Bus Group

bus.group is a creative service for delicate curiosity. We develop contemporary visual content in close partnership with clients across the corporate and cultural stage. Consider us the stunt doubles of image making, render whisperers of CGI and trip sitters of creative direction. We’ll be your leading lady, background extra, design director and production runner.

Address

bus.group
Ritterstraße 2
10969 Berlin

Instagram

@bus.group

bus.group

Manuel Birnbacher (founder), Daniel Schnitterbaum (founder), Crystal Campbell, Tine Edle von Istler, Felix Feldmann, Hermione Flynn, Jack Lemonidis, Anaís Prieto León, Fabi Lou Sax, Peter Schings

Selected Clients

Art Basel, Away, Babor, Balenciaga, Cartier, Dell, Ferragamo, Instagram, Maison Margiela, Mercedes Maybach, MCM, Nike, Porsche, Rimowa, Renault, Sotheby's, Visa, Woolmark

Work with us

We are looking to expand our team via project-based freelance roles and dedicated full-time positions. Please send your application (portfolio, cover letter and resume) to jobs@bus.group with the respective role included as subject header. Please note, we can’t reply to every application. Thanks for your understanding. Current opportunities can be found below. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

  • Senior CG Artist

    We have an opening for a full-time senior role. Long-term experience in Cinema 4D, Houdini and Redshift is required. Skills in Marvelous and Unreal are a plus.

Credits

Code

Nikolai Sivertsen

Copy

Ollie George

Typeface

Diatype (Dinamo)

Copyright

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Big guru energy

CGI and 3D animation for the 50+50 anniversary campaign of SCI-ARC.

Across a year-long programme of events and initiatives, the world-renowned school of architecture looks in both directions to celebrate its past and future. bus.group developed an accompanying visual presence that gives collective voice to the junctions of 50+50: morphing messiah, holy water and cultish monuments included.

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A polyphony of performance

3D animation and 2D motion design for an incubation platform by Woolmark.

Designed to award emerging talent for forward-thinking solutions in performance textile design, Woolmark invited On and Salewa to initiate projects for the challenge’s participants in their respective ‘Running’ and ‘Ski/Mountain’ categories.

bus.group developed a campaign that defines a connective visual thread across the finalists’ diversity of concepts and material. Inspired by Franco Grignani’s iconic Woolmark logo design, we produced a winding 3D protagonist that takes center stage across all projects, weaving the finalist’s polyphonic results into one multi-layered narration.

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Wining and splining

As summer draws to a close, we’ve used up the last of our seasonal stock for a fine, liminal feast. Sun-dried refreshments and extroverted introspection are served fresh in COVERT GALA, a 2021 film by bus.group. Volume up at the banquet please!

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In search of uninteresting times

Art direction and graphic design for the fifth issue of This is Badland.

Carving out space for reflections, interjections and prepositions for the present we find ourselves in, the latest issue of Badland magazine contemplates liberty and what it means ‘to be free’. bus.group worked with Badland’s editors to suitably, urgently and respectfully compose the many layers of narrative that come to define the issue’s thematic.

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Dimensions of debate

Art direction and visual identity for a product design studio.

Argument is a young, Berlin-based venture that proposes a new perspective on design, understanding its collection of furniture as something discursive where objects ‘become arguments’ in themselves.

bus.group provided design and art direction to Argument, developing a contemporary identity for use across formats. A multimodal website was produced to house the launch collection, developed with full integration of shop functionality.

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Musical modalities

Art direction and 2D animation for the Australian arts and music festival MODE.

For the festival’s inaugural edition, bus.group developed a contemporary identity that balances bold graphic treatment, kinetic 2D animation and accompanying animation driven by GAN imagery. The identity has been applied across announcement material and an incoming micro-site to houses all programme information; the teaser shared introduces our work on the festival’s visuality.

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New stories at the table

Website design and accompanying identity for the Berlin restaurant Ernst and bistro Julius.

The intimate dining experience updates its online presence. bus.group have worked with Ernst and its 'little brother' Julius to further re-imagine its design formats.

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No feeding on the dancefloor

Visual identity and supporting CGI for the music festival Nachtiville.

Following the party trail left by Nachtdigital last year, another musical offering arrives from its makers. For Nachtiville's debut by the Baltic Sea, bus.group developed a playful identity and 3D-driven artwork that welcomes its arrivals with a waddling, winter mascot.

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Marble for your ears

CGI and 3D animation for the album artwork of band Jeans for Jesus.

2000 etc. and milleneufcentquelquechose are the fourth and fifth LPs of Swiss band J4J. For the supporting imagery, bus.group transformed 3D scans of the band members into glimmering heads of polished marble and ancient steaming lava.

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If you’re me, and I’m you, then who’s who?

Art direction and graphic design for the fourth issue of This is Badland.

Inside its biggest offering yet, places of origin and spaces of dwelling are brought to the fore, asking its contributors: are we home? Across a four-cover offering, rapper Yung Hurn is photographed by Juergen Teller, Rita Lino reveals her Tool for Protection, Viktor Naumovski captures the Kids at Home and bus.group dream up a world of fungi.

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Wrap up your bruk

CGI and creative direction for a music label’s inaugural release.

"BRUK is a new platform for fresh variations on the soundsystem ethic, developed as an artist-focused endeavour and geared towards producers with range, depth and ingenuity in their sound." Beside the chopping first statement from Josh Thompson's FFT alias, bus.group produced abstracted imagery to cover the sleeve in its own sheathed visual.

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Melodic ecologies

CGI and 3D animation for the album artwork of band Jeans for Jesus.

19xx_2xxx_ is the third LP of Swiss band J4J. For the supporting imagery, bus.group transformed 3D scans of the band members into eco-mythical figureheads.

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Double double, filter bubble

Art direction and graphic design for the third issue of This is Badland.

In a double cover issue, Larger Than Life locates a contemporary condition marked by the so-called ‘cult of self’. The editorial direction is amped up within an uncanny aesthetic across the issue’s contributions and includes a 3D collaboration with filter artist Johanna Jaskowska.

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Back in my day we loved our politicians

Visual identity and supporting design materials for an exhibition in Samos and Athens.

Anatomy of Political Melancholy was a group exhibition on contemporary disillusionment. Curator Katerina Gregos describes it as one that “probes the increasing and widespread loss of faith in politics and politicians today.” A visual identity was produced for the two-part exhibition, drawn up via block colour and fragmented motifs.

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Have you heard of Fluoro Baroque?

Visual identity and graphic design for the tenth edition of Samos Young Artists Festival.

The annual event brought together emerging and established performers in an ancient Greek theatre. Artists from across the world gathered during the seven-day presentation, playing music that spanned the Baroque, tango and contemporary. The supporting designs capture the musicality of performance across dynamic, hand-rendered illustrations.

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Bittersweet mints and forever-never goodbyes

Visual identity and supporting design for the final edition of a German music festival.

Nachtdigital offered festival solutions to a small German camping village for 22 years. Within the festival’s swan song identity, bus.group installed a minty mascot across its design furnishings. Tees, LPs, and a fitting mix of memories inside the welcome booklet reminisced on the past two decades of Nachtilove.

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Habit follows form follows function

Visual identity and design for a Berlin-based product design studio.

Geckeler Michels brings into play a diversity of mediums within their hybrid practice, translating the studio’s ‘autonomous in-house studies’ into lighting, furniture and spaces. bus.group worked with the studio to develop a robust identity, put to work across print formats and an itemised website design.

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130 beats per page

Visual identity and website design for an acclaimed techno musician.

Ellen Allien is an international DJ with a sound at home inside her native city Berlin. She holds an extensive back catalogue of releases and doubles as A&R of two self-founded labels. Allien’s identity and website was updated by bus.group, complete with a custom web player for continuous listening of the artist’s output.

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Bad bites and Balkan athletica

Design materials for a launch event of This is Badland.

In a collaboration with Berlin-based Bite Club, BAD BITE coupled spreads of food with spreads of content. The event’s guests were invited to buy the newly launched magazine and eat from its region.

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Tan lines on the Balkan mountain

Art direction and graphic design for the second issue of This is Badland.

Inside The Devil’s Sunbed, themes of food, ritual and body hold fort across the issue’s editorials. Following suit, bus.group dive further into the dualistic design direction: the issue is interspersed with energetic illustration, fake advertising and found objects.

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How does the future smell?

Animated outtakes for an editorial feature entitled The Doors of (Multi-Sensory) Perception.

MOLD is a magazine about the future of food and investigates the potential of ‘designing food’ across interviews, editorials and critical essays. For the fourth issue, Designing for the Senses, bus.group were commissioned to envision a new model for perception, worn amongst a text by Maria Jimena Ricatti.

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How does the future smell?

3D outtakes for an editorial feature entitled The Doors of (Multi-Sensory) Perception.

MOLD is a magazine about the future of food and investigates the potential of ‘designing food’ across interviews, editorials and critical essays. For the fourth issue, Designing for the Senses, bus.group were commissioned to envision a new model for perception, worn amongst a text by Maria Jimena Ricatti.

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Bad Bad Bad on the World Wide Web

Website design for the online platform of This is Badland.

Dedicated to the exploration of art and culture from the Balkan region, the Berlin-based publication extends its reach into the online space. An editorially-driven website was designed to offer the Badland team a platform for regular publishing of its content.

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A postcard of non-belonging

Art direction and graphic design for the inaugural issue of This is Badland.

The Adriatic Reimagined sets out to readers its editorial remit of the Balkan region. This is Badland reconciles a feeling of non-belonging — an area caught between East and West — with the contemporary talent of artists, writers and creatives from its geographies.

Under bus.group’s direction, the magazine duels with its visual content across essays, features and interviews. Typography is rendered against bold editorial imagery, and a display of logotypes double as graphic headline and essay doorstop.

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Scans of the Zodiac

3D imagery for a musical project by actor and musician Edison Chen.

The Monkey King unites two figures — a series of 3D scans of Chen, with another of Ai Weiwei’s artwork The Monkey — into an emotive, golden figurehead.

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Which role will you play?

Graphic design and 2D animation for an anti-racist online campaign by MTV Germany.

Meine Rolle platforms a crucial discussion on the casting of BIPoC in German TV and media. Delivered direct from the voices of several actors, musicians and online personalities, the effects of typecasting are voiced to and mobilised for the audiences of MTV.

bus.group worked closely with the network and its community of talent – photographed by Iga Drobisz – to produce a frank graphic delivery of the words and experiences described.

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A week of works, a decade of weeks

Art direction and 2D animation for the trailer of Berlin Art Week's jubilee edition.

Held over a week in September, the program sees the city's biggest art scene players show out and show up for a spectacle of talks, shows, screenings, fairs and performances. bus.group highlighted the forms of several works within the playful announcement trailer.