and at the same time it was not a mess, but rather a nice everyday companion. Luckily, I got to know these people during my 3-month internship at Retro in 2005 :)

As I mentioned, I really liked the program schedule. Retro music was not just randomly aired with no meaning. Instead it was structured and served, reminding me of yummy dishes at different times of the day - sometimes it came as a lovely romantic dinner, sometimes like a rocky breakfast, sometimes bringing me a nostalgic feeling of something I liked to eat in the past, sometimes like a light Sunday brunch.
Every show on Retro had a really cool jingle attached to it. I loved listening to those jingles, so in a moment of some inspiration and idleness, I made the following two wallpapers.

Funky Time was a set of songs that made me have this 'cool' feeling about retro music. It was running every Saturday afternoon.



'I'm feeling good... on Friday... with Retro Radio' was a random jingle, not connected to any show. It was just reminding me it is Friday and I am again listening to good music.



At 12 am each night, Retro used to air an incredibly nice slow song - just instrumental. I never learned by whom it was. Not because I didn't want to. No. It was because I knew it will come every night at 12. That was exactly when I wanted to hear it. I didn't need it more than once per day.
But... es every beautiful thing, this one came to an end. And I will never know who authored this lovely romantic piece... :) Still, it is kinda nice!

Business Trip Varna - Collages

When I was working in Freckles, we used to go for business trips around Bulgaria to give presentations in front of our dealers. The purpose was to make them differentiate our products from the rest on the market, make them prepared how to handle end customers and thus help them boost their sales.
It was very educational and great fun!
Here is what else we did during our Business Trip to Varna, a lovely city located on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria...

One quick photo session with the sea behind, before we rushed for dinner :)



The child inside :)



... and the dreamer...



Varna... I want more business trips like this one :)

Wallpapers for Alexander

Sometimes when I sit at work and get tired or lost, I make desktop wallpapers. I just take a picture I like and start playing with it. Soon after Alexander's first birthday, I made this wallpaper. It was a symbol of our closeness, stressing that we had more than just aunt-nephew relationship... a real friendship based on Fresh Curiosity!



Here are some summer wallpapers, when Alexander got his pool :)



I love these mosquito bites :)



My little nephew will always be an inspiration for me :)

BG 17 - With Love for Alexander

My nephew Alexander was born on 17 Nov 2005, the first baby in the family after lo-o-ong time. His coming to our world was a big big event for me and I was feeling the proudest aunt. For weeks he was the only topic of my talks, the only thought in my mind and I felt I wanted to do something special for him.

At that time I was doing an internship at Retro Radio, Sofia. This was my favorite station with very cool people, who really made me feel comfortable there. I was working in the sound editing department and I was all day long mixing and preparing programs, jingles and ads for airing. Still, I had lots of time when I could do something on my own, so I decided to prepare a music collection for Alexander with 17 BG songs, which I liked at that time. Before each song I make an introduction in order to explain why I chose each of them.

It turned out a pretty nice product of mine! It made few people cry because at times my explanations were very sentimental :) This was my Christmas gift for Alexander :)

Here is the CD cover, where all the singers are written down:



Later I realized that this CD could serve one more purpose - if a person from another country was interested to listen to Bulgarian songs, I could just give them that CD. It contained songs of different times and styles. For this purpose, I recorded myself in English. I actually like the English version more.

Once in a few months I listen to it and it makes me feel very good while remembering the exact time my nephew was born :) It was one Thursday evening, I heard the big news right after I came out of my hip hop practice at Alfredo Style...

The world is charming indeed

I spent three wonderful years (2002-2005) of my life at the International University Bremen. In 2006 it was renamed to Jacobs University, after the great Klaus Jacobs who made a very generous donation to the institution. Here is where this amazing place was:



When I say 70 nationalities, I really mean it. They were not equally represented, of course, but they were there: Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, USA, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, China, Taiwan, Turkey, Colombia, Peru, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Jordan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Finland, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, Tanzania, Sudan, Latvia, Lithuania, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Malawi, Phillipines, Mauritius, Australia, Serbia, Albania, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Jamaica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, South Africa, Ireland, Bahrain, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Russia, Hungary, Belarus.

I am writing them on purpose in a mixed order because that is how you encounter people during the day. I think it is very difficult to realize what is international experience until you are set into such a place.

And because I was really amazed that such daily interactions between people from all over the world were made possible so easily, I made a documentary about 8 of my friends at IUB, portraying their daily activities. This was my internship project during my last semester. The movie carries the proud title (courtesy of my mom) United Colors of IUB. It was aired twice on German TV (Offener Kanal Bremen) and has been used multiple times by the university for various purposes. The tagline of the movie is 'The world is charming indeed' :) It is in English and has German and Bulgarian subtitles. It is specially dedicated to my grandmother who was also excited, due to her eagerness to communicate with people from other countries, was trying to learn English at the age of 60.

Here are the participants in this project:

• Marcela Fialova > (Narrator)
• Farah Gammoh > (Personal Portrait)
  
• Artur Palacz > (Personal Portrait)
• Maria Eliana Barona > (Personal Portrait)
• Maria Joy Earle > (Personal Portrait)
• Ognyan Seizov > (Personal Portrait)
• Mayuri Nigam > (Personal Portrait)
• Connie, Mareike and Wiebke Bröker > (Host Family)
  
• Chien Fu (Jeff) Lin > (Personal Portrait, Assistant)
• Assia Rashkova > (Assistant)
  
• Markus Wachtmeister > (German Subtitles)
• Raju Dhital > (Assistant)
  

Thanks a lot, guys!!!

Here is the DVD cover for my movie:




... and this is the DVD label :)



And this is my internship reference in German :)


If you are interested to watch United Colors of IUB, let me know :)

AF Work Green

It has always been a real pleasure for me to work on the marketing of the AF cleaning products. Why? Not only because I love playing with Photoshop. The more important reason is that I believe they are good products. And I also think Freckles has a very good strategy for their sales. This was proved by our award 'Customer of the year 2007), because of the huge increase of our orders to UK.

How they sell so well in Bulgaria? Certainly not because of lowest market price. No. They sell because of their best quality-price ratio. More about their features you can find here.

Nowadays companies are faced with the challenge how to work efficiently while not harming the environment. Some do not look for solutions, but AF International is not one of them.

Inspired by the English brochure of AF - Work Green - I made a Bulgarian equivalent, but I changed the text inside by selecting the things that would be interesting for us, Bulgarians. I substituted the detailed explanations with short, clear sentences, which would not load people's mind, but rather make them intrigued.

Thus the brochure ended up 4 pages instead of 6. This made it easier to print as well.

Here are pages 4 and 1. The title of the brochure is 'Work Green' and the subtitle is 'You also depend on the environment'. I selected the word 'YOU' because I think it makes people more engaged. When they are addressed personally, they can feel their choice makes a difference. With this brochure we are trying to send the message that when you buy and use AF products, you are one step closer to saving the environment.

I selected to put a child on the first page, because children are the future. People are not supposed to be feeling good just now and neglecting the future. A child's face (particularly the close-up) is supposed to remind them that 'Hey, it is your kid that might suffer the consequences of your actions'.
Page 4 educates in a few sentences why people should recycle - a) because our resources are not endless and b) in this way they pollute less. Under this there is a table with guidelines how to recycle AF products.



Pages 2 gives a short introduction about AF International, after which the goal of the brochure is stated: To show AF's engagement for environment protection. Further there is a text titled 'Does warmer mean nicer?', which quickly explains the terms Global warming and Greenhouse effect. On the right I have listed some of the consequences under the title: 'What if we don't take measures?'

Page 3 clearly shows how AF work green, without compromising its products' quality and safety:

• Usage of recycled materials
• Introduction of more pump bottles instead of aerosols, which have a propellent gas (which contains Greenhouse gases)
• Refill sales, so that the plastic covers are re-used multiple times
  
• Transport by water, which reduces the harmful emissions 6-7 times

In order to have a complete set of the Work Green marketing materials, I also made an INFORMATIONAL poster, where all the brochure text is nicely summarized.




So if you are using AF to clean your keyboard or laptop screen, you are working green as well :)

New Release Template for Freckles

Every month the product portfolio of Freckles was increasing in almost all catgories. It was incredibly important to let the customers know about the new products they can order. Again this was a process with random character and with no strategy. Therefore, I sat down and made a New Release template, which was as flexible as the promotion template.

The whole idea behind the template was the beginning of new sales. Therefore, I tried to relate it to the new day. We feel the new day mostly when we get up in the morning, eat breakfast and read the headlines of the newspaper. I wanted the New Release of Freckles to bring that mood.

1. So my title for it was 'Good morning' and subtitle was: 'Another good morning with new products from Freckles'.
2. On the side there was always some typical breakfast 'accessories' and the date.
3. Under the title there were all the categories in exactly the same order as in the promotion template and the web site. However, this time it was only titles with no pictures. I decided this would make the template too crowded.
4. The color I chose after many tried was blue. These two shades of blue suited very well each other and the darker rectangle in the middle is the one supposed to be filled with content.
5. At the bottom there is the same footer as on promotion template.

This New Release is about some new cleaning products: real perfume-scented cleaning wipes for office needs. I always try to be creative in the 'filling' of the blue rectangle and at the same time I try to follow current design trends.



As you may notice, this new release has other breakfast accessories. This time there were too many products to include pictures of all of them, so I decided a simple list will look more orderly. The new release is about products for remanufacturers of toner cartridges: drums, wiper blades, etc.



I was also responsible for posting the new releaes on the web site, so this is a small web banner, which the product category and the brand of the product(s), which was newly added to it. This time the morning sign is the orange juice :)



Here comes one more web banner in English. This time about inks. I like the combination of toaster and newspaper in this one.



Here I have to admit my morning element is missing, but this is only on the web banner. The real new release that was sent by email had it :) Anyway, once I thought for a minute how to represent new DVDs coming to the product portfolio, I immediately made an association with a frisbee game, so I tried to visualize it :)



This is my morning freshness new release template :) Very often design is dictated by the world around and the usual order of things.

Promotion Template for Freckles

A good sales company always maintains a regular relationship with the customers. This includes personal call, visits, trainings about the different product types, etc. The purpose of this strong relationship is to understand customers' needs and at the same time try to help the customer sell well what he bought from you.

Freckles always tries to be a reliable and understanding partner. Its constant task is to find ways to improve customers' business. A common way to stimulate customers is through promotions. As any other company, Freckles was sending numerous promotions to its dealers. However, it was a big pain to make a visual of each promotion separately. They were all different colors and shapes and dealers were getting confused finding what the promotional conditions are. When I came to the company, we decided to make them more regular (they were sent out in the first week of each month) as well as more structured (all having the same template, just a different content).

So here are some promotions, which were sent to dealers. The template was my design. It has the following characteristics:

1. On them dealers can see all the product categories that Freckles has. There is a single product of each and the category name below it.
2. There is a little red arrow and red rectangle, which point at the category, which is in promotion.
3. Under it there is a title 'PROMOTION' and a subtitle, which tells what the promotion is about in very few words.
4. Then there is the big orange space, which is filled in with the promotional text and pictures. It can contain one or many products.
5. Under the orange space there are some small notes, which refer to the current promotion. Like: 'Prices do not include VAT', or 'One spindle of CDs contains 25 pieces'.
6. At the very end there is a footer with Freckles' details. On the right there is a sketch of a printer, which I find particularly stylish. It represents the area Freckles is professional at and how the business started. My first idea for motto was '... and your printer makes you smile again!', which was very well accepted by the company and was put every time with the logo and all the details.
7. The template has always the same width (estimated to fit exactly on the web site) and the length can be extended as needed.
   

This promotion is about reduction in price when you take a small carton of 12 pieces of 2 selected office cleaning products. The client is clearly explained how much he saves, which is one of the main tasks of the promotion. It was made as an Easter promotion and that explains the coloured eggs on the bottom :)



This was a special kind of continuous promotion - reduction in price for one particular ribbon for dot-matrix printers.



In the beginning the middle part of the promotions was allowed to change color. However, in order to achieve a good stable design, I decided to update the template to this:

1. The orange triangle is in the middle, but looks better (because of the shadow it drops) and always keeps the same color.
2. The promotion title is more subtle and yet nice.
3. Date is inserted right next to the title.

This is a turnover promotion. If the dealer reaches a certain level, he gets a present. All the products are included in this promotion.



This is my Freckles Promotion Evolution until now :)

Why buy compatible?

This article was written by a colleague of mine for the website of Freckles. My job was to translate it in English. I put it here because it makes good sense to me. Don't forget to think twice while shopping :)

So… you are already a proud owner of a new printer.

Nowadays the prices of the printing devices are so low compared to the one of computers that often we easily decide to buy both. But after we pay money for some printer consumables, this decision acquires a bitter taste.

When you a buy a printer you are obediently forced to buy the consumable for it. Thus, without noticing, you have taken two decisions at the same time.

Do you know that the value of the original consumable will be around 70% of all future expenses connected to your printing! The paper will be around 20%. This means that the price of the printer in the shop makes up one tenth of your future expenses. Put one more zero behind the price and then you will know how much you are going to spend in reality.

The price of the consumable defines your printing expenses.

“But this is normal” some of you will say. And indeed, this ratio is the same regardless of which printer model you buy. The problem is that the price of the printer was made as low as possible because of the competition on the market for printing devices, while the price of the consumable was made painfully high because that’s where the market is to a big extent monopolistic. When you choose a printer of a certain brand, its manufacturer puts an obligation on you to buy his consumables as well. This is the definition of a monopolistic market and it is quite natural for the prices to be high.

But markets always find solutions. This artificially maintained disbalance has caused the emergence of an alternative for the consumer – the compatible consumables. They are manufactured by companies which are specialists in the field. These companies are thriving in a very competitive environment and thus it is natural for the prices of their products to be lower. These are the actual market prices and not the artificially pumped monopolistic prices.

Doesn’t low price mean low quality, which will produce bad printout and could also damage the printer? Of course, one of the ways to achieve low prices is to use bad (cheap) raw materials or to invest less in technology. But we have already explained that low price is a result of high competition and should not always be translated into bad quality. Then how can a customer choose the right compatible consumable? The same way as with all other products: check all the available information, become interested about the reputation of the product, ask for advice from you tradesman. One thing is clear, the good compatible consumable will give you good quality, which you will like and which will save a huge part of your printing expenses. It is nice indeed to have a choice between good alternatives. Have a nice shopping!

www.freckles.bg

Green Initiative of Freckles

Yet another poster, belonging to my portfolio.

As it turns out, the 'green topic' is rather boring to some people. It is often considered to be a dirty marketing trick in order to win the customers.

However, in Freckles we are sure that we are doing something very green every day - we collect empty cartridges, which are otherwise carelessly thrown in the bin, from where they end up bunked in nature. We pay cash to the people that bring them to us. We refill them and we sell them again. The cycle repeats on average 5-7 times for each cartridge, depending on its condition, of course. See how we motivate people to recycle here.

Needless to say, there is also a great money advantage connected to the empties collection. The new remanufactured cartridge has a significantly lower price and practically the same quality as the original, so it sells VERY well. But still, with the empties collection process we keep the environment at least a bit cleaner than it would be without it, right?

That is why this green poster is pasted in our reception room, marking the beginning of our Green Initiative.

AF Product Poster

Freckles Ltd. (www.freckles.bg) is surprisingly not a company that sells cosmetics. Well... in a way it does, but to fix problems in your office. It has a big dealer network around Bulgaria and a few customers in Macedonia and Romania.
If you need specially coated paper for your inkjet printer, or storage media to keep your data safe and sound, or just an advice about how to choose the right cartridge for your machine, the Freckles team can be of great help.

Freckles also sells professional office cleaning supplies and is exclusive distributor for Bulgaria and Romania of the UK brand AF International.

This poster illustrates the most selling products of the AF range around the world - solutions and cloths to clean plastic, screens and CD/DVD players. It has circulated a big number of presentations and is given to dealers to paste on the walls of their shops, right where they arrange the products.

The poster belongs to my wide portfolio of graphic design projects. Many of them were meant for marketing purposes and served very well their purpose. And this makes me REALLY happy :)

AF - The UK brand for office cleaning supplies that really work smart!

In one of my previous jobs I was very much involved with the marketing strategy of the UK brand AF. This is a full range of cleaning products, which satisfy every office need. It was a real challenge to sell them on a highly price-oriented market as the Bulgarian one, where it is a big effort to convince the customer why he should pay a little more then he wants. Therefore, presenting the product was of great importance.
In November 2007, we made a presentation in front of a big audience at BAIT Expo (an exhibition organized by the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies). Below is one summary of AF's main advantages, which were clearly explained to the audience. The presentation was also covered by the print media.

In the beginning of November Freckles Ltd. made its present and prospects partners happy with a presentation of cleaning supplies AF, which took place at the exhibition BAIT Expo. Besides 45-minute introduction to the products, the audience received free samples and a stylish cup with AF logo.

The manufacturing company of the mentioned products is AF International and it belongs to HK Wentworth Group, founded in 1957 in UK. Its first business is technical cleaning supplies, from where later on emerges the idea about office cleaning supplies. The products have Certificate for quality 9001 and are being sold very well in more and more parts of the world. In Germany, for example, the sales amount to 4 000 000 EUR per year and according to latest research, the potential of the market is 40 000 000 EUR per year.

On of the essential points in the presentation of Mr. Peter Stefanov, managing director of Freckles Ltd., was the importance of maintaining office hygiene. It is unavoidable for every employee in an office to be an object of infections, unless precautions against them are taken. In this relation was mentioned the fact about the high antibacterial characteristics of the AF cleaning supplies, which have been tested by the famous French laboratory Rohm I Haas.

With the AF products you can clean different surfaces, screens, CD&DVD devices as well as fine spots like lenses. Besides their ability to kill almost 100% of harmful bacteria, the AF products have many other positive qualities, the most important of which is their non-flammability. Mr. Stefanov demonstrated how easily a flammable product can bring about undesired incidents at work. Besides non-flammability, the AF products are characterized by nice lemon smell and strong antistatic effect, which keeps future dust away. Still the biggest advantage of the wide product range AF is the fact that they just clean well.

It is definitely a good idea to point out some other qualities, like the extensive research and development, which every product undergoes before it is released on the market. In this way the company managed to tackle the huge challenge of integrating a real perfume smell into everyday cleaning wipes. In addition, these products are extremely easy and safe to use as well as quite harmless to the environment. You should not be worried about rashes, allergies or headaches because the company has done every possible thing in order to avoid these undesired side effects. The good news is that all the information, which you need to know for each product is described in a Material and Safety Data Sheet, which is available for everyone on the manufacturer’s web site www.af-net.com. Soon you will be able to see the MSDS translations in Bulgarian on www.freckles.bg.

Besides a detailed products demonstration, the presentation also contained some extremely useful pieces of advice about how to sell these products successfully. “Always try to understand the problem of the customer and then sell them the solution. In this way you win the customer for longer time.” – advised his dealers Mr. Stefanov.

At the very end the main motto of the presentation was reminded again: “Work smart… Work clean… with AF”.