Metermorphosen

Coup de Coeur Product given to the best product at the show in terms of inventiveness, humour and modernity:
History by the meter by MeterMorphosen.

At the international Museum fair "Museum Expressions" in Paris (January 11 - 13, 2001) the 'Historic Folding Rule' by MeterMorphosen received the prize "Best product". A jury of buyers, stylists and interior designers considered the ruler for time and space as "the most representative object on the market".
The ruler, which follows the analogy of 2,000 millimetres and 2,000 years, shows on one side selected data from the world history and on the other side the main periods from the Roman times to the globalisation. The international jury guided by Gilles Muller, president of the association "Museum & Industry", mentioned that not only the fabulous design but also its "origin, humour and modernism" made the final decision for the transformed ruler.
The French press wrote that the ruler, available in three languages English, German and Spanish, is supposively the "Must have" item of the season. This is why the MeterMorphosen-stuff was very well visited. Orders to France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, England and Japan were given. Several companies decided to use the historic folding rule as a communication instrument with logo-imprint. So far only German companies used this incentive as a special giveaway.
In January 2,000, the historic folding rule has a sold edition of 320,000 pieces in the three languages. The object is distributed through museumstores, design shops and bookshops. The catalogue Philip Morris Design Shop has the ruler since 15 months in his program. It has become a longseller by now. Requests for a French edition were so numerous, that "History by the meter" will be edited in French in autumn 2001.
The visitors had also the opportunity to discover the newest creation of MeterMorphosen: The Memoleum, a memo-game out of the organic material linoleum that features patterns designed by architects and artists in the 1920ies and 30ies for floor covering (Peter Behrens, Josef Hoffmann et al.). This miniature design catalogue has a different visual fascination because of its playful transformation from former living traditions to the presence.
The product prize "Coup de coeur" made the international breakthrough, especially because the wanted prize was given for the first time to a German product.

At the vernissage in the Eagle Gallery, London, 'History by the meter' received the following quote in the end of October 2000:

MeterMorphosen is a collective based in Frankfurt comprising a publisher, an architect, a carpenter ans an Italian teacher who between them have conceived the multiple ‘Histroy by the meter’. The basic priciple is simple - 2,000 years is compressed into 2,000 millimeters along the lengths of a wooden folding ruler. MeterMorphosen would argue that the publication is a ‘non-book’, but the Folding Rule satisfies any criteria one would bring to bear in judging it an artist’s book and it does so with a satisfying eclecticism.
Designed in the clear Gill Sans typeface, it evokes the memory of school pencil cases and their personalised contents. Time runs in a line from 1 AD punctuated on one side of the rule by historic events which range from the Sermon of the Mount to the arrival of potatoes in Europe in c. 1548. On the other side major movements in ‘Mind, Power and the Arts’ place these historic events in the light of contemporaneous philosophic, cultural and religious influences. The selection and juxtapositions are fascinating, funny and above all associative. The editors have achieved a shorthand by which the single entries e.g. ‘Einstein: e = mc2’, can spell out wider, more complex connotaions.
The Eagle, London

Historic Folding Rule
"Painting by the running meter" shows 2000 years of art history in 58 selected paintings. Four-color print on a wooden rule with explanations in English on the opposite side
© MeterMorphosen 2000

ISBN 978-3-934657-20-5
Price in Germany: € 10,60