AXEL MAASS

 

 

 

A Café is not just a place to to drink something. Some guests read, some eat. Most of them sitting in front of their notebooks and write. Let’s try to define some subgroups:

 

1.) The Student – male

• Notebook, sometimes with a funny sticker

• large opened book

• scribbling block but you don’t see a pen

• large drink, almost full – one drink for 3 hours, except if a refill option is available

• smartphone on the table

• sits alone at a table for four persons

• Facebook is open in another tab of the notebook

​

2.) The Student – female

• Notebook, slim

• large opened book with Post-It notes in shiny colors

• scribbling block. The pen is in her mouth

• large drink, almost full – one for 3 hours, except if a refill option is available

• smartphone on the table

• sits alone at a table for four persons

• Facebook is open in another tab of the notebook, at least on her smartphone

​

3.) The Businessman

• An expensive notebook on a dogging station

• expensive drink

• The suit is in the color of the notebook, mostly black

• open program: Excel

• Permanentely he uses his phone o talk while he simultaneous scrolls in an Excel-chart/ Mail service

• pays with a big bank note

• Tip are coins

​

4.) The Fat-Guy

• Notebook with computer mouse/ headset is optional

• empty drink on the table

• you always think he plays a game instead study or work

• cable all over the place to charge, connect and something you never heard of

​

5.) The Teacher

• female

• classy outfit, dominating color = black

• cross legs

• skirt

• pen in her hand

• always turns over pages to search for something while she makes short notes

• lots of loose pages

• table seems organized and structured despite all these pages she has an eye on

​

6.) The experienced Student/ Young Entrepreneur

• slim and neat appearance

• thick black glasses, in style

• intensively looking at his notebook

• just clicking all the time, all the time! He rarely writes something

• plays with his glasses or prop up his head with his free arm

​

7.) The Dad

• Beer and notebook

• nobody knows if he writes anything but he has a pen in his hand with which he plays

• his two little boys getting on the nerves of everybody in the cafe by playing hide an seek in the Cafe and outside on the street

• 100% of the time he spends in the cafe he phones – no talking from him for hours. This silence will be suddenly interrupted as he starts a detailed explanation and never ends to explain the same all and all over again

• cross legs

• leans against the wall instead the chair

​

8.) The Fledgling Writer

• notebook and note pad

• The book on the table is writen by an independent or not well known author which is an insider tip or he reads Nietzsche

• constantly writing

• breaks to talk with the waitress for topics like contemporary art and politics as she brings the new coffee he ordered instead of using the existing self service

​

9.) The Old Guy

• Newspaper/ Magazine

• tea can

• note pad and a stone-aged old locking pen

• if he writes he writes slow and calligraphically

• touches the pen with the tongue

​

10.) The Businesswoman

• Hand over her mouth if she is not phoneing

• Her intense view at the notebook stays the same over the next 3 hours

• just reading, almost never tipping something in the notebook except of the moment she begins to phone. From this moment the tipping never stops till the end of the hektik phonecall

• Many short messages via smartphone are tipped without looking at the smartphone. She has more than one. The other phone sticks between her cheek and her shoulder even if she does not phones. No boubt, the next call will come

​

11.) The Computer Scientist

• Permanent lip movement. Not sexy, just bewildering

• extremely fast tipping

• electronic box on the table which you never saw in your life before

​

To sum it up. Everybody is on Facebook!