frauke annette

'The making of the' Caleidoscopio Cards


The Caleidoscopio Cards, a photo set for coaching and training, are now available. The cards were designed by Frauke Schmid-Peter and Annette Gisevius, very experienced trainers who have facilitated learning processes in many intercultural settings.


How did all this start? When did you come up with the idea?

  • Annette: We have actually both been using our individual self-made set of picture cards for many years in our trainings and workshops. Originally we created our personal sets just for our own use in our work. Participants kept telling us how much they appreciate this approach. And they kept asking about where we got the card sets from, and where one could buy them.
  • Frauke: So, at some point last year we realized that it’s actually a pity that only we get to use them.  That day we decided to turn our picture cards into a product for broad use and the whole project was born.


What happened next?

  • Frauke: Well, we got together, spread out all of our pictures on the floor and started selecting. Coming up with categories like people, nature, objects…
  • Annette: And adding all the images that we were carrying around in our minds but hadn’t taken photos of so far. And we came up with new visuals we felt were missing in the collection. And then we started shooting new pictures.


So, you must have quite some equipment?

  • Frauke: Well, we don’t really. We created our own photo studio in our kitchens, on the living room carpet and on the balcony. Gathering friends to take more photos of people interacting. I guess if someone had watched us, it would have looked much more improvised than professional. Anyhow we had fun and what matters is the outcome: the pictures!
  • Annette: Of some visuals we have taken more than 200 shots – just to catch the right moment of dices rolling down a hand.


Wow, so choosing pictures probably also isn’t an easy thing to do – how did you manage?

  • Annette: We decided we don’t want to base this only on our judgement. So we invited friends and professionals to a picture party in Hamburg where they would choose their favorite visuals for their working purposes.
  • Frauke: And colleagues and friends around the globe, all involved in training and coaching, were also invited to participate in an online-voting on their favorite shots.  Based on all this feedback we ended up with the set of 60 basic cards to be used for various purposes.


Intriguing process – what’s your next project?

  • Frauke: First of all it’s very exciting to present this first set to the world. And then… well we already have dozens of ideas for additional sets. It is still a little too soon to tell. But we’d love to base our next steps also on the reactions we get from the people using. So for sure we will open up some space for that, either on the homepage or on facebook.

 

 

Website: http://www.caleidoscopiocards.com