MY
STORY
A continuous
learning
process
From a finance only focus, over graphic design and industrial design to the big picture and a focus on fighting inequality.
I’m born 1994 at Seligenstadt, Hessia in Germany. If someone asks my mother, she will tell that since I’m born I was concerned with social justice. She will tell you stories of me standing up for those I saw disadvantaged. But to realising that this should be my professional career it took a while.
I finished school with a focus on finance, realising that I was drawn towards the creative industry, having a hobbiest background in fine arts. Working for a webdesign agency, I gained my first experience of understanding customers needs and giving them a creative and practical appearance.
Nevertheless I had to realise that just creating websites, wasn’t fulfilling me. There was so much more to do with the power of design. So I applied at University of Arts and Design Offenbach a.M. for a diploma study at the department of design, where I immediately got accepted with distinction.
While studying there I got aware of the huge political aspect of design and what responsibilities it has, as a profession. As Victor Papanek said: „There is no more harmful profession than design.“
This never let me go. Travelling through South-Africa I witnessed the first time social inequality that was exceeding my own horizon. But I was also able, with my education to change small daily lives circumstances for people I met in a poorer part of the Capetown.
From that moment on I wanted to do that with design. Volunteering in different projects, cooperating with NGOs researching potential symbioses between design and social/humanitarian work, I realised that there were systematic loopholes that needed to be filled. So that was my mission from there on and still is. By now I have graduated with the best achievable grade. To find solutions for social and humanitarian crises, I work with social enterprises, NGOs, GO’s and directly with communities. To bring that on stage I raise awareness for humanitarian process design, through talks, workshops, writing, and creating a network of practitioners.