And just like that, April (and with that, ⅓ of 2024 😬) is over — quite an intense month at Ponder, tightly packed with launches, kickoffs, welcomes, and old and new connections.

Let’s start with our highlight: In mid-April, we launched gruene.de, the central digital hub for the German Green Party. This collaboration started way back in 2023 (actually waayy back in 2017, but that’s a different story) when we started laying the foundation for this major overhaul. What you see at first sight is a visual refresh, but the biggest changes happened in the background: In close collaboration with the teams at Bündnis 90 / DIE GRÜNEN, we established a shared understanding of target audiences and strategic goals for the website, which then translated into a completely new navigation structure, simplified content formats and new approachable entry points into their complex political contents. The new website is much more user-friendly, and it’s also more tailored to the party’s new role as part of the German government – offering a platform for the 6 green ministers and the initiatives the party has already successfully implemented over the last 2 years.  

We’ll share more about the process and our learnings in a deep dive in the next few weeks. Until then, feel free to visit the new website or check our launch posts on LinkedIn or Instagram.

We heard a lot of positive feedback on the relaunch, but one sentence stuck out to us so much that we want to quote it here (DE):

It’s the part about the lightheartedness that made us think – and smile. It’s true, and while it’s certainly nothing we “actively do”, it’s definitely an unconscious part of the Ponder DNA: We love establishing a relationship with our clients and partners that is based on mutual trust, respect for each other’s professional expertise, appreciation for everyone as a human being (rather than a function within an organisation) – and yes, plenty of humour, the occasional banter and self-deprecation. Looking back at all the projects we have done so far, this is undoubtedly part of the secret sauce that holds a team together, especially when things get stressful at times.

One more thing Grüne: We published an interview with Designer Evey Kwong, who played an integral role in the project. The conversation touches on her understanding of design, the intricacies of working for a political party in troubled times, and her thoughts on our collaboration.

Humans at Ponder

April also brought a new face to the ponder team: We’re super happy to have Adèle over from France for an internship — she’s the mastermind behind the lovely case visuals, fills the studio with the chillest of French songs and has already perfected the pondering pose in her first days:

Adèle is also the creator of this live sketch of Caro and Peter workshopping:

“What workshop was that?” — Glad you’re asking! That was the kickoff workshop for a new collaboration with Grüne Fraktion im Bundestag. With a location that had it all, from shiny underground tunnels to metal detectors, this was certainly one of the more spectacular Ponder field trips. More on this project sooon!

A weird observation

This next one might potentially sound weird, but a) we are weird, and b) maybe some of you can relate: As a company founded in the middle of COVID, meeting peers, clients, and potential partners in person wasn’t possible when we started, so it just never turned into a regular thing to do for us. Weird enough that it took us so long to re-adjust, but over the last months, we rediscovered that this is indeed an option now and can indeed be very much enjoyable, especially with spring starting in Berlin. So we are now on a coffee date and meetup spree, (re)connecting with lovely people, and we’re all here for it! ☀️

One example was the +TALKS event hosted by art+com. Out of the three GenAI-focussed talks, we were most impressed with the work of Portrait XO, especially a project where she turned UN climate data from 1940-2024 into an impressive audiovisual experience. Sound and video can be extremely powerful tools to convey data more emotionally than any other media – even more so for topics where society seems to have developed some information fatigue. We’ve all seen the charts. We’ve all read the numbers. We might understand them on a cognitive level. But can we feel them? Do they touch us? Rarely, probably. And that’s why these more artistic approaches like Portrait XO’s are so important and powerful. Check out her work; it’s impressive.

Nerding out for future!

We went full circle to Web 2.0 and published transponder, a place where we a) think and write about all things sustainable/ethical web and b) immediately put these things into action. It’s our little sandbox to practise what we preach, learn and experiment. Step by step, we’ll look into all the nerdy but important topics such as low carbon footprint web design, green hosting, accessibility, ethical technology choices and the open web in general. The next post (about the web and cloud ecological footprint) will go live over the next few days. We’ll also discuss what Ethical Design means to us and what we’ve learned while starting and running a purpose-driven company. So, if those topics sound interesting to you, keep an eye on the transponder — the thing even has a ✨RSS feed✨ for everyone who still knows how to use it. ;)

Links that inspired us this month

• Inner Development Goals: An initiative and framework focussing on the “inner goals” needed to successfully contribute towards the UN sustainable development goals. It’s an interesting perspective and very much in line with what we’re currently Caro’s coaching experience.
  
• Girly Business Talk With Charlotte Rohde: Artist and Professor for Typography and Type Design, Charlotte Rohde on her experiences as a woman in a male dominated industry, her journey from type designer to artist and how she navigated pricing her work.
  
• AI4Democracy is a new alliance of organisations with the vision of using AI to create a more inclusive, transparent, and equal society. We’re usually a bit sceptical about the “AI for everything” wave. Still, with members like Correctiv, betterplace lab and phineo we’re positive that good things will come from here!

One thing to take action on

Most of you probably know Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees for every search request. Since last week, Ecosia has become not only a search engine but also a full browser — a fast, energy-saving, and secure one, with all profits going to the planet. Give it a try; we honestly can’t think of any reason not to use it.

And with this, we say goodbye to April and you – for now!

Cheers, Peter

PS: Any feedback on this newsletter? Happy to hear it!