Stories from 27 Years of Advent with Held+Team

It’s 1997. Fred took the leap into self-employment and founded Held+Team that summer. By year’s end, Christmas presents from various service providers flood clients' desks – but how could a young design office stand out amidst this gift whirlwind? The idea of an Advent calendar was born, offering the opportunity to make a lasting impression a full month ahead of everyone else.

From the outset, it was clear: the calendar couldn’t be "off the shelf." The design of the very first calendar laid the foundation for a briefing that has guided every subsequent project. Over the years, this evolved into an exciting challenge – and a special task for our up-and-coming designers at Held+Team, filled with fresh ideas each year.

Five briefing points define the requirements for our designers. The starting signal is given at the end of January, and from then on, the project accompanies us throughout the year…

As is fitting for an Advent calendar, everything revolves around the number “24.” How it is represented is entirely up to each designer. Over the years, we’ve burned, evaporated, stacked, played, and tossed the "24" – each time in a unique way.

One requirement, however, is non-negotiable: a candle must always be included! Whether it’s a tealight, a grave candle, or something else entirely, as long as it burns, it’s allowed.

A "ready-made" (or "objet trouvé") is an everyday object elevated to the status of artwork by being recontextualized or integrated into a design. In our Advent calendars, these found objects become part of the experience.

Since the calendar can’t stay with us, it must fit into a shipping box. The challenge? The box must not exceed 35 x 25 x 5 cm.

Finally, the calendar – including shipping – must stay within a set budget (the exact amount is our little secret 😉).

Selection of ready-mades from the last 27 years.

The development of the calendar follows similar steps to the creation of a “real” product – from the initial idea to the final realization. Everything begins with…

After a comprehensive briefing (!), previous calendars are meticulously analyzed by our designers. What ideas have already been implemented over the past 27 years? Like in the development of actual medical devices, existing concepts are treated like "patents." Copying old ideas is strictly forbidden, but creative and surprising reinterpretations are highly encouraged!

The ideation process begins, and each designer has their unique approach. About every two weeks, the first sketches are presented to the "tough" jury of colleagues and bosses for discussion. It quickly becomes clear: ideas are abundant! However, their feasibility within the constraints of the briefing (time and budget!) is often another matter entirely – almost like in real product development 😉.

The transition from theory to practice begins: the most promising ideas and concepts are implemented as simple models. It quickly becomes apparent that what seems simple on paper can be a real challenge in reality. Now there’s only one solution: testing!

...and eventually, the first prototypes actually start to work. But the job isn’t done yet: it’s time to convince the jury once again! Meanwhile, throughout all the testing, one central question looms: how can the idea be scaled to 250–300 calendars? What is the core essence of the idea that must be preserved, and how can it be simplified?

After numerous iterations and distilling the idea to its essence, the ‘Industrial Design Phase’ begins. The goal now is to develop a coherent product within the budget – one that you’d enjoy seeing and using for 24 days.

The setup of the first calendar was thought to be self-explanatory: ruler into slot, candle into hole. Or so we believed. Just days after shipping, the first calls came in from engineers (!) asking, "What exactly is this supposed to be?" From the second year onwards, an instruction manual was included.

The idea is finalized, the design is complete, and all components are ordered and en route. Now, it becomes clear who considered their colleagues during the design phase – because it’s time for assembly. Calendars with strings and knots are particularly "popular" – not! With the entire office pitching in, the joy is immense when assembly requires only a few simple steps. However, with increasingly complex calendars, this is often just wishful thinking.

A tower made of stacked Advent calendar boxes from our busiest year would have been 15 meters tall – about the length of a fully grown female humpback whale.

Just like with all the other tasks, we handle the shipping ourselves. This means we assemble, pack, seal, and stamp all the parcels by hand. Calendars for our international customers are shipped in bulk, while those for domestic recipients are sent individually to each address. Our company car, a trusty VW Golf, transforms into a makeshift postal van, and off we go to the nearest post office.

Our arrival with 300 packages in tow is always a highlight – especially for the people waiting in line behind us!

Sometimes, a calendar doesn’t work quite as planned, or our customers "customize" them in unexpected ways. In the context of medical products, this would be called "intended misuse."

The 2004 calendar became infamous for not only extinguishing the candle effectively but also launching wax across the room. Hot wax flew up to a meter away – perfect for annoying colleagues.

The 2005 calendar worked as follows: Water in a test tube was heated by the candle. Through a phenomenon known as superheating, steam was expelled through the glass tube, extinguishing the candle. The resulting water loss in the test tube formed the scale. What we never tested during development was what would happen if superheating delay was triggered repeatedly in quick succession.

This experiment was undertaken by the son of a friend on the very day all calendars had been shipped. Due to the pressure wave, the glass tube detached from the test tube and launched about 1.5 meters into the air – accompanied by some boiling water. It was quite a shock… what to do? Initiate a "recall"? We hoped such experiments wouldn’t be repeated. Apparently, they weren’t, as we received no complaints or reports of injuries (so far!).

The already inherently risky 2005 calendar was further "modified" by a customer. Instead of following the instructions, lighter fluid was poured into the test tube instead of water, turning the calendar into a top-notch flamethrower...

The idea behind this calendar was that as the candle burned down, it would cause a seesaw to tilt to the other side. By adjusting a movable weight, this process could be repeated 24 times. The seesaw’s motion, however, was imperceptible and silent. Some users found it "too quiet" and forgot to blow out the candle. They "complained" to us that the calendar was too quiet.

Fun fact – only one recipient of the calendar noticed that a day was missing. An error in printing the scale had occurred, which went unnoticed by both us and the users.

The previous year’s calendar was too quiet, so the next one was designed to be louder and to clearly signal when the candle should be blown out. Steel balls were released as the candle burned down and fell onto a glass dish from the laboratory supplies. However, this turned out to be too loud for many recipients, and we received complaints once again: "It makes me jump every time!" You just can’t win…

We always enjoy receiving feedback from the field! Over the years, we’ve received pictures of happy "clients" from all around the world. Please feel free to share yours – we’d love to hear from you!

We hope these glimpses into our calendar’s creation were entertaining. Wishing you, your families, and loved ones a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the new year.

Warm regards,
Held+Team