1. When did you realise you wanted to be a designer?

There were some really interesting talks by parents at my school. The copywriter was super relaxed and spoke about how varied his working day was. After an internship in the design department of an advertising agency during the summer holidays, it was clear to me that this was what I wanted to study.

What’s been really interesting for me is that what I understood graphic design to be back then and what I wanted to do has changed with every decade I’ve worked as a designer – in terms of content, but also with the new techniques that have emerged. For example, during my first internship, I still used repro cameras and drew precise lines with Rapidographs. Today I develop brandings for institutions, large and small companies, always with a holistic approach.

2. How did you get started and what was the biggest hurdle you overcame?

The biggest hurdle? There were certainly many.

The first was the entrance exam for university. I applied to a university in Hamburg after my school internship. And I was rejected. In hindsight, I have to admit I was right to be rejected. I then worked on my portfolio, experimented with media and techniques and applied again to another university in Braunschweig in Germany. It worked out.

The second hurdle worth mentioning was realising during my studies that my idea is not always the best and that teamwork almost always increases the quality of the results.

Another hurdle, not related to design, was learning Japanese. I went to Yokohama for 6 months for my thesis and later to Tokyo for 2 years on a postgraduate scholarship. I ate sushi for the first time in a restaurant in Hamburg when I was 24 and didn’t speak any Japanese. So I attended an intensive Japanese course in Germany, where we students studied 12 hours a day and had new and highly motivated teachers every two hours. I learnt that perseverance is rewarded and that speaking without thinking about the many mistakes you make is essential to learning a language. This can also be applied to the idea generation process: leave everything out, don’t think, evaluate your ideas later.

3. What’s been your most successful way of getting clients?

Ideally through recommendations. But ultimately always through personal contact. And, as simple as it may sound: be nice to people.

4. How do you get clients to stay with you and use you for more work?

I am convinced that feedback is very important. This also includes a de-briefing at the end of a project. What went well, what you can improve yourself, but also what the clients can improve.

You can also ask where further advice is needed. But almost more importantly: be proactive. Find out for yourself where you can help the client and keep in regular contact with the people by providing them with interesting information; perhaps also topics that are not directly related to the projects, but to the company or the person.

5. Do you ever have issues with clients paying late? How do you manage that?

I only had this case once. After making several friendly and later urgent enquiries, I decided to call in a lawyer. 4 days later, everything was paid for.

6. What does your typical work day look like?

I run my own small design studio, teach at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and have written the book ‘Teaching Graphic Design’. All with great enthusiasm.

A day in the studio is always different. But it often starts with putting my mobile phone on silent, answering emails and being active on Linkedin. The rest of the day is project work and meetings with staff. If possible, appointments with clients are always in person.

A day at the university consists of team meetings to shape the overall course, prepare my own course, but also administrative tasks. The most fun is the teaching itself. Helping students to develop individually and creatively is great fun and always instructive for me. I always make sure to work on new topics in projects, also to challenge myself. Giving and receiving feedback is also essential here. To this end, I have the students give each other feedback and often incorporate brief feedback on lessons at the end of a teaching unit so that improvements take effect immediately in the next unit.

When writing the book, to be honest, there was no regular working rhythm. Researching, compiling, shortening, questioning, rewriting, interviewing, continuing to write, questioning everything, condensing and always being motivated is like a design process. It is iterative. And it often kept me working late into the night.

At the end of the writing process, however, the days always started with the same procedure: revising and supposedly improving the text I had written the day before. A long and intensive part of writing a book.

7. Any piece of advice/wisdom that you’d like to give the readers at This Design Life?

A difficult question. Maybe two things:

If you receive feedback, accept it. Don’t defend your point of view, because every criticism contains a truth. Grow with feedback and criticism.

In the design process: go to the people you are designing for. Talk to them. Get to know their lives.