Every day the news are full of new digital gimmicks. It feels like there are articles about an AR contact lense, about driverless vehicles, robot pets or retailer’s online fitting rooms every minute. Has the world forgotten about the beauty of analog magic? If you also feel an overdose of all things digital we found your savior: Florian Kaps.

For Florian analog is not a trend, but a logical consequence: “At first, it was said that the digital will wipe out the analog once the digital is as good as the analog. What happened then – when the digital was as good as the analogue for a long time – is this: People realized that they were missing something, that the images were disappearing from reality, that the digital was only ever two-dimensional. You can look at it behind a pane of glass, you can listen to it on a video, but you can never touch it. They lack the haptic and that’s the huge problem.”

His concept store is home to the probably most analog products in the world. Before he shows you his analog wonders himself at Forward Festival Munich, Vienna, Berlin and Hamburg, we want to give you a small preview:

Impossible Polaroid Film

When Florian heard Polaroid is going out of business in 2008 he tried everything he could in order to prevent it – with the unsatisfying result of only getting an invitation to the closing event. It seems like fate that at the event he met Andre, the production manager, and suddenly everything changed. Florian told him about the re-discovery of analog instant film all over the world and the potential of the next generation of analog customers. And Andre told him about his secret experiments and the slight chance to re-invent a new analog instant film if they only could save the factory. They restarted the fight for the factory – even with the help of the FBI and eventually ended up as proud owners of every remaining Polaroid factory – THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT was born. After 6 months of hard work the first IMPOSSIBLE picture developed in their trembling hands and in 2010 they were able to proudly present the first IMPOSSIBLE INSTANT FILM to the world. Since 2018, the film is back on the market under its one and only birth name: Polaroid Originals.

Phonocut

Since the invention of record discs in 1889, mankind has been dreaming of a simple but precise desktop machine which would enable anybody to produce their own quality records with just the push of a button. Every product invented since the 1930s failed to reach a broader audience. The main reasons were overly complicated technical handling, poor sound quality or – as so often – unaffordable pricing. All the more exciting, that over 70 years later a group of analog enthusiasts came joined forces to create the PHONOCUT HOME VINYL RECORDER. The simply revolutionary precision machine allows you to record your own vinyl in 3 simple steps:

1) Place the Vinyl blank on the platter
2) Connect to the music input of your choice
3) Press the start button

The Ultimate Notizbuch

Six years ago Jérome didn’t really know what to do in his life after quitting his job and becoming a father. Everyone else focused on programming apps, but he felt more comfortable to stick with paper. So he established Paper Republic: “paper” because writing and reading are at the core of our culture, “republic” because  res publica  is in its first meaning, in latin, the common good, that very thing which brings us together and that we share.  Paper Republic hand-crafts high quality notebooks from some of the finest paper and leather.
Supersense and Jérome created THE ULTIMATE NOTIZBUCH system together. Consisting of 2 main parts, carefully crafted by hand using highest quality materials only.

Writing down your ideas, appointments, thoughts and dreams, sketching your surroundings, past and future, will forever remain one of the most sensual and vivid things to do. And to do it in the very best notebooks possible gives that whole procedure instantly another dimension.

Mechanical Flip Book

If you love to draw in the corners of your notebook and make little animations when you flip through the pages, then the Mechanical Flip Book DIY Kit is the perfect analog treat for you. Let Wendy and Marc, the inventors of the Kit, introduce it themselves:

“Our foray into flipbook art started in 2009, when we traveled in Europe and the middle east; we fell in love with the mid-twentieth century mechanized signs that were still operating, especially the split-flap (or solari) departure/arrival boards in train stations, with their mesmerizing “click-clack-click-clack”.

“Here’s the real secret of our craft: magic. Our greatest satisfaction lies in watching wonder and joy overtake people when they crank the handle on a flipbook. Adults giggle like children, and kids scowl, openmouthed, with intense concentration as they try to figure out how it works. No matter how many times you create the illusion of motion, you want to do it again and again.”

Don’t miss Florian’s talk at Forward Festival Munich, Vienna, Berlin or Hamburg and get your tickets now!